… it’s the day I get to wake up and realize that despite all the madness, drama and other bullshit that I’ve endured over the past 20-some odd years I’ve survived them long enough to see another born day. As per the norm until I hit 30 [1] (or so I say), I usually commemorate the occasion by having someone use a mechanical needle to permanently and sometimes painfully) etch ink into my skin (because I’m a lightweight and can’t handle my liquor like my partner in rhyme… he’s even seen that personally), and this year’s was no different (I’ve been asked to show pictures of it, but since that one is currently going through its “healing/peeling/itching like gangbusters” stage I’d rather not), as I now have an old Frederick Douglass motivational quote I learned in elementary school across my left forearm:
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
People who know me well enough know that each of my tattoos (all 8 of them) represent the many parts of me, whether it’s my love of hip hop (in the form of a shoulder-to-elbow length mural of the four elements), my heritage (an 8″x10″ of the Nigerian Coat Of Arms on my back) or my own personal beliefs (a Yin & Yang sign here, and Egyptian scroll of hieroglyphics there). The one in the picture above is a testament to my overcoming of the many struggles in my then-early life, from having to grow and mature fatherless in a family of women, to almost throwing my life away through illegal ventures and ultimately getting arrested after leading Long Beach cops on a 40-minute foot chase, to a good chunk of my friends and family inexplicably dying within a month’s time & other such events.
Wrapping this up (because I know most of you mucklucks don’t give a shit about us until we stop shilling free music), I’d just like to say thank you to everyone who’s assisted in making my journey at the very least less strenuous and at the very most more livable, whether it’s coming to this site and turning it into what it is today or even sharing small talk with me whenever I do come out of the Batcave. I may not come off like it sometimes, but I am extremely humbled and grateful for everything that’s came my way, and I give props to my partner here for riding with me for so long.
[1] Except that one period where I got four tattoos in about nine months, but I digress.
