Suburbanite -

Let’s tell the obvious truth of a place I was brought up and raised

Damn near only black kid in the suburbs where I grew up

So it was much harder to face

I was living with my grandma, and my grandpa with the highest of stakes

All it took was a disagreement or a falling out to be put out of their place

Everyday I had to clean shit that wasn’t even mine at nine years old

I lost all my friends in second grade, so as a kid I always felt alone

All I had was the neighbors, same age as my little brother so

I was more or less to myself, there was really nowhere else to go

Once they had put me in school, that’s when I knew and I really had felt the

change

Assimilated quickly strictly as a coping mechanism not to feel the pain

Internet had started booming, I was watching Naruto and other anime

Then I saw an animated music video that shaped me and my destiny

Linkin Park was the backing music for the video

Felt the music speaking to me in a way that I had never felt before

That was back in '06 limewire popping hella hella hard

I was listening to music like an alcoholic with a personal bar

I was always fucking nerdy, know I love to learn me some incredible facts

Being super smart and being into art was really hard especially when you’re

black

Especially when you seen the struggle first hand they don’t know about that

Inadvertent racism and social stratification on top of that

I love all of my white suburban friends very much and I hope that they know it

too

But there are some issues that they cannot even begin to fathom so,

once it came time for me to start fitting in

I was everywhere and nowhere to be found

I was just a fucking loner, man

The harder I tried, the more I realized

That there was really no place for me

Then I was homeless, I finally noticed

That the system was actually playing me

Suburban or not, I was black in a world ruled by the whitest of men

And that’s when I said fuck it, I don’t care about the race I’ma fight it then

At that moment I accepted the stereotype that society placed on me

The blackest I ever felt at that moment and I hold that til this day you see

So yes I’m a rapper, a bboy, the essence of hip hop rolled into one

Being black in the suburbs made me appreciate how far we’ve come

I appreciate it

You know before I really thought about it, race didn’t make any difference to me

And to this day, it holds a minimal role in how I treat certain situations with

people

However, now, I’m not ignorant to the unique struggles that each of these races

face

Cause I realize now, a lot of the struggles that I’ve gone through are simply

because of how the system treats black people

Regardless of their education level or wealth

It’s the depiction and social narrative of all humanity that’s really important

See because I believe that all people can be successful, but now I know that

some people’s opportunities to reach certain successes, might be easier than

others

And that’s really important to recognize because as egalitarian as it sounds to

treat everybody the same

It’s actually somewhat ignorant of the differences we all face