Nearly all of my earliest memories of hip-hop go through my older brother O.

When he was 16, O formed a rap group called 360 degrees, and he started going by O Love.

What's the definition? Definition of a black man is truly a brown skin brother whose mother's and stays coolly.

High school kids wonder why I do,

This the gift they be and fly I love to,

Max with big stars, a clock out a single,

slam off an album and chill like Chris Crangle,

jingle, I need more than that in my pocket,

I don't want to be a star, simply a rap rocket.

Sometimes I sneak into his room and go through his rhyme books,

and the lyrics he'd write down on scraps of loose leaf,

folded in with letters, lots and lots of letters from girls.

I'd read both with deep anticipation and appreciation.

And when his group dropped their one and only single, in 1989,

a record called Definition of a hyped up black man. I carried that vinyl

into my sixth grade dance, proudly shoving it into the DJ's face, and he actually played

it. My friends went wild.

I was just the key, my man. So here's the definition of a hype up black man. What's a definition? But the very first time I remember hearing But the very first time, I remember hearing rap music.

I must have been like six or seven years old

and my brother was playing UTFO's Roxanne Roxanne back in 1984.

After that, I was hearing rap and passing cars and at my cousin's house and even on the radio.

It was everywhere. L.L. Cool J was rocking the bells and couldn't live without his radio.

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