The BluePrint

I wish I can tell you about growth but you have to experience it. You need to have the ability to look into yourself and realize the thing you're doing at the moment does not define you. When you are born into poverty, it seems like everything is impossible. The word "can't" is the most common word used in our community. It’s very hard to unlearn what you are taught in the classroom as a minority. Because of this, it is common that you cannot see past the negative energy you are born into. But let’s look at a drug dealer turned rapper turned mogul; Jay-Z. People automatically will ask, "why would I prop someone up that is so flawed?" But he is the perfect example of growth of a person that is so imperfect.

I was 11 years old when I first heard my favorite artist. My mother’s "friend" brought me 4 CDs and told me listen to them. He said I could keep my favorite 2. The 4 CDs were Nas: Illmatic, Biggie: Ready to Die, The Fugees: The score, and Jay-Z: The Reasonable Doubt. The one I picked to listen to first was Jay-Z's first album. The black and white Gambino look was interesting to my 11 year old brain. The first song I heard, on my borrowed cd player, was "Can’t knock the Hustle" featuring Mary J Blige. It instantly made an impression on me and I remember thinking this is the greatest album I've listened to. I tried listening to other albums and would always go back to my new favorite album. I loved the Nas album and Biggies album but couldn’t leave The Reasonable Doubt album alone. A few days later the "friend" asked me which one am I keeping. I told him The Fugees album and Jay-Z's album. He looked at me while laughing and asked "what do you know about that?" I told him, "he is going to be the greatest rapper of all time". He laughed at me and said, "there’s no way he will ever top Biggie and Snoop Dogg". Fast forward to this "friend" visiting again and he tells me "hey, your boy just dropped new music". Naturally, I started to beg my mom for some new music. My Puerto Rican mom did not know anything about the music I was so attached to so she bought me Puff Daddy’s first album. I was disappointed but excited cause Jay-Z was featured in a song on Puff Daddy’s classic album. My mom's "friend" bought me the album and told me about how Jay-Z had a mini movie called The Street is Watching. I couldn't watch it because I was too young at the time. Now you know I snuck that VHS tape into my room to watch it when my mother wasn’t home.

While I kept growing, Jay-Z kept dropping music. He didn't only release albums but freestyles on mixtapes that I could afford. While barbershop arguments kept telling me that he just rapped about money, I listened to the actual words he was rapping. I don’t just listen to the beat but the metaphors and similes that the artist is rapping has to connect to me. The things he was rapping about I was seeing in my environments; drugs, hustlers, local rappers, etc. The more his popularity grew, the more I heard the teachings in his songs. No, it wasn’t ABC riddles but I started hearing him rapping about the lack of black people the higher he got in corporate. I could tell he was figuring out his new calling. You can’t do the same thing forever, in any profession. You have to grow. He started to create businesses and creating jobs for his fellow friends and associates. He was creating opportunities for minorities. He started to fulfill the vision for his circle. He began to establish himself as a powerful entrepreneur. He was laying down the BLUEPRINT for everyone else. We are usually blind to it because we can’t see past our flaws and most of the time we operate in fear. The BLUEPRINT to grow within your profession. The BLUEPRINT to establish yourself and then create opportunities. See, when everyone is talking shit about Jay-Z's moves with the NFL after the Kaepernick situation or his relationship gossip bullshit, I am seeing BLUEPRINTs. I am seeing how to make moves and staying ahead. We need to start appreciating footprints left for us and be ready to create our own BLUEPRINTs.

Congrats to JAY-Z on THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME

Peace and Love