Hate Rap

Asides from Sanjai, there were only a handful of guys like myself that were into rap music. They all got heavily into it like I did in grade 8. Now that we were in grade nine I figured there would be more of us, but there wasn't. Besides Sanjai and I, my other group of "rap buddies" consisted of only a few: Jazzy Jeff, Egg man Craig, Davy D, Rich P, & Matt O.D. 

Drawing I did of Davy D. in grade 9 math class.

Jeff, Matt & Craig had started up their own DJ crew called J.M.C. and they were making quite a name for themselves quickly, landing gigs DJing at middle school dances around the Brampton area. Jeff owned the bulk of the equipment as well as an excessive amount of vinyl records, so naturally we all hung out at his house to work on our skills and honing our styles.Jeff's house had a small guest room on the main floor that had become the beat lab. There were turntables set up with a mixer, a microphone, and record crates scattered about. I didn't DJ but I loved hanging out there and watching them do their thing, plus it was a great opportunity for me to catch up on all the newest releases. 

One day I showed up there with a mission on my mind, I had written my first rap song and was hoping Jeff could help me record it. Jeff had a cassette deck hooked up to the mixer so he could record mix tapes of his DJ work, so he agreed it would be easy to record a song, the only problem was I didn't have a song, just lyrics. Jazzy decided he could beat mix a few instrumental records so I would actually have a song to rap over, but he gave me the liberty of picking the records. I ended up choosing 3 instrumentals that I was big on at the time, The 45 King's "900 number" Fast Eddie's "yo yo get funky" and Twin Hype's "Do it to the crowd" Jeff cued the tape up, plugged the mic in, and got the records lined up. We decided to switch the beat up about every 60-90 seconds to keep the song fresh and interesting with constant changes. Due to the fact we were recording straight to cassette, everything had to be done perfectly in one take, which surprisingly we pulled off with ease. 

The song was untitled but would later go on to be known as "Hate Rap" since the lyrical content was chock full of negativity, stereotyping, and slight undertones of racism. Generally I remember every word to every song I've ever written, but this one escapes me. It could be due to the fact that I lost the tape a mere year or two later and have never heard the song again. I do however clearly remember the opening line: 

"it's time to get funky to this best that gets you hooked like a crack head junkie" 

The rest of the lyrical content was a general bash fest attacking a new trend that was happening within our high school, white girls dating black guys. There was also a lot of hatred spewed forth in regards to the black guys in our school targeting punks like myself who looked different and labelling us as racists. As far as I know my rap was the first rap geared towards hating on people and society, hence the self appointed moniker "the original player hater" I dubbed myself over a decade later. If I had to compare it to anything nowadays I suppose Eminem's early music would work as a comparison. Looking back I truly consider myself "the real slim shady"

When the other guys heard the tape they were stoked. They absolutely loved it, but were all in shock over the controversial lyrics. They all agreed the song was great, but they all shared one opinion about it....there was no way in hell any black guy in our school could hear it without my life possibly being at risk...and MC Kev T was officially born!