Carter 1

Tyler Carter
English 104- 15
Professor Trudy Walsh
September 28, 2015
Hip Hop Changed My Life
Growing up an only child allowed me to open curiosities through listening to
music, reading different forms of literature, and writing short stories. Literacys purpose
is to help people communicate a theory, idea, or even a feeling. These three forms of
literacy have allowed me to connect to other people, fictional or not, in a way that is
nearly unimaginable. Any form of literacy has been and always will be my necessary
escape from reality because it allowed me to gain perspective on new ideas and be able to
express my opinion towards these ideas in a different and effective manner.
My mother had several bookcases overpopulated with books by Alice Walker,
W.E.B Dubois, Maya Angelou, and a variety of her other favorite writers. I wanted my
personal bookcase to emulate her bookcases so I spent a lot of my time in bookstores and
libraries. I spent my free hour during the school day by the classroom book nook every
Friday. My Aunt Olga is also one of the people who emphasized the importance of
reading in my childhood. My dad and I would visit her every Christmas and I never failed
to leave with five books in my suitcase. Year after year I visited my aunt and returned
with more and more books, but soon they started becoming less read and more used to
hold my wobbly coffee table in place. The want for unimaginable places became replaced
with simple letters scrolling across the page and a greater want to be with friends.
Reading became a task, a mountain to be conquered, and I dragged my feet the entire

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journey through. By the sixth grade, my desire for literacy reached an all time low and
my aunts words on the importance of reading turned mute.
As I continued through the sixth grade and struggled to find the purpose in
reading again, my curiosity peaked with different genres of music. I dove deeper into
jazz, soul, and hip-hop. My music choices began to inspire me to do more within the
arena of literature. It also taught me the power music, specifically hip-hop, has on people
through its rawness. To me, hip-hop is the language of the unheard. The poetry that
flowed from my headphones gave way to delving deeper into the lyrics of Jay- Z, Lauryn
Hill, and Eminem to name a few. Jay-Z and Eminems collaboration on the song
Renegade provided me with a personal theme song by simply describing my
candidness in the hook, Never been afraid to say/ whats on my mind any given time of
day. It began as a slow start, but reading lyrics to classic hits from various artists and
reciting the poetic verses from my favorite artists began changing my mind on literacy.
The power of music and the passion of poetry intertwined with me and caused me
to find more poetry. The works of Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou flowed from my
mothers library to my hands, expanding my horizons as a reader and engaging me in
ways the books from my many trips to my Aunt Olgas did not before. The imagery and
conscious thought that went into each of the works, no matter how short, always made
me want to explore more poetry. Then we began the poetry unit in my seventh grade
language arts class. This unit was a combination of reading and writing poetry. We read
some of every influential poet so we eventually came across Langston Hughes, which
made me ecstatic. Covering his works in an academic environment allowed me to
reconnect with literacy because my English teacher opened my eyes to more poets such

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as James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. Reading these poets work provided me with
perspective that no history class ever had at that point. It helped me look through the lens
of people living during the Great Depression, World War II, and the Civil Rights
movement. After the reading portion of the poetry unit came the writing portion. The
writing part was not as exciting to me because academic writing was never one of my
strengths; I had never enjoyed any writing assignment I had up to this point. Little did I
know, writing poetry would become the outlet I needed to express myself in a way that I
never had before. It taught me how to say what I am feeling without using the actual
words through imagery and symbolism. Moreover, writing poetry deepened my yearning
for more literature. Upon completion of this unit in seventh grade, I began looking for
books on some of the topics covered during the poetry unit.
Over the next few years, reading for pleasure became easier and easier for me
because I began reading things that had purpose for me. I was reading romance, historical
fiction, and any other genre I could get my hands on. I thought that most of these books
affected how I perceived certain aspects of the world. That is, until I picked up The
Autobiography of Malcolm X. Reading this book completely changed how I feel and
think toward everything. It instilled the strongest sense of black pride and self-pride that I
had ever felt in my life. It provided me with a global perspective that I never experienced
through Xs vivid description of his hajj to the other Mecca. I read this book at the peak
of racism in my lifetime that was happening in the news from Mike Brown to the tragic
Charleston shooting. Xs words provided me with more purpose by helping me
understand what I truly want my contribution to the world be. Outside of my personal
growth, this book also helped me grow as a scholar. X mentioned many black studies

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titles that I felt the need to read, including works by W.E.B. Dubois and Carter G.
Woodson. Once I read The Souls of Black Folk, I researched more titles essential to
understand black studies. The words that resonated most with me referring to the
importance of reading were, The ability to read awoke inside of me some long dormant
craving to be mentally alive. (X, Haley) The Autobiography of Malcolm X allowed me to
deepen my understanding of myself as a human being and to understand those around
me.
Literacy has provided me with much more than a fantasy world. It has provided
me with the ability to express myself completely and honestly. It has allowed me to dive
into all forms of expression, which led to my greater understanding of those different
from me. Through reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X, literacy has also allowed
me to understand the black struggle on a more profound level than any history class ever
has. It has allowed me to understand the world we live in from multiple perspectives.
Most importantly, literacy helped me find what my purpose is at this point in my life.

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Work Cited
X,Malcolm,andAlexHaley.TheAutobiographyofMalcolmX.NewYork:Ballantine,
1992.Print.
Carter,Shawn,andMarshallMathers.Renegade.JayZFeat.Eminem.Eminem,n.d.
MP3.