Hip Hop 50th Anniversary
Big Daddy Kane: My First Favorite Rapper
My entire life changed with the utterance of three short verses
Big Daddy Kane was my very first favorite rapper.
I will never forget the first time I heard him. Well, technically, I didn’t hear him but I heard a 13-year-old kid reciting his lyrics.
I was about a year late in discovering Kane because I sat out of school for half of my 7th grade year due to a major surgery. I had an in-home tutor and was out of social contact with other kids for the better part of 9 months.
I watched a lot of VH-1, listening to to Paul Simon and Bryan Adams and others 80s music. I preferred it over MTV and BET.
By the time I made it back to middle school in the 8th grade, I was a bit behind academically and musically. So, the day I found myself in the 8th grade locker room after a PE (Physical Education) class and heard the kid reciting Kane’s lyrics, my mind was blown.
“I am the B.I.G.D.A.D.D.Y.K.A.N.E./
Dramatic, asiatic/
not like many.”- Big Daddy Kane, Ain’t No Half-Steppin’
It was the very first time in my life I felt the visceral, fever-inducing emotion for Hip Hop. My brain cells converged around one…
