How Hip Hop made me who I am today

With this being my first post ill start by telling you a little about myself. My name is Robbie D I am 30 years old and am from a small town in Missouri. I've had a love for hip hop since i was a child. I was 7 years old when Snoop released one of the greatest albums in hip hop history, Doggystyle. When i was that age my Aunt introduced me the world of 1990's gangster rap(which is still my favorite) which was mostly westcoast with a few east coast guys in there. With groups like The Click(E-40, Suga T, D-shot), Westside Connection(Ice Cube, Mack 10 and Dub C), Cypress Hill, 2 Live Crew, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Wu-Tang Clan and solo artists like Spice-1, Too Short, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Dr. Dre, Celly Cell, Master P, 2Pac, NAS, Notorious B.I.G.(i could sit here all day naming off rappers who influenced me in the 90s) the way i listened to music would never be the same.

Gangster rap is pretty much what i stuck with until i was about 13 when i discovered the Insane Clown Posse(don't judge me) and Twiztid. I was always a huge fan of horror movies as a kid so once i found these two groups i fell in love with the violent imagery and the stories they told with their songs. ICP is one of the main reasons i started rapping when i was 15, i started off doing horrorcore under the name Jinicyde(yeah yeah i know) with my buddy who went by Murderous Marv. We made two short albums before it started to lose its spark. I went a couple years kind of lost as an artist, thats when I was introduced to what i consider real hip hop which not only changed my life but actually saved my life on multiple occasions.

When i was around 16 i was introduced to Atmosphere. Atmosphere was and still is my biggest influence. Not only was he rapping about things i was going through but the way he put it all into words absolutely blew me away. i had never heard anyone explain being in love and the pain and suffering that comes with relationships like the way Slug did/does. This is when i really started to come into my own as an artist.

Atmosphere inspired me to write about things that i was going through as well as things i had seen others endure. Why rap about things that were not constructive when i could use writing as an outlet for all my anger and depression. So not only did Atmosphere get me through tough times but he taught me how to express my true emotions even when i wasn't able to express them out loud.

Around this time i started digging everywhere i could to find more artists that wrote with such heart and willingness to bare their true soul. Thats when i found Brother Ali, Eyedea & Abilities, Sage Francis and later on one of my all time favorites Grieves. All of these artists had a unique way of putting their words together and delivering raw emotion and passion on every CD. One thing I absolutely love about this kind of hip hop is their ability to tell a story. Being able to no only emotionally connect with what was being said but also being able to mentally picture the situation is a beautiful thing.

With this wide variety of influence my own style started to take form as i found out who I was as an artist at the age of 19. Thats when started writing songs like "No Questions".

Over the years i listened to A LOT of different styles of hip hop and rap which just further helped me mold my own sound while learning different rhyming patterns, word play and how to really ride a beat. So now at the age of 30 I am finally comfortable with where i am headed as a hip hop artist. In June of this year i was able to purchase some top notch studio equipment so i could finally start recording all this work I had been doing over the years. With Studio One 3 and the Rode NT1-A mic and the help from my cousin/ producer @d-ro i finally had what I needed to make my music sound how i wanted it to sound.

On October 26th i released my first mixtape in years entitled Heathen Heaven. Which seemed appropriate since most of the songs are about partying and being a general heathen. after much discussion @d-ro and I decided to hold onto most of my "from the heart, bearing the soul" type songs for our next project. Not only will our next project be a lot more serious and mature but @d-ro will be making all the beats and I will be writing all new material as we go. The future is a bright place and feel like I am headed straight for it.

So keep an eye and ear out because i will be posting each song off of Heathen Heaven with a little background on each one. So go a head and listen to the mixtape on my youtube channel

right here through soundcloud or feel free to download and share with your friends.