Why Hip Hop? I grew up in the 90’s! While the radio played dance floor fillers that I still love today, I also discovered songs that made me nod my head to both the beat and the message.

I heard somewhere that rap music began in the pulpit. The strong messages the church was putting in to the community through the preacher’s weekly sermon was also being told from the street corners. The blend of spoken word with rhythm and rhyme accompanied by beats without instruments spread from the streets to house parties to recording studios. The message in hip hop music today often feels like “mo’ money, mo’ money” and what De La Soul call R’n’B – Rappin’ Bullshit! But sometimes these talented artists combine the sound I love with positive messages, full of lessons and experience, that can help every one, every day, to live a better life – which is the origin and real purpose of philosophy.

We only get one go round the merry-go-round of life. Many people have spent big parts of their life trying to find meaning, purpose, and the origins of life and beyond. I have read books, listened to recordings and podcasts, studied and talked to people trying to understand and absorb as many of these ideas as I can. I haven’t yet found a single philosophy or set of religious beliefs that I can accept as a whole but have found great comfort in ideas and advice within different philosophies.

I like the idea that we continue to grow and learn our whole life. I believe that people can change, and should change if they are shown new ideas that resonate with them. Who we are today is not who we were yesterday and who we will be tomorrow. Not one of us can step in the same river twice. We should be ready for change and ready to embrace the possibilities that come with it.