Unstereotypical Rappers
I've been fortunate enough to meet, on separate occasions, two unlikely rappers in my life. The first was a guy I used to work with at Baskin Robbins. He was a white guy in his mid-20's (I'm going to go ahead and apologize for any stereotypical remarks I make in this post, but you have to acknowledge that most stereotypes are there for a reason...) who dressed sharp and took his job seriously, even at Baskin Robbins. A little bit shorter than average, his hair was slicked back and he spoke properly. Then, one night as we were closing, he told me he did a rap demo with two other guys that was going to be on the radio. We stayed a little late so I could hear it and it sounded good. He told me about the time he sang karaoke and had the whole place jumping -- it seemed he had skills. This was the same guy who, when a typical middle-class family (complete with 2.5 kids) walked in, said, "That's going to be me one day." Not what typical main-stream rap songs are...