When I was a kid, I used to want to be a rapper. The older kids called me Tiny Tim, so when I started rapping they called me MC Tim. I had another name as well and that was DC, which stood for Devastating Chris. Me and my friends would be at school putting on little shows at recess and such. We had a few groups, one was called FIE (Fresh In Effect) and as we got older (read:12-13) we went by NIC (Niggas In Control). We even made dis songs about Another Bad Creation and Kris Kross. One of the funniest thing I remember was us talking about wearing our pants backwards, but inside out as a sign of disrespect. Yeah we had issues, but we were ambitious…to a point I suppose. As we got older, I ended up going to a different junior high school than everyone else and things started changing around that time. One night, one of them called and wanted to hear me flow over the phone with somebody else on three way, but my dad was right there and I couldn’t say the stuff I’d normally say…so I kinda froze up. They were a bit upset about that, but they ended up moving away shortly after that anyways.

Fast forward maybe a year or two and I’m just going to the corner store like any other day and there’s a big crowd. Being the nosy colored person that I am, I go to see what was going on. As it turns out, my former neighbors and partners in rhyme have formed this group and landed a deal with Def Jam and are shooting their first video. I go speak and everything, but they are kinda busy and such. It was a good feeling though, to see them work towards a goal and actually achieve it. That was something we’d always talked about. Even though I wasn’t really a part of the final stage, I’m glad I was around to see things develop. I even managed to get into the crowd. If you watch the video below and pause it around 0:49 or so, in the center…to the right, you’ll see a dark oil spot with a messed up tapered afro standing virtually still–that’s me. The YouTube video (link) was a bit clearer but Universal Music Group prohibits any embedding of their clips. Bastards

Funny stuff. Anyways, I went on to make my own album a couple years later when I was 17. No one has ever heard it, but if I can get the stuff to transfer the cassette to my computer I may share a few tracks with y’all. Maybe. I just might make that for registered users only. I’m not sure yet. But yeah, it’s interesting what happened to them since then. The first guy went to prison for 10 years for kidnapping and drug trafficking. He was due to come out this past summer, but I’m not sure how that has worked out. The second guy also went to jail, but had a shorter sentence. The last guy (and the person who prompted this whole flashback thing) lives in Indiana now and does a bit of promotion and real estate. He sent me a message on YouTube and called me Tiny Tim. I found that to be hilarious.

Ahhh, memories.