“So Far Gone” Actually Made Me Closer (To Other People)

This playlist was titled “BRANCHING OUT” to describe how I was delving into new musical genres such as rap/hip-hop during my early teenage years. Rap really became an attractive genre to my peers during our pre-teens. On the contrary, hip-hop didn’t captivate my music taste because I didn’t really understand it. In my head, I couldn’t comprehend the idea that hip-hop often shifts the melody of the music to the instrumental aspects while the lyrics take on rhythmic duties in the song (often times the instrumental and lyrical aspects share the duty of establishing the rhythm). It was like drinking cucumber-lime gatorade (which was absolutely disgusting and unlike rap, I still dislike it to this day).

However, all of my peers shared this common ground to connect with each other through rap and hip-hop, but because I didn’t relate to this common ground because I didn’t listen to rap at the time. This exclusion from “society” inclined me to explore rap and understand why the genre appeals to others. Fortunately, Drake’s music served as a bridge to connect me to hip-hop. Most of the music I had listened to before middle school were radio hits. In 2009, Drake had released his break out album So Far Gone, which included one of my favorite songs from the radio: “Best I Ever Had”. Inclined to explore rap music, I started listening to some of Drake’s hip-hop joints on So Far Gone. It was the perfect intermediate to bridge myself to rap because I was already acclimated to his voice and his pop songs. Tracks in the album like “November 18th” often featured both singing and rapping. Once I was accustomed to Drake’s rap music, I began to branch out to other hip-hop artists like Jay-Z, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar.

Throughout the rest of my adolescence, I utilized rap music to develop strong ties with my friends. Similar to how pop music added a “friend dimension” to my relationship with my mother, rap helped me establish a “friend dimension” to people I was merely acquainted to. All it took was a “Ay bro, whatchu got boomin” and a “OHHH, you also listen to him/her” to spark a friendship that could last a lifetime. Branching out my taste of music helped me branch out my connections to new people.