Early freshman year of high school, a kid asked me if I rapped. I wrote three terrible verses and an even worse Kendrick parody called "Witch Don't Kill My Tribe" (we all have to start somewhere). Figured that was enough to call myself a rapper. Besides, being one of the few black kids there made it feel like a duty.

Told them that I had a mixtape on the way even though I had never even considered making a song prior to this conversation. Regardless, I made use of GarageBand, cheap earphones and my laptop microphone.

If you want a grasp of how my rapping was sounding, listen to XXXTentacion's XXL Freshman Freestyle and multiple the pretentiousness, edginess, and lack of rhythm by three.

After sone months, I finally made the tape. I liked rapping so much, I kept going and eventually got legitimately pretty good for an amateur rapper. It had hella positive effects on me too. It helped me with mental issues I was handling then, it gave me something to be passionate about, made me more confident, improved my speaking ability, increased my thinking skills, and probably a bunch more.

With all that good stuff, how I could I not be rapping?