[Inchoateposter]

The Thumbless Attempted Burglary Victim was in the basic environs when I first gave hip-hop the barest openminded listen. My then roommate was a large, deceptively intelligent quiet black guy who provided the invaluable and unenviable service to our middle-class white friends of at least pretending to care about their opinions vis-a-vis hip-hop. Somewhere along the way of my screeching "pissing on its grave" to Talib Kweli's not-so-haunting rhetorical question, and getting the enjoyable bass-baritone bellowed reply of "around the corner kicking punks ass" I realized that "rap" didn't belong with "Country-music" as the only exceptions to the "Everything" I claimed to like. Turns out "Country" has some awesome sounds too and "Everything" mostly sucks.

In a straight response to the question, probably a cassete of "Bigger and Deffer" found with a few other cassetes on the edge of a basketball court in upstate New York. The owner clearly had "eclectic" taste in music since the bag also contained a Judas Priest "Turbo" cassete.

Not long after I got a copy of "Feel My Power," which was promptly stolen. I can only describe that event as an act of Providence, and for the next decade I maintained a staunch and unapologetic hatred of "rap."

Those were good years.