Past, present or future, the homies and I got bars for days. John Handy and his Deep Thoughts aint got nothin on us.

Things were definitely different for me before my mom died of cancer and my dad got diagnosed. I was always too smart and unpredictable, and this did not help.

Esperanza Spalding is KILLING the game right now. She is super talented and sophisticated. But that does not mean we weren’t SHOCKED when she took home the Best New Artist Grammy over teen heartthrob and trillionaire Justin Biebs. Truth is, though, the award is for “best” and not “most popular”, so she deserved the win.

This aint nothing new. Hip Hop cops have been around as long as Hip Hop has. And before Hip Hop, they found other reasons to racially and culturally profile. Black music has always been hard for The Man to tolerate. And live performances especially strike fear, like every rap fan in attendance has come ready to riot. In June 2011, the NYPD attacked the fans, the artists and the artists' family members at the release party for Pete Rock and Smif-N-Wessun’s album ‘Monumental’.

This song is available for free download and streaming on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/awkword/before-before-ft-marq-spekt-t-shirt-kel-spencer-prod-king-p

It is also available for purchase – with all proceeds going to charity – via Bandcamp: http://awkword.bandcamp.com/track/before-before-feat-marq-spekt-t-shirt-kel-spencer-prod-by-king-p-cuts-by-the-white-shadow

But we come from the era of block parties, with DJs spinning vinyl. That authentic sound. That snap and crackle. And those turntable battles.

They took cocaine out of Coca-Cola in 1929; 66 years later, Michael Jordan returned to the NBA with nothing but a jumper

Yeah, we flew under the radar then, but we been here before Rawkus Records was founded with financial backing from James Murdoch, the son of media mogul DEVIL Rupert.

We been here since before the CIA flooded the streets with crack, before Fat Joe said “cook coke crack”

We’re all hooked on drugs, whether it’s alcohol, cigarettes, anti-depressants, narcotics, steroids, or pharmacy meds made to enable old men to keep screwing. We are dependent. And we get away with it, because it’s covered by insurance – UNLIKE many drugs VERY NECESSARY for the survival of poor and working class people.

Some have said AIDS is a conspiracy, that it doesn’t exist or it was intentionally created and dropped like a bomb, or like the CIA did with crack in the hood. We been here before AIDS or these theories.