*he casually walks up to reader, put his arm around his/her shoulder
and says "walk with me"*

If you're a reader of my blogs you will be used to me and endless
questioning by now. You will know that I'm some kind of artist. You
will know I rap, sing a lil' bit and dabble in poetry. You will know
that I am of the Christian faith and wrestle a lot with what that
means in today's world. You will also know that I love music
especially the artform of rap and culture called hip hop and I am also
interested in all things "urban" and the effect that media
representation has on the self perception of young people especially
black people because I am an African that's very aware.

I am unapologetically me and I'm not trying to fit in or appeal to
anyone. It's taken a while to get comfortable in my own skin and from
time to time I still struggle with insecurity and questions of my
identity. I know that for example in hip hop or the "urban" music
industry if you want to be popular and "make it" you have to fit into
the cookie cutter industry images of swagger laid out for you before
you got here. So the choices are: hustler, thug, badman, pimp, playa,
killer, dealer, roadman, baller, shotcaller etc. These are the prime
choices for you to express your masculinity and define your manhood
within the "urban" artforms if you want to "make it" or "crossover" or
go "mainstream" (ladies you know you have yours so with your
imagination you can come up with your cookie cutter images too.
If you're having trouble doing that please switch on BET and MTV Base
for a crash course) if you don't tick those boxes you can kinda forget
about it or is THAT IT?!"

Well not really, there is another way. Now I don't know if you really
want to know about it, it is not for the fainthearted. It takes a lot
of guts, you have to be prepared to be unpopular, rejected,
misunderstood and possibly never "crossover" and be accepted EVER in the
mainstream fantasy you have built in your head. Can you live with that
young artist, rapper, singer? do you have the heart to follow
through with this? Don't get it twisted, You can still "make it" it though but this way is defined by this simple saying, "No cross, no crown"

Until you can answer the above question you are not ready. You are
simply not prepared for this and I suggest you drop out now while you still can.

*pats the reader on the shoulder, gives a smile, then walks off with a
slight limp in his "swagger"*