You Are Sleeping, The Podcast: Ain't Nothing GOod in the Hood Mix

This mix was really close to my heart b/c I kinda tip toed the line between being broke and dirt poor(there is a difference) all my life up until now. I worked 2 jobs in high school and so did my mother(I helped her with her second job so you could say I had 3 gigs back then). Until a few years ago, my life was check to check and I better budget right or I ain't eatin' for a few days. Hell, during those high school days, There were some days when if I didn't bring dinner home from Mcdonald's or Chic-Fil-A, we would be short. And the funny thing about it was, even struggling like that, my mother made too much money for us to go on assistance, so it definitely felt like a no win situation sometimes. That being the case, I could only imagine what these poets who wrote these tracks went through in order to write such heartfelt lyrics that completely capture the emotions they felt while going through their own struggles. Sad part is, all the while, coming from that type of background nothing is expected of you anyway. Whether it is the crabs in the neighborhood trying to pull you down, or the snobs who don't live there that place their false assumptions on your back and write them in ink inside their mind, you aren't getting much help from either side of the tracks. My heart is full of admiration for the people who made it out of the jungle that is the hood and the quicksand that is the streets. Therefore, for this mix, I sought out tracks that spoke the truth about the pain of the everyday struggle in this life. Not tracks glorifying being from the hood, but tracks speaking on the struggle of trying to escape it's grasp. As many good memories as one may have from those times, nobody wants to live like that forever. Ultimately though b/c of fear, peer pressure, addiction, ignorance, and an overall feeling of true hopelessness, alot of people end up being stuck in these very real situations. Take a walk with me through these days, and completely understand that no matter how many people might brag about this life, there is NOTHING glorious about it. Recognize it for youreself, and enjoy the music.