kid that had a vast knowledge of hip hop and its history. He could hold his own when the conversation was about old school rap or today’s hip hop. His respect for hip hop as a craft was impressive, but his respect for black culture was more impressive. This is the exact reason why some days I don’t beat myself up for bobbing my head to my favorite Gucci Mane or Migos lyrics, because Jake enjoyed their lyrics too. It would be wrong to forget about that part of Jake. He was passionate about his favorite rappers, like Earl Sweatshirt, Kendrick Lamar, Tyler the Creator, Flatbush Zombies, and Isaiah Rashad. The rappers who he closely followed aren’t included in the trap lane of hip hop, but violence and drugs can be found in their lyrics, too, just in a different capacity. For example, violence is shown in Kendrick Lamar’s lyrics to “m.A.A.d city” when Lamar raps “Pakistan on every porch is fine, we adapt to crime.” In Lamar’s lyrics, he’s using imagery of the neighborhood he grew up in to set the premise for violence that will follow in the rest of the song. Trap music often doesn’t use violent imagery in the lyrics to speak on a bigger issue, violence itself is the main topic of the song. Whenever I play Isaiah Rashad’s “Sun’s Tirade,” I go back to the last time I spent with Jake at my 20th birthday party. I can see his boyish smile and hear his laughter fill up my sister’s kitchen. When I listen to Jake’s favorite songs and artists, he’s no longer dead, but there with me bobbing his head to a melodic beat. There are other times when I’m listening to a song about “pushing weight” and “slanging crack” that I’m embarrassed. The glorification of selling drugs could be part of the reason Jake was murdered. Jake was unemployed at the time of his murder. He was selling weed to make ends meet while looking for work. Not once have I considered Jake a horrible person for selling weed, but sometimes I play a scenario in my head where he wasn’t let go from his job and didn’t sell weed on the side. Where these boys weren’t lured by their desire for weed and money to Jake and he’s
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