Moment I- The Arrival/Descending from the MOTHERship

It was said by family that my birth was a spectacle. I do not remember much, but I do recall doing the Roger Rabbit down the Soul Train line of the birth canal. I was being baptized by the funk of Parliament's "Mothership Connection" echoing off the walls of the womb through the uterarian sound system. I felt the force of "swing down, sweet chariot, stop and let me riiidde"move me towards a light. It must have been showtime! My mother said that she did not really have to push hard during labor be cause I slid right out of her doing a James Brown split as if her labia minora was a stage curtain and I was coming out for an encore! When the doctor tried to pick me up and slap my ass, I looked at him as he raised his hand and said "Mothaphucka! What do you think YOU doing?!" I could see the look of uncertainty in his beady eyes hiding behind some Coke bottle glasses.

He lowered his hand and didn't know if the shock was from me speaking or that a baby was putting him in check. Slowly, the doctor placed me in a blanket as I nodded as an affirmation like he had better put me down. He balled his fist and reached for a dap and asked "We good?" I dapped back with miniature fingers wrapped together with the appearance of two brown adult knuckles and replied "Fa Sho!"

Moment II- The Dis(s)covery

Though DJ Kool Herc may have been cited for inventing Hip-Hop, but it was not really created until I made it at five years old. See I found Hip-Hop between two Teddy Ruxpin dolls both filled with LL Cool J's Bigger and Deffer on beige cassette tapes being stopped, played, and rewound in sync with time to practice mixing and blending sounds. The party was going down in my crib aka Beat Street. I was known as MC Glowworm (which to this day I would never admit) because I was an MC and ….I had a Glowworm for a microphone. My Buddy and me were known as the "Terrible Two Crew." I rocked the spot battling all my action figure rivals. I smoked the TMNT crew. I lyrically ran laps around the Go-Bots and anybody else that wanted it from Toy Chest Avenue. I was the baddest five year old in Pro-Keds! So bad that one day Orko the Great from the Eternia Projects tried to step to me with a battle and I hit him with one of the illest lines ever. I grabbed my Glowworm mic, cocked the faded Chicago Bulls cap brim on my head over my left eye and said:

"MOTHAPHUCK YOU AND MOTHA GOOSE/NOW KISS THE CONVERSE FOOL!"

The crowd went silent. Def/Deaf from the fresh vocals I just dropped. I slammed the Glowworm on the ground and threw my hands like Rocky reaching the top steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and ran around the room and right into the record scratch skip of my mother's grip. Apparently, she did not appreciate the lyrical ass whooping I just dropped and proceeded to place me over her knee and hit me with the "1,2-1,2 and ya don't stop" whoopin as she followed every strike with the phrase. "Now who's the master?"

And in my head I wanted to say ME and display a yellow glow. However, my ability of catching bullets with my teeth had nothing on my mother's Above the Law-esque takedowns for the tomfoolery and household shenanigans of MC Glowworm. She was my biggest rival, and I would get her back someday…until she became my biggest fan -word to the mutha!

Moment V-Syndication/WHRT

Momma was a rolling stone when I was 13. She found sanctuary in the basements of boyfriends who still lived with their mothers. She bottomed out on her expectations. While she stayed grounded in the ghetto, I was trying to see passed the boundaries of city limits.

Momma played prisoner to nicotine. She would shoot up smokes like dope trying to be a menthol queen hanging with Kool filtered kings and passing around the 40 ounce like she was taking sips of redemption, but she kept slippin into darkness…

I once told my momma that she didn't have to say sorry any more. I had a mental mixtape of previous apologies that I'd play in my head produced by DJ HeardItAllB4 so she didn't have to sing me that single. Her sincerity was already in heavy rotation in my heart.

Sometimes I wish she had changed her forgiving frequency and came home, but she still doesn't get good reception of family in a stranger's basement.