[DISCLAIMER] With noted exceptions, such as lyricist Kool G Rap, M.O.P. (lyricists Lil’ Fame and Billy Danze), Geto Boys (lyricists Scarface, Willie D, and the late Bushwick Bill), lyricist Freddie Foxxx, and some others, I don’t believe that many hip hop artists practice authenticity. For context, the American Psychological Association (APA) defines authenticity as “in existentialism, a mode of being that humans can achieve by accepting the burden of freedom, choice, and

[DISCLAIMER] In spring 2025, I saw a social media post that addressed The Modern Day Knight Project (MDK). Of this matter, one source states, “Men who say they struggle with self-esteem issues can pay $18,000 for a three-day course of water hosing, truck pulls and hand-to-hand combat.” Regarding MDK and similar hyper-masculine endeavors, I stated in LARPing as Military Personnel, “Given my subjective view, it’s personally distasteful when people live action role-play (LAR

[DISCLAIMER] The above photo of me was taken during my senior year of high school, when I resided in a children’s home for the second time—after being kicked out of a house by the matriarch of a family who’d invited me to live in her home during the summer after my freshman year. When looking at the picture, I’m reminded of rapper Paul Wall’s line “all real, homie, not kinda, not sorta” from the song “Goin Live” that was featured on his album Mind over Matter (2020). For

[DISCLAIMER] On the collaborative album At Last (2010), by lyricist Eternia and producer MoSS, was the song “Goodbye” that featured an audio sample of the late singer and songwriter Janis Joplin. In particular, Joplin stated: This whole thing that’s happened to me, you see, this whole success thing, it hasn’t yet really compromised the position that I took a long time ago in Texas. That was to be true to myself, to be the person that was on the inside of me, and not play

[ DISCLAIMER ] On his fifth album Life Is... Too $hort (1989), rapper Too $hort released the track “ CussWords ” which was an oft-repeated song among my friends and I in childhood. In my youth, I like that the rapper began his song by asking, “So, you motherfuckers thought I was gonna change my style?” That set the tone for just under eight minutes of raw lyrics that, from the perspective of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), provided content about which people