Illmatic: The Genesis
I have a strange idea. It's either gonna be incredible or incredibly lame, but since I committed to posting everyday this month, let's give it a try. If it doesn't work, then I can always just stop right? Anyway, my idea is to take my blog title posts from the songs on one of my favorite albums ever: Illmatic by Nas. I'll write the post based on the song title. It will not be matching up with the song lyrics, because my life is so much different than the stuff Nas was rapping about, but it should at least spark some ideas to write about. Track # 1 is called "The Genesis." This may be esoteric and only make sense to me, but here we go anyway...
Track 1: The Genesis
The Genesis of this blogging thing happened in December of 2005. That's when I started my first blog. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea what I was going to write about (much like today.) I just knew that I had recently discovered the whole world of blogging and liked the idea. I don't remember the first blog I read, but I do know it was a girl from NY that was writing about her experiences dating. The idea was novel and fresh to me that I just had to be a part of it.
So, I sat there on December 3rd, and put key to keyboard. The first post was sort of an introduction. I entitled it "Who I'm Is" after a quote from T.I.'s song "Rubberband Man." At the time, he was blowing up in Atlanta and you couldn't go an hour without hearing that song on one of our various urban radio stations. I just sat down and wrote. I realized that my niche in the blog world was to be Mr. Hip Hop. All of my blog post titles were quotes from hip hop lyrics. I knew nobody was reading, but I didn't really care. I started out just writing in the hopes that someone would feel what I was saying, or at the very least care enough to leave a comment. It took about a month before I realized that in order to have people read my shit, I had to read theirs. So I did. I read and commented and next thing I knew, I became pretty popular. Mad comments every day. My work life consisted mainly of reading blog posts and responding to my comments, not to mention obsessing over my site meter. Trying to figure out who was reading my blog.
A funny thing happened along the way. I started getting invites to have IM conversations and later invites to real life hanging out. It was cool. Anti Social Rashan was breaking out of his shell. This all started out from just a boring guy trying to pass the time. I became part of the in crowd and started meeting more and more bloggers. It started out with her, then later I met her and her, Even later I met her, and she came and crashed at my apartment when she was in town. I went through the whole gamut from blog crushes to blog beef to blog cliques etc. Blog life and real life were pretty much overlapping.
Then it all came crashing down. The people I was cool with no longer wanted me around. I don't blame them. Some ill shit went down, and I just kept quiet about it. The thing about sharing so much about yourself is that people feel entitled to know every aspect of your life. That's my fault. I'm sure they expected me to talk about it like I did with everything else. But it was too personal to me. Slowly but surely, these same bloggers stopped visiting, stopped calling, stopped IM'ing me. And I stopped blogging. For an entire month, I thought nothing about my blog or anyone else's blog. When the time was right, I came back in a new spot. I linked from the old blog to the new, you see. I wasn't hiding out, I just needed a change. The blog colors changed from dark to light. It was symbolic of what I was trying to accomplish. I was trying to get rid of the negative energy that surrounded my old blog. Let's just say it didn't work. It took a few months, but I finally realized it wasn't the blog that had the negative energy, it was me. I had to reevaluate my life and get my shit together.
And now here I sit. I like blogging, but I'm not obsessed with it. I write my innermost thoughts, but not everything. I'm candid, yet reserved. I read blogs but not so much that it takes over my whole day. I've not met any more bloggers in person (not that I'm philosophically opposed to the idea.) I've learned how to share just what I want to share, and not every little thought I have. I mean what I say in my tag line.. This time I'm gonna try to do things differently. I think for the most part I have.
The Genesis was an insomnia laden December night in 2005. I wrote some damn good blog posts (like this one), had some damn crazy blog ideas (like the damn 8 part Blog Real World series, da hell was I thinking with that one?), and met some cool people. But you know what? I wouldn't trade it for the peace of mind I have now. Only time will tell what will happen next.
Tomorrow: Track 2: NY State of Mind
The Genesis of this blogging thing happened in December of 2005. That's when I started my first blog. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea what I was going to write about (much like today.) I just knew that I had recently discovered the whole world of blogging and liked the idea. I don't remember the first blog I read, but I do know it was a girl from NY that was writing about her experiences dating. The idea was novel and fresh to me that I just had to be a part of it.
So, I sat there on December 3rd, and put key to keyboard. The first post was sort of an introduction. I entitled it "Who I'm Is" after a quote from T.I.'s song "Rubberband Man." At the time, he was blowing up in Atlanta and you couldn't go an hour without hearing that song on one of our various urban radio stations. I just sat down and wrote. I realized that my niche in the blog world was to be Mr. Hip Hop. All of my blog post titles were quotes from hip hop lyrics. I knew nobody was reading, but I didn't really care. I started out just writing in the hopes that someone would feel what I was saying, or at the very least care enough to leave a comment. It took about a month before I realized that in order to have people read my shit, I had to read theirs. So I did. I read and commented and next thing I knew, I became pretty popular. Mad comments every day. My work life consisted mainly of reading blog posts and responding to my comments, not to mention obsessing over my site meter. Trying to figure out who was reading my blog.
A funny thing happened along the way. I started getting invites to have IM conversations and later invites to real life hanging out. It was cool. Anti Social Rashan was breaking out of his shell. This all started out from just a boring guy trying to pass the time. I became part of the in crowd and started meeting more and more bloggers. It started out with her, then later I met her and her, Even later I met her, and she came and crashed at my apartment when she was in town. I went through the whole gamut from blog crushes to blog beef to blog cliques etc. Blog life and real life were pretty much overlapping.
Then it all came crashing down. The people I was cool with no longer wanted me around. I don't blame them. Some ill shit went down, and I just kept quiet about it. The thing about sharing so much about yourself is that people feel entitled to know every aspect of your life. That's my fault. I'm sure they expected me to talk about it like I did with everything else. But it was too personal to me. Slowly but surely, these same bloggers stopped visiting, stopped calling, stopped IM'ing me. And I stopped blogging. For an entire month, I thought nothing about my blog or anyone else's blog. When the time was right, I came back in a new spot. I linked from the old blog to the new, you see. I wasn't hiding out, I just needed a change. The blog colors changed from dark to light. It was symbolic of what I was trying to accomplish. I was trying to get rid of the negative energy that surrounded my old blog. Let's just say it didn't work. It took a few months, but I finally realized it wasn't the blog that had the negative energy, it was me. I had to reevaluate my life and get my shit together.
And now here I sit. I like blogging, but I'm not obsessed with it. I write my innermost thoughts, but not everything. I'm candid, yet reserved. I read blogs but not so much that it takes over my whole day. I've not met any more bloggers in person (not that I'm philosophically opposed to the idea.) I've learned how to share just what I want to share, and not every little thought I have. I mean what I say in my tag line.. This time I'm gonna try to do things differently. I think for the most part I have.
The Genesis was an insomnia laden December night in 2005. I wrote some damn good blog posts (like this one), had some damn crazy blog ideas (like the damn 8 part Blog Real World series, da hell was I thinking with that one?), and met some cool people. But you know what? I wouldn't trade it for the peace of mind I have now. Only time will tell what will happen next.
Tomorrow: Track 2: NY State of Mind
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