When I look at this picture of younger me interviewing Grand Rapids Hip Hop legend DJ Omega Supreme for TheGrooveSpot.com, I’m instantly transported back in time to that Saturday in 2000 at Raps Around You Festival. I can hear the music, I can smell the barbeque, I can hear the cheers and chatter. I was just a young up-and-coming journalist and writer with an online magazine that not everyone technically understood yet. I was doing my best Fab Five Freddy emulation while dreaming of sharing my storytelling skill and love for Hip Hop in credible newspapers and magazines across the country and beyond. I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to make history.
Fast forward 21 years later, with thousands of published articles in newspapers and magazines printed locally, regionally, nationally, internationally, and online, and I’m proud to know I made history and a difference. And on May 20, 2021 I got to join the Grand Rapids HipHop Coalition President and founder Governor Slugwell, my extended family from All of the Above HipHop Academy, Hood Illustrated Magazine, and pioneers of the culture at the Michigan State Capitol to witness “HipHop Appreciation Day” be voted on positively and recognized by house representatives as a state holiday. I couldn’t have written a better story. |THIS.
[Mr. Joe Walker]
[Editor’s Note: When it was over and official, I called pioneering groundbreakers C.J. Plays, Chilla Pertilla, and Mix Master Ice.]
