Why I Am The Way I Am.

I don't know if you had The Box growing up. You were lucky if you did. It came in on channels 13 and 28 on the shitty TV in my brother's room when I was growing up and you had to mess with the antenna for hours just to get a horrible picture. But once you had it, it was golden. All the rap music videos you could want and for an 8 year-old that had a bad attitude and a smartass mouth, rap music was everything.

MTV claimed it was "Music Television You Control" but it seemed as if it was really controlled by corny white people that couldn't get over Alanis Morissette and all of the other women that sang songs about hating dudes and god. I don't know, I didn't have cable. The Box was different in that you could actually see the numbers on the lower right-hand side of the screen being punched in by people who wanted to watch the latest Snoop Dogg video or, in my case, Eazy-E's masterpiece. I remember watching this Eazy-E video 8 times in a row because The Box played it 8 times in a row. It was the first song I knew all the lyrics to. At 8 years old I thought I was a Real Motherfucking G. 18 years later and you best believe I still am.

Eazy-E died on my 10th birthday. I remember seeing it on the news and being devastated. He gave me a voice that I had not yet found. And that was his intent right? To give 8 year-old kids like me who grew up in hillbilly middle-class neighborhoods an identity and a place in this world. Yep. I knew it was. And that's why I am the way I am.


Watch the guy in the white shirt on the bottom of the screen from 1:47 to 1:49 checking the oil. Sometimes you gotta see what's under the hoodrat's hood.