Hip Hop Has Saved Me .

If you had told me in high school that by the end of college hip hop would be one of my favorite genres, I would have told you that you were crazy. Now, granted, as with any genre, I don't like everything that's out there but I've come to have a huge appreciation for a lot of the stuff that is.

I have fallen in love with the beat it provides, like a heartbeat to life. It continues to move me, motivate me, and inspire me, over and over. In the little of my spare minutes I have begun to write some raps down (though, in all honesty, lyrics are simply words and rhymes until you put them to music). I love the intricacy of the language, the complexity to beats, but also how simple it can be. You can have one beat the whole time and the song can still be amazing.

These people are the storytellers of our generation -- realists and musicians, artists and sculptors. I am so glad that my mind allowed me to be opened up to a whole new world. Hip hop has saved me.