Trust Your Child

I was recently interviewed by LA Weekly about how pivotal David Faustino (pka Bud Bundy from Married With Children) was in the early 90’s West Coast hip-hop scene (no really, he was), and that got me reminiscing about the days I was in the Rhyme Syndicate-managed kid rap group, X-tra Large, at 11 years old. It’s not something that comes up much, although I’m willing to talk about the time I was a pre-teen pitching lyrics to Donald D for the Trespass soundtrack if anyone has a willing ear (no? OK, it’s fine), but this picture, sent to me recently on Facebook, KILLED me.

It’s myself (then called Younger MC) and my partner Rickye Kidd, who went by Kidd X and posted this pic, opening for Donald D, Tone Loc & Pacific Heights at Club Spice on Hollywood Blvd (Sugar Shack). This was basically Faustino’s only competition for an all-ages hip hop night in LA at that time, and although my dream was to be on David’s stage down the street at a club called Ballistix, where a young Xzibit would battle weekly, and lose to an even younger Will1X, later to become will.i.am and a hologram on CNN. Sadly, although we did some pretty cool shit at an early age, we never hit David’s weekly gig. It was REALLY weird to see white kids rapping back then, hence some of the shocked faces you can see in this audience. We opened for Ice-T once also, and when he saw me rap, I think he actually had a stroke. Technically, Rickye was the only black kid in my grade (and almost school), so hence we had to become a rap group. We were “battle rappers,” so even the song we’re performing in the photo above was an attack on fellow young rhymers Another Bad Creation, where we took shots at their birth names, wardrobe and penis size. 

When the Rhyme Syndicate deal fell apart a few months after this picture was taken, I decided to focus on middle and high school and put down the mic for a bit, but eventually did sign a fluke Interscope record deal as Hot Karl a decade later, with similar end results.  I honestly used to run from all these stories and pictures. I’ve never been one to try and talk about things that I quote, unquote failed at. These days, more comfortable in my own skin, career and life, I think it’s awesome, yet still ridiculous, that I was signed to Ice-T’s management company before I hit puberty, then later recorded songs with Kanye, wil.i.am and Mya, even if you’ve never heard them. BUT, you can hear them now by visiting iTunes. And Rickye still raps, now living in Vegas with a family of his own and running his own business too. I hope he holds these times, and the performance above, as close to his heart as I do now, cause honestly for a while, I never even admitted this part of my life happened. 

My parents drove me to this Club Spice show, and watched me perform and video’d the whole thing (AND NO, I WON’T BE POSTING THAT). Being 32 now, and with most of my friends with kids now (including Rickye), I wonder what my parents must have been thinking as we took the stage at 11:30 PM as 7th graders. There were 100’s of people at this show, packed from front to back. And I was dressed like an accountant at a Bar Mitzvah (kinda early Jay-Z though too, right?). I can only hope my eventual child picks up a hobby just as fucking weird.