(1/2) In 1994, my world was completely consumed by West Coast gangsta rap. That was like the blueprint of my life in 1994 – eat, drink, do my homework, listen to gangsta rap, figure out how to express that, go to sleep, do it all over again. A couple of years after my parents had found new partners, I used to go back and forth to my parents homes on a bi-weekly basis. For two weeks I’d stay with my mom, for two weeks I’d stay with my dad, etc. They lived relatively close so it was never really a big deal, but it took some getting used to for me. I used to transport all of my CDs each trip, but quickly realized I was only listening to Dre, Snoop, Cube & Cypress Hill. Idiot.
One night when my mom was dropping me off at my dads, my dad and her had a long talk outside before they both came in and told me I would be going to live in the United Kingdom (‘London’) for a few months. I didn’t exactly know what that meant, but I knew it was something new and got my mind off the divorce.
I was gonna be going with my dad and his new girlfriend to Cardiff, Wales. I’d be going to school in the UK.
My dad and his girlfriend left in August 1994, and I took a flight over around the end of that same month…alone. It was a 13 hour flight from California and I had a gameboy and my music. Portable CD Players were largely unaffordable at that time, so I brought my walkman and my cassettes. My cassette collection was comprised of a handful of mixtapes, Snoops Doggystyle, Cypress Hill’s Black Sunday, and a bunch of Nas’ Illmatic Singles. I remember, just before I left, I spent my last $12 at Tower Records and copped Dr. Dre’s ‘The Chronic’ and I listened to it over and over again on the flight. My buddy Zach had the CD so I was familiar with it and happy as hell to finally own it. If you look at a few of the pics of me before I left for the UK – you could see that Dre and Snoop had a big impact on my style choices… I don’t know what it is I have on my feet but they’re definitely some Nikes and in the majority of the pics I was able to dig out from that time. If you look real close you can see me at the ‘G Thang’ video shoot.
