The Hustle of Kids From Adversity

You can’t deny the value of hard work. Perhaps this is why one of the most impressive feats is the success of those who come from extreme adversity. There are many examples of people succeeding in life, but you can’t deny that there is something special about those who come from the hood.

Rap music is something that most people don’t like, and for the most part don’t understand. Why would you invest the time to understand something you don’t like anyways? It’s easy to say that a lot of what is presented is morally obscene. That’s true. However, there is an extremely profound and respectable drive that some of these rappers have that sets them apart from the rest.

Hip Hop star Jay-Z (Shaun Carter) is one of the most famous stories of a kid who had nothing, lived in poverty, and made it huge doing something he loved.

“Yeah, yeah, I'ma up at Brooklyn, now I'm down in Tribeca
Right next to De Niro, but I'll be hood forever
I'm the new Sinatra, and since I made it here
I can make it anywhere, yeah, they love me everywhere
I used to cop in Harlem, all of my Dominicanos
Right there up on Broadway, brought me back to that McDonald's
Took it to my stash spot, 560 State Street
Catch me in the Kitchen like a Simmons whipping pastry”

Carter now owns a stake in the Brooklyn Nets, Arsenal F.C. (an English soccer team), and an upscale sports bar, all while continuing his career in music. Hip hop is fundamentally about making it on your own. Go to any inner city in the nation and you’ll find nothing but adversity and people trying to get out on their own. Many of them listen to rap.

Sure, many rap and hip hop songs are vile. But you can't discount the amount of work it takes to be successful. Rap artist Drake released a song describing exactly this mentality:

“We just want the credit where it's due
I'm a worry about me, give a **** about you
****, just as a reminder to myself
I wear every single chain, even when I'm in the house
Cause we Started from the bottom now we're here
Started from the bottom now my whole team **** here”

Aaron Schildkrout, a contributor to medium.com, writes beautifully about his observations on hip hop music saying “It shouldn’t be surprising that hip hop was and remains the anthem music of a generation addicted to entrepreneurialism, pragmatism, building and…making it big. I just hope that when I’m a parent and my kids put some crazy shit on the radio, I recognize that they will become the very best of what they’re listening to. And soâ??—â??to the people making music: please make beautiful, new songs for my children. Songs I don’t understand. Songs that make me wring my hands but later make me look back, thankful, humbled by evolution.”