short version (trigger warning): I do not agree with racism, homophobia, sexual assault, hate speech, infidelity, violence, or anything that intentionally is done to hurt another human being. I don't share their albums and music on my page to promote them if you've never heard them. My whole website is dedicated to nostalgia, so I share them in a way to connect to those who also grew up on 2010s rap.

long version: This is a really hard, nuanced topic to talk about, and sucks that people have done such horrible things that we even have to sit here and have this discussion. If you struggle with black and white thinking, I understand that you may never see the grey I am about to talk about, and that is okay. I just ask you read with critical thinking and an open mind.

I grew up around a lot of hip hop, rap, and r&b. My dad would blast it loudly in the car, and spent most of his free time making hip hop music with his friends at our house or doing shows. Once my brother became a teenager, he started rapping and producing, too. I remember the feeling of hearing Heartless for the first time at 8 years old, on 4th of July, and the feeling of hearing my dad's music, and the first time my brother dropped a song. My favorite kind of rap is late 2000s and 2010s.

As an adult, things became really ugly really fast. I learned who the people behind the songs were, and the terrible things they had done. It made me so sad to learn that XXXtentacion had beaten his loved ones. As a teenager I listened to a lot of his music, and I cried when he died. To learn that Jay-Z was not the man he should have been, to see Kanye's list of evil words and actions pile high to the sky...

The truth is, objectively, hip hop and rap were never built on good values. It is flooded with misogyny, racism, violence, greed, pride... anything bad you can thing of really. I've also seen it personally, being surrounded by rappers most of my life. Logically I know that nostalgia is not more important than morals.

Emotionally, rap has always been a big part of my life, all my dad and brother ever really talk about is music. I am a giant music person, too. Music can transport you to places, bring you back to a time with people you miss.

I saw a jersey collection video on YouTube and the guy had a lot of jerseys of this one player. He said "I love what he does on the court, but don't align with or involve myself in his personal life," and I was like, that in words is exactly how I feel about rap. I guess at the end of the day, you just can't put anyone on a pedestal- celebrities, artists, family, friends, me. Sooner or later, you will learn that things are not in black and white, and everyone will do at least one thing you disagree with.