I saw my first murder when I was only five years old. Such is life growing up in Camden, New Jersey. Although it was a very dangerous city to grow up in, It wasn’t all bad. Yes, it was tough times; but it helped define me. It helped prepare me for two tours in Iraq. But more importantly, it helped define my music. Yet, it would only take one basketball game to introduce my music to the world.
It was only a few weeks ago that I was watching my favorite basketball team, the Philadelphia 76er’s, as they battled it out against the Minnesota Timberwolves. It was a good game. Even though the score was close, the 76er’s were holding onto the lead. Everything was going great. Then boom! It happened: My favorite 76er’s player, superstar, and arguably the best center in the NBA, Joel Embiid, and his superstar, arch nemesis, Karl Anthony-Towns from the ‘Wolves got into it. What started with the two players getting tangled up after a Wolves missed basket, let up to Towns swinging (and missing badly) at Embiid, and ended up with Ben Simmons, another 76er’s star player, putting Towns into a chokehold in an attempt to calm him down. Despite Towns being the initiator of the violence, both him and Embiid ended up being ejected from the game. The 76er’s were still able to pull away with the win. During the post-game press conference, Embiid was asked about the skirmish, in which he replied: “I ain’t no bitch” which brought nervous laughter from a few members of the press.
Embiid was actually quoting his teammate Mike Scott. A month earlier, Scott was attacked by Philadelphia Eagles fans at a tailgate party before the Eagles kicked off against the Washington Redskins. Scott, who’s originally from Virginia, and is a lifelong fan of the Redskins. showed up to the party in a Redskins football jersey. He must not have received the memo of how crazy the Philadelphia fan base is. And the Eagles fans must not have the received the memo about how powerful Scott’s hands are; he knocked out at least two fans and walked away without a scratch. He even took the time to take a few pictures with a few fans not even five minutes after the fight. A fan on Twitter asked Scott what happened, and Scott simply replied, I ain’t no bitch.
That was all of the inspiration that I needed to go into the studio that same night and write & record my new song, I Ain’t No Bitch. My cousin, Walt Grizz, who’s also a member of my hip hop collective, Classy Trap Society, was a little upset that I had kept him waiting until the game ended, but it didn’t matter to me. I’m a die hard 76er’s fan. Plus I needed that extra push of energy that the drama in the game provided. I say extra push because between growing up in Camden, New Jersey, serving in the army and going to Iraq a couple of times, there was already enough motivation for me to record a song of this nature. but the game was just the kicker.
Ain’t No Bitch was actually just a play-around song. i never planned on releasing it. I just wanted to give a nod to the 76er’s toughness; nothing more, nothing less. But after I uploaded it to YouTube and shared it on Facebook, I received so much love that I said to myself, hey, why not? Technically, it’s my debut single but because it’s only a street single (there’s no music video scheduled and it won’t be fully promoted), I don’t consider it my debut. That honor goes to my next single entitled Ghost. Ghost is a song off of my debut EP, The Fiction of Timmy Dangerfield. Although Ain’t No Bitch might end up making it onto the EP as well, it’s not a definite because it doesn’t really go with the rest of the songs on the EP. You can kind of say that it’s in a league (no pun intended) of its own.
Either way, whether it makes it onto the EP or not, I just want to share the song with the world. I want people to get a glimpse of where I come from; and more importantly, I want to let the world know that I ain’t no bitch!
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