A KNOWLEDGE OF ME

Prior to October 28, 1998 I was living in Nashville, TN for the past 5 Yrs. The majority of rap music I listened to was Pac, 8ball& MJG, anything that came out from No Limit and lots of local artist from around the Nashville area. I remember moving back home to Detroit in the winter of 98 and enrolling in a school that was located  downtown. The dress code was different, Gucci loafers and Guess was the shit then.( Sorry that had no relevance, but I had never heard of them brands b4 then) I remember conversing with some of the other students about music. 2 names continued to come up in every discussion...... The names where Jay-Z and Nas. Now I was familiar with the names being that I heard Pac mention both on Makaveli, but as far as their music went I was oblivious!!! (funny right??) So around the time that these conversations were going on, Xmas was coming up.... I remember seeing my grandmother on my fathers side for the first time Dec 25, 1998. She came to the house with presents for my sisters and I.... I opened up my present and it was a cd walkman with Jay-Z Vol.2 Hard Knock life. Man I played it religiously for the next couple of months... I thought it was the best present I ever received for Xmas!!! Fast forward.... Im back at school and a guy was telling me about this snippet tape he got for Nas new album I AM.... If you guys remember it was the tape that had Nas snippets on one side and Nature's For Every Season on the other... ( I can't believe I remember Nature's album name smh) I immediately asked if I could borrow the tape, to my displeasure the answer was simply NO. (Fast forward with me one more time) Like a month had pasted, Im sitting on the couch watching videos and BOOM this came across the screenIT FUCKED ME UP YALL!!! Now you have to understand I was 15 going on 16 when this dropped... Me personally, I had never heard anything like it!!! To this day I still wish I could go back to the day and feel the same feeling I felt when I heard Nas for the first time (No Homo) but you get the point. Been one of his biggest fans every since... Just a story I wanted to tell Yall be safe and easy. peace