MUSIC HAS SAVE ME AND WILL SAVE YOU IF YOU LET IT

My love affair with music started very early in my life. My first albums were Culture Club and Prince's Purple Rain. My first tape was DOC. My first cd was Color Me Badd. I know, I know. You cannot clown me for that one. 'I Wanna Sex You Up' was the jam back then. My music taste is vast and open to anything that sounds good to me including country and heavy metal.

I grew up on MTV. Therefore, I loved Duran Duran, Billy Idol, Devo and Cyndi Lauper. The house I grew up in always had music going. My grandfather was a jazz enthusiast. He loved John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, Charlie 'Bird' Parker among others. My grandmother loved B. B. King and Bobby 'Blue' Bland. Blues was always playing on the record player on Saturdays as we cleaned the house. My uncle was a funk man. He loved the Funkadelics, Bar-Kays, Parliament, and Bootsy Collins. Yes, it was 'One Nation Under Funk' for him. My aunt would play the Top 8 at 8 from 98.5 (before it was oldies but goodies station) and she had this record that I eventually stole, Sugar Hill Gang's 'Rapper's Delight.' I played that record out on my little record box. When I went by my mom's place, she would play the soulful sounds of Marvin Gaye, Commodores, Ashford & Simpson and others. She also like the Carpenters, the Beatles and Rolling Stones.

I was really open to music back then. It didn't matter as long as it sound good. When I was about five years old, my favorite singers were Kenny Rogers and Donna Summer. Yes, Kenny Rogers. I watched 'The Gambler' over and over because of that song. Donna Summer was just so funky and fun. 'Last Dance' is still one of my favorite songs of all-time. As I grew up I began to get into hip-hop. The great thing since I was from the South I listened to everything. It was no coast wars here. I loved NWA and Pharcyde just as much as I loved A Tribe Called Quest and Public Enemy. Everyone was bringing something different to hip-hop. I listened to KRS-One, Kool Moe Dee, LL Cool J, Kwame and Queen Latifah. As hip-hop evolved I evolved with it. When Outkast came out, I was like, 'Wow!' But I was into 3-6 Mafia before the Oscar, Geto Boys and Scarface and UGK. Around the time I graduated from high school there was more and more hip-hop artists coming from the South and New Orleans in particular like Mystikal and Master P. I bought Master P just because he was from New Orleans and on the national scene. I was making the people at University of Oklahoma say "UUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" I repped hard for my city in the OK.

I continue to love music. I just purchased Reflection Eternal's (Talib Kweli and DJ Hi-Tek) new single, Back Again, jazz artist Diana Krall, and Laura Izibor. My taste still is growing. Everyday I listen to music and realize how wonderful it unites people. That's my mission in life. I want to bring people together particularly in my hometown, New Orleans. New Orleans is still hurting since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. It's going to be what unites us to make a full recovery possible. What unites us is this city, New Orleans. There's nothing like her in the rest of the world. It's the gumbo of people that makes this city so wonderful. Let's celebrate this diversity with everything we do.