Many moons ago, my dad and I were having a conversation about MY musical taste (my dad and I regularly had conversations about MY preferences and how they were all wrong). At the time and like many black urban area youth, I was heavily into Hip-Hop, with a splash of R&B.  I would bob my head to Wu-Tang for breaksfast, sit back and mack with Biggie for Lunch and C-Walk it out to Dre Dre and Snoop Dogg for Dinner. Yes, if you asked me back then, I would have thrown up some sort of made-up gang sign and told you that I was hip-hop for life.  Matter of fact, that's what I told my father, when he asked why I would I listen to that "noise."  

"Young lady, all that rap will kill your brain cells, perhaps you should start listening to some real music.  Some Jazz," he said.

My father was certain that I would mature out of hip-hop for a more "adult" genre of music.  As irked as I was at my father for mocking my musical styling, I would later find out that he was right - and wrong at the same time. I still bob my head to the hip-hop greats but I have also, as my father would say, matured to appreciate all genres of black music: from afro-beats to afro-punk; hip-hop to yes, even jazz. If it has a great beat, rhythm or tempo, I'm grooving to it.

Most ironically, my father, who is a mature man in his 50s, is the proud owner of the Notorious Biggie Smalls' Ready to Die CD. Go Figure.