At age 11, I wrote my first song, Simple Rappin’, in the spring of 2002. On the ceiling of the art room in my middle school, there were painted drop-ceiling tiles designed by former students in the 1990s. One of the tiles above my station said, “Mo Money, Mo Problems”, referencing a hip hop song by The Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie Smalls). Another tile referenced the broadway musical Guys and Dolls, which was oftentimes performed by the high school students.

As I looked at that ceiling tile, I thought, “How hard could it be to write a song? You just write down whatever is in your heart, and make it rhyme. If Eminem can think of up the words on the fly, so can I.” 11-year-old me seriously underestimated not only what it takes to write a song, but a genuinely good song. Yet, I tragically tried my hand at it anyway. I’m not sure if I got the words or the melody in my mind first, but I let the words fall out on paper as I hastily scribbled them down. And thus, a song with simple rhythmical structure, and all the cockiness of an 11-year-old, was born.

In 8th grade, I recycled the words for an English project on the parts of speech, turning it into Adverb Rappin’. I performed it for the class, and it was a good laugh for my classmates. Sadly, the original words to Simple Rappin’ were lost over the years, but I still have the hand-written version of Adverb Rappin’, which left its legacy in the verse of the original song.