Chapter 1: The Beginning
I was born at North Bay Hospital in New Port Richey, Florida. From the start, life was already complicated. I was a bastard child, a product of my mother’s affair. She had cheated on my stepdad, who raised me, with my biological father. After having me, she got back together with my stepdad, a situation that left me in the middle of a complicated relationship, feeling a little out of place. I didn’t grow up knowing my real father well, and my stepdad, while supportive in his way, always had that lingering resentment in the background. I learned early on that family dynamics could be a mess, but I tried to navigate it as best I could.
In a lot of ways, I didn’t get the kind of care most kids get. This wasn’t immediately apparent when I was very young, but by the time I started school, I felt the weight of it. I had bad teeth, and by the time I was in elementary school, my mouth was full of silver caps. The kids weren’t exactly kind about it. They saw the shiny metal as something to poke fun at, calling me names and singling me out. It didn’t help that my mom wasn’t paying much attention to my health in general, let alone my dental care.
Living in Moon Lake, a rough neighborhood in New Port Richey, didn’t help either. It wasn’t exactly the kind of place that fostered good reputations. People judged me based on where I was from, and it became another reason for them to put me down. It was hard growing up there, especially with a lack of support at home. I learned early on how to fend for myself, but it felt like I was always struggling to climb out of the pit others seemed to dig for me.
At twelve years old, I found an escape. That escape was music—specifically rap. It was a way for me to express everything I was feeling, all the anger, frustration, and hurt that had built up over the years. I didn’t just listen to it; I started pretending to be a part of it. I created fake Myspace accounts, pretending to be rappers like Lil Wayne and Birdman. It wasn’t exactly the most honest thing to do, but in a way, it made me feel like I belonged in that world. I manipulated plays on my page and managed to get more hits than the official pages of the artists themselves.…
