1) "Identity" (From One Addiction To Another [FOATA] Mixtape) (Prod. by PrintScreamRecords):

"Identity" is a song that has to do with anybody and everybody. When I first wrote this a little bit ago, I was in a desperate position. The reason is because I was born and raised in a family that taught me particular morals and ethics about the popular catchphrase, "Winners never quit." For the longest time, I never knew what I wanted to do with my life. The worst example that I can think of that really made me have a reality check was... I thought it was ridiculous that I was posted up in Bannon Creek Middle School in Sacramento, California, in the 3rd grade, and I found myself being sent to the principal's office for, literally, that fact: "Aimless, insubordinate (their translation for "let's punish a 3rd-grader because we have nothing better to do with our lives."). It was humiliating. My ears were burning. My face was flushed. After being scolded for an hour, I ended up having to attend a special "in-house detention". It was brutal. The school had this auditorium that when opening up the oversized, metal curtains, it made way to a stage. We had a lot of awards ceremonies in here for attendance, honor roll, etc. When the metal curtains closed up, the rooms were used for music instruction. My detention hosted me in the middle of that stage with the curtains completely wide open, sitting in a normal student's desk with my head down and threatened of my disability to eat lunch. Nope. I couldn't. I was expected to come to school for 8 hours, deal with student-peer bullying, teacher-peer bullying and then starved until it was time to come home. In the 3rd grade.

Fast-forward 10+ years.

As life carried on, I saw more of my friends moving further into the future, but I felt like I was staying in the same place. I still had no solid grip on my identity. At this point, when I was about 20, I barely made it through high school, almost ended up in gangbanging, took 2 years off school once I graduated and was doing nothing. I went through college with a major in CRJ, but that's only because it was easy. At some point, I must have thought to myself, "That's what identity is: Identity is the ability to get through life doing easy shit with little-or-next-to-no-effort."

One day, I must've been high off my ass. I had a friend over. His name was LukeRage. I knew him back from high school, during my first year, because he used to call me "Beatboxx". That was one of the potential identities I explored. Rahzel was a huge thing in my time. Long story-put-short, I began rapping. At first, I did this intensely thorough system to buy myself my equipment. I bought this book called, "Home Recording for Musicians for Dummies", and it taught me a broad horizon of everything musical. Skip forward: First song in process. It's difficult, it's frustrating, it takes a lot of coordination, but every time I hit a bar and I feel my flow, my rhythm, my delivery, if you will, it has a this overwhelming sense of achievement. Skip forward: First song complete. We all think our first song is THE SHIT! These suckers aren't ready for dope on fire like this (laughs)! Skip forward: ten songs in. Everything feels natural. I feel this little singing in my heart that tells me, "There is nowhere I'd rather be, and nothing else I'd rather be doing."

"Identity" is connected to us all, in my honest opinion. It is an identity that, in times of crisis, and when America has less-than-honorable law enforcement, dictates who's going to be a crooked cop and who's going to be the one that does what's right. It is an identity that also dictates who is going to be a doctor and who is going to be the extreme risk-taker and ends up being the one getting fixed. And it is an identity that predestines who will have the strength and courage to walk forward in times of uncertainty, oppression and injustice and who will stay behind in the crowd, blending in and, their voice neglected, becoming just another sheep waiting for your rights to return to you. It is that same identity that if I let my family's neglect and insult-slinging crumble my passion, I know that I would not be meant for this, and that I would not be e-mailing you this music at this time. I do not disrespect those who have chosen or ended up with whatever jobs that they might have, but I looked at my life when I came home one day and asked myself, "How are we okay with this? There has got to be more to life than this."