cpena133-blog

[cpena133-blog]

Introduction

My name is Christopher Peña, I am a student who currently attends California State University Northridge. I was raised near Downtown, Los Angeles in a small low income community near Echo Park. I grew up listening to a lot of different genre of music throughout my childhood such as Hip Hop, Rock, electronic, soul, blues, and etc. I attended a Learning Complex at Miguel Contreras that went by Academic Leadership Community (ALC), which is where I learned many of the things I know today such as college life, studying, time management, and lectures. I consider myself a very creative person as I enjoy to draw and I also plan to major in Cinema as I also like to have a vision of cinematically and stories to put into videos. My favorite genre of music is Hip Hop as there is much poetry involved, as said in Tupac’s music. I titled my blog The Rose that Grew from the Concrete to describe myself coming from a low income community to attending a university in the valley, which is something a lot of people in my neighbor have not down because they don’t see the benefit of education, they see it as a waste of time but I see knowledge and education as the greatest weapon rather than any gun in the world.

[cpena133-blog]

[cpena133-blog]

[cpena133-blog]

[cpena133-blog]

[cpena133-blog]

‘03 Adolescence

The song ‘03 Adolescence relates to my identity through the perspective of a younger J. Cole and his friend who remains unnamed. The story of the song relates to not only the youth, but also to me as an adolescent boy in a neighborhood corrupted by gangs and drugs, and my friend who went down the same road as J. Cole's’ friend did. My identity relates to the song as I was like a brother to someone, I was a friend, and I was an adolescent in my community.

The lines of the song that relate to me the most are when J. Cole say “You everything I want to be, that’s why I f***’s with you. Why you looking up to me, when I look up to you, You about to get a degree, I’m going t be stuck with 2 choices, either graduate to wait or selling number two’s.” This line from the 3rd verse relates to me as my friend had recently told me that he really looked up to me even though we were the same age because I didn’t let our community get the best of me. Then the final line of the verse where send a message to his mother saying he she made a genius and he will not take that for granted, then he closes it by saying “No I’m going to take what they owe me and show you that I can fly, and show old girl what she missing the illest n**** alive.” This very much relates to me as many have doubted my abilities and I feel like I always saw my self as someone who never settled for less, I always want more because I feel like i’m owed that much. Also, I have always wanted to become something to show my mother that all her hard work put me somewhere, and to show everyone, for example past relationships that did not work out that they are missing what they left.

This song shows that Money can not buy everything, that love is something worth more than something money can buy. The song is a representation of my adolescence as I always saw money as something I needed but later on in life I realized that love from the ones you care most about was worth more. Money can come and go but some people in life stay forever. My friend for example, he has been with me since I was around 3, and today we are both 19 years old living 2 different live, 2 different paths, and 2 different views.