I remember in the second or third grade my friend Colin said something to me about the song where they say, "Shake it like a Polaroid picture". I had no idea what he was talking about. Years later I can name that song, and say that "Hey Ya!" was probably one of the first, if not the first, rap song that pulled me in, off of Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.

But at that point in my life I was listening to more alternative and rock music than anything else. I moved to upstate New York, and my tastes changed from my parent's music to genres and artists that I discovered myself, or were shown to me by my older sister. Listening to Spoon's "The Infinite Pet" still reminds me of biking to school in below-freezing weather. Franz Ferdinand's "Lucid Dreams" was constantly blasting from my speakers while I modded Nerf guns in my room. In the barn behind our house, my dad had wired the lightswitch to turn on not only the lights, but also the radio, and as I spent a great deal of time out there I was always hearing The Rolling Stones and Tom Petty.

I moved again, this time to Brooklyn, and on the drive from upstate New York to the city, and I listened to Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' Empire State of Mind for hours on end. Upon my arrival, someone showed me Wu-Tang and Mos Def, and my sister bought me Matt and Kim's Sidewalks for my birthday. I read about Aesop Rock in the book The Mission. I heard a friend listening to Das Racist's Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Even now, listening to any of these artists reminds me of home. I had an iPod shuffle at the time, and the hundred-song limit it had was as much space as I needed for my music.

Highschool came, and with it, new rap and a new home in Manhattan. OFWGKTA. Childish Gambino. All shown to me by friends, a source of music less biased against profanity and sexuality than anyone else. I got on a dubstep fix, and primarily listened to electronic music on my next move, from Manhattan to LA. This served as a rather effective method to drown out the bluegrass my mother was playing in the car.

Now that I'm in LA, I'm sure I'll move again. With every move providing a new source of artists to discover, I relish the opportunity. And with the development of my own musical tastes, I've posed myself a question: Why not rap, myself?

- $pecial K: The Corduroy Kid