Elevator Speech is my debut EP. All tracks were produced by LuvJonez. Elevator Speech is me giving you a quick look into my life while I was getting my PhD and getting ready for the birth of my son.

This is my official studio introduction to the world as a rapper and hip hop artist. This project is my response to when someone says, “Tell me about yourself.”

In his debut, I present a musical journey that tells a story of a Black man’s experience of resilience, healing, and triumph.

As a social worker and educator for over 15 years, I understand the challenges that Black men and boys face today. I bridge principles of mental health and social justice with elements of hip hop to reflect on my life and what I did to navigate struggles.

In the intro track “The Calling,” I struggle with how I will react when I am faced with taking on the responsibility of uplifting my community and breaking negative family cycles. When things get heavy I know if I’ll “freeze, fight, or run.” I realize that it is my time to take the baton. I use my pencil and words to run my lap around the track.

“Gloomy Doom” is a reflection on the meaning of happiness and achievement. I have everything I need in life, but I don’t feel like it’s enough. I have love that I don’t acknowledge. I say, “while my days turn to nights, I got the love of my life next to me and I don’t even wanna speak.” I also feel like I’m underachieving by saying “can’t be a wolf and still roam with the sheep.”

I continue through my bouts of loneliness, loss, and despair in tracks “That Day” and “All In.” In between those tracks, I find a glimmer of hope in “Word.”

Throughout the first half of my elevator speech, I experiences glimpses of hope, but he can’t hold on to them. “Easy Rider” serves as the midway point in which I rise up and take control of my life. In “Code Switch,” I “learned to make moves, don’t talk about them...just do.” I find the confidence to take my life lessons and use them to “either build or destroy with the same tools.”

In “Get Loose,” I use my voice to build. I call out “get loose, get loose” to my people who are “mentally still getting lynched” because of their Black skin. I also address police and state violence, and the killing of unarmed Black peoples. Although I rose up, “Simmer Down” has me settling into my roll as a leader and doing my work “for the youngins in the trenches who might struggle with seeing a way out their situation.” I tell them that “there’s more to life then what you can see out your front door.”

I bring it all together in the closing track “Every Rhyme I Write.” In this track, I brag that every rhyme I write is my “best one...” while staying true to myself. I stay in my lane of using hip hop as tool for emotional and self development by giving listeners my best when I “talk about them real issues. When you listen close enough, you gon need a tissue.” At the end, I thank you for for listening to my story.