It’s Father’s day and I want to pay homage in a different kind of way. I want to highlight some of the songs that some of our most influential rappers have put together that helped raise some of us. All the messages may not have been “clean” or understood at the time, but as we grow, the appreciation goes way beyond a hit single or “real bars”. No coincidence that these songs are coming from actual fathers. The unfortunate reality is, if you didn’t have a Father in the home or active in your life, the “hot new rapper” was the replacement father figure. We salute some rap giants and pay homage to the gems they dropped that helped us come of age.

DMX – More 2 A Song: This is one of my favorite X songs. As I was coming of age, this song became so real to me. The images in music and the life portrayed by many isn’t real. It’s more to life than that. Family, Love, Respect. Those are the real things we should be holding up in high regard. This song in it’s own way highlights that.

De La Soul – Stakes Is High: It’s a lot of everyday gems in this song. De La’s content has always been top notch. When you hear the words “Life can get all up in your a$$” You can’t help but identify.

Will Smith – Just The Two Of Us: This was the first cool “hip-hop dad” song. You just can’t not respect it. As Fathers we all feel like this. Many songs about children would come after this, but this is the unquestioned benchmark.

Scarface – On My Block: Scarface is like the cool uncle in rap. Always has something to make you see beyond what he saying. When I seen this video it related to where I grew up and a few places I’ve been. Real game through reflection being spoke on this one.

T.I – Be Better Than Me: Trap Muzik is my favorite T.I album because of joints like this. Lot of gems and great advice in the midst of his personal life reflection. Just cause your pops, uncles, brothers or big homey’s chose the streets, doesn’t mean you have to.

2Pac – Keep Ya Head Up: You can’t ever leave this song out of the mix. The issues are still real and the message in song will never die as we all strive to be better than what we were.

It’s plenty more rap songs with great messages in them, that can help shape the minds of the youth today and tomorrow, so it’s important to highlight all of them as much as we can. The war on rap is much like the war on black people. They want to put us out to the masses as violent, ignorant and irresponsible with no regard for anyone or ourselves. These songs and many others prove that statement wrong. These are the songs from our Rap Dads.