ScHoolboy Q: Survival of an Artist by Brian Khum

A young man roams the ghetto streets of South Central, Los Angeles. Police sirens, helicopters, and news-vans surround the neighborhood on 51st, Figueroa, and Hoover streets. Gang life is an unavoidable vacuum. He is swept into the Hoover Street Crips as a teenager. Gang life was not desperation to fit in, but rather a means for survival. During my high school years, I was worrying about midterms and trying to buy the newest shoes, while receiving allowances. During his high school years, he was worrying about providing for his daughter, trying to survive, while selling oxycontin on the streets. Chaos flooded South Central, so making music and drugs provided sublimation. He eventually fell victim to his own drug supply. Countless nights of body highs and numbness; he refuses to pick up calls from his own mother and daughter. Drug addiction, gang affiliation, violence, and poverty; his life becomes a grim shadow. One night, he sits in the corner on the floor by himself. Depression hits again. He blanks out. He wakes up to a call from Ali, his friend and music producer. “Come to the studio, I’m mixing your rhymes.” He grabs his keys and heads out. That was the day Quincy Hanley became Hip-Hop artist “ScHoolboy Q,” the number-one Billboard charting artist. Hip-Hop saved his life.

 

Brian Khum is a student at SJSU.