Rhythm & Poetry. The art of hip-hop is of the most unique arts of them all. Speaking from poverty, starvation, violence, hip-hop artists have made impacts in communities through their expression and display of the art they design. From the 80’s hip hop of the rise of DJ’s and straight up funkiness, to the fiery messages of contemporary rap music has proved that the evolution of the genre only continues to speak to the souls of those struggling and those willing to fight back. It is a monger of rebellion, and is a showcase of the value of being original and unique. It’s not that hip-hop is dying, it’s that hip-hop is immortal, it can never die.
I don’t believe in bad art. The mind, heart, and soul are blizzards of snowflakes of emotions and situations and feelings that could never be compared to the next. Music is art’s language, and it’s diversity within hip-hop is of the most extreme. Rap speaks against what is accepted in society, and promotes what is not. The drug and violence infused lyrics to the full blown attacks against the government, racism, and gangs expresses a side of life that everyone seems to be so fearful of facing. It is insight, knowledge of the world humanity has chosen to make itself blind to. Hip-hop is the voice of true struggle, true dedication, and true expression of what it is like to make it from the roughest areas in the United States to obtain the ability to influence millions. It is the story of rage, sadness, and prosperity. The poster child of what life is truly all about, climbing more walls than you build. Hip-hop is not dead, hip-hop has grown.
I can’t honestly say Lil Uzi, 21 Savage, or Young Thug are positively influential people that all of the kids should listen to. They glorify the very concept that hip-hop was created to teach about and revolutionize. However, the new age of popular rap music empowers the body. The ravaging, dark beats in combination with the simplistic rhymes and unique sound equate to much more than the lyrics. It is the art of nightmare, of finding a way to fit in, to grow in the peak within the valleys of the world.  Kendrick Lamar, Joey Bada$$, ASAP Rocky, and J Cole hold down the fortress of hip hop’s strongest form, poetry and strength. These contemporary rappers carry on the ways of hip-hop’s pioneers, like Nas, Tupac, Scarface, while others carry on the message of NWA, Public Enemy, and Eminem. The art of what rap music has become, in correlation with the legacy created by its originators, is to at least be appreciated.
Rap music is rebellion, anger, a middle finger to what the world tells you to be. Because you can be anything you create for yourself, anything you truly choose to be. Whether that be the gangster that has survived the trials and tribulations of insanity and has made it as the character they always grew and strived to be, or the soldier that has evolved and risen from the slums and hood of America to offer the epitome of knowledge and stories to directly impact the youth and civilization itself.  Hip-hop will never die, because it is creation. It is in the hands of its own history, it is grasped by the everlasting struggle of life, and will always thrive to be the poetry one needs to hear whether it be to not feel alone, or to know that there is a way out, a light ahead. Hip-hop is immortal, as all music is, because art is something that can never decease in to the wind of time, but only grow in the spirit of expression, and creation. Hip-hop is not dead, hip-hop is as alive as your own heart, mind, & soul.
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Life is hard, man.
There are so many bullshit people in this world that will tell you that it's all going to be alright, it's never as bad as it seems, and that you're just young.

But, listen to me for a second. Life is abundant, chaotic, like the world. Mountains of obstacles grow as volcanoes of tragedy burst while the trees of love and happy moments fade in to the fall ground. Oceans of sorrow rest in your heart as tsunamis of insecurity pound your poverty stricken civilization of confidence. Jobs, tests, college, love, money, power. Life is so hard that I can't even list all of the things that are hard about it.

It is a world inside of you that is just as ferocious as the one within you. There is wars between spirit and reality as you search for escape, your niche of peace that teleport you from this devious world to a lonely island. We create art, poetry, music. We go on walks, go to the dopest local sight seeing place, drink some beer, smoke some weed. Anything, just for the slightest moment of serenity. It is because life is so god damn hard.

Where there is destruction, there is prosperity. The structures we build of our concepts, our routines, our rituals, all make for cities of mentality. We build these cities and skyscrapers as we grow up, with experience, knowledge, and wisdom of the world's ways. They are walls that we build, instead of climb. We build defense mechanisms, instead of squaring the fuck up with whatever demon may be lurking in our souls today.

The world wants to know what you consider your greatest strength, so it can undermine you.
The world wants to know your greatest fear, as it challenges you to face it.
The world desires to know what you cherish most, so it can rip it from your heart.
The world wants to know how badly you want peace, so it can deny it from you.
And that, is where you find the answer.

Poetry does not derive from peaceful gardens. The pinnacle peak of your soul's power is birthed by the most striking pain you have ever felt. Your greatest strength is simply what you practice most, what you love most, and if you love it, who gives a fuck if it undermines you? Your greatest fear is the higher power breaking your ankles and then blatantly stepping over you on live television. And I know you're not soft, so fight back. The world will rip what you cherish from your heart, so you can prove to it that you will do whatever it takes to get it back. And the world wants to know how badly you want peace, so it can teach you that it does not exist.
Embrace the chaos.
You are burning alive with fiery passion, intelligence beyond measure.
And that is why your greatest fear isn't that you are inadequate, it is that you have a power beyond this dimension, and you will never be able to reach it.

Life is hard. Life is fucking awesome.
Express all that you feel in to everything you do. Spread the most intense love because of the massive pain you have felt. And reach it. "Waste your time" on doing everything you want to do.
It's okay if you don't make enough money. It's okay if that dude cheated on you. But it's not okay for you to let your value go to waste, to let your pain go to waste, to let the difficulty of life go to waste.
Read. Write. Travel. Change someone's life.
It really is, that easy.

Life is hard. People tell you all of the time, "come on man, it's not rocket science, just do it."

The difference with this is, life is rocket science.
So give it the biggest middle finger today, and build a UFO. Fly that shit to planets of spiritual prosperity, literally chase those shooting stars, and pursue the cosmic dream with your fuel, of the struggle of life. 
Daniel Buccafusca believes in you, even if nobody else does.

Let's build some UFO's today people. Because life is hard, and I fucking love it.

A lot of people ask me why I drive race cars, and believe me, I question it myself sometimes, but this time I think I finally have an answer.

This world is so suppressed, man. Look around. You see kids aspiring to be garbage men. You see teenagers wasting thousands of dollars to go to a college they heard was "lit" to pursue something they do not even want to do to maybe get a career doing exactly that for the rest of their life. Adults sitting in offices, being told what to do by some "boss" with a wild superiority complex because he/she gets paid an extra 50 cents than them an hour as they wish, dream, wonder what their life could be like if they just simply did what they love. Schools throwing around standardized testing and SAT bootcamps so ambitious kids can realize they don't have a future unless they fill in a couple of multiple choice questions correctly. People literally staring down from skyscrapers at dying homeless people in freezing weather. People buying things with money they don't have to impress people that probably won't even be in their lives by the end of the year. A society of sheep, claiming their wolves. A society, tangled in strings of greed, power, and fear. The greed stems from the desire of money, as the rich get richer, while the poor continue to be walked on while business men in suits tweet about how welfare shouldn't exist. The power derives from the pursuit of control. Million dollar businesses run by billion dollar businesses, feeding you with lies while they brutally and horrifically slaughter animals, pump oil in to the soil of our home, and tie people to a paycheck. The fear, of course, comes from everyone being so damn scared to fall. The fear that they will not be a millionaire, the fear that someone won't love them, the fear that they won't have enough to be greedy, won't have enough to earn power, and won't have enough to succeed. God, that word makes me cringe every time.

To be straightforward, I don't fuck with that shit.

Racing has become a very political sport. Many kids losing hope, faith in their fantasies of beating Dale Earnhardt Jr. for a Daytona 500 victory with every born millionaire that pays their way in to Nascar, sprint cars, modifieds, etc. The cost of it rising tremendously by the year, and the lack of competitiveness and structure the lower levels of racing have. My heart breaks for every less Slingshot I see at the track because of a family not having enough money, or a kid just simply giving up.

But you know what, I have something to say to all of those kids;

Who cares?

There is no such thing as failure, only fulfillment. There is no such thing as success, only prosperity. And believe me, neither of those two things come from money. There is no dollar amount in this world, there is no car, there is no lover, there is no type of success that will bring you anything but a temporary glimpse of what this world is truly about. It is not victory, it is not "making it," in life. It is love, it is passion.

This life is a gun pointed to your head. This life is your 5th finger slipping off of the ledge. This life is your death bed. If you were about to die, would you be satisfied with how much money you made, how many businesses you owned, how many people post Facebook statuses about you, or how you loved? How you pursued your passion with the most ferocious ambition. How you changed lives by the way you inspired others. How hard you loved, and how much you gave just for the moment you get to see the smile you induced on someone else's face.

This world isn't about success man. This world is about serenity. Happiness is the love that emulates and energizes the next move that you should be making. Serenity is the peace you feel in the twilight moment before your eyes rest until the next morning, proud of all of the universes you changed today by just giving, by loving, and by chasing.

That, is what racing is to me. Racing is my unleashing. Racing taught me that to be under control, is a choice. When you are in that car, chasing that leader down as you push that throttle further and further, do you think about anything, besides how much you love what you're doing? How exhilarating it is that you are driving a God damn race car on dirt? Racing is the monger, the poster, the symbol of breaking free from the shackles of all of these strings. Racing, is that gun to your head. Knowing at any moment something may take a turn for the worse, but you keep pushing and pushing that car harder and harder in to the corner as you taste the checkered flag.

Why?

Because that is your love, being freed in to the energy you are giving yourself, and the energy you are emulating upon the world.

Racing is my escape. It is my moment away from the incinerating pain I feel, the memories that infest my mind, and escape from this war-torn, greedy, depleting world.

Racing, is why I am able to type this right now. Because for some reason, in that orange 43's cockpit, I am lost in the ways of tremendous love, an inferno of passion, a tsunami of ambition. At the same time, I am found, doing something I love to do without greed, without the lust for power, without the fear of failure, death. I am living as I bang off of Hamlin Speedway's cushion and chase down the next person in my sights. I am not living when I write math equations from a desk in school. 

I am living, when I am doing exactly what I have to do to make my existence worth something to me. 

The truth is, the world is a hard, dark place. You have probably heard that a million times by now.

But the other truth is, you don't need to conform to a single aspect of any of it.

Race after your wildest dreams. Annihilate the competition of contemporary society. And be victorious, in making every moment of your life mean something beyond what the world allows you to mean, because this life is out of your control. This galaxy is beyond what you can physically do. The sun may not rise tomorrow morning, and there is not a single thing you can do about it. Let go of the steering wheel. Crash in to your heart, mind, and soul, and do what you want to fucking do.

Do what you love, with your last dying breathe.

​Racing, taught me that.

So, what is an urban white boy, poetry writing, wannabe rapping, hippy delinquent, superhero obsessing, piano playing freakshow doing in a racecar?

I will tell you;

Simply, being free.
Being,
​Happy.