Happy birthday! Enjoy it before you realize how much of a blessing death really is! :)

Yeah, but there's such a difference between winning the lottery and becoming a famous musician that it's not even worth discussing haha.

Everything you just said is quitter mentality. Rap is a craft you can hone, it's not like anybody wakes up one day and starts cyphering lol. The work and effort you put into it is what translates into talent, it's not like being an athlete. You don't have to be 6'5" and run a 4.4 forty yard dash to be a rapper, it's about dedication and perseverance. When it comes to connections, the internet conquers all. Knowing a famous record producer, alright, yeah that's a bit of a trump card, but social networking in the right groups of people isn't as important now as it was back in the day. Record an LP, put it on Youtube, get your friends to start sharing it. If it's good, it might catch someone's eye. It might not. You never know till it happens, though.

I fail to see how people pursuing their dream leads to them having a shit life. If they go about like a moron, then yeah, you've got a point. Nobody was advocating him majoring in music in college. Telling him to make sure his priorities in order was actually one of the first things I told him, lol. Telling people not to bother pursuing their dreams at all, because they're not good enough to make it and never will, that seems like a pretty good way for someone to fall into a shit life. Taking the safe route isn't necessarily safe, and if things fall apart they're going to wonder what could've been if they took the risk instead. Not to mention the obvious blow to their self esteem. 

I mean, with your logic, what's to stop him from not going to college altogether? Just because someone majors in engineering or architecture, for example, doesn't mean they'd be a good engineer or architect. Maybe they're not passionate enough. Maybe they're not smart enough. If it's going the safe route all the way, just become a day laborer, because even in a world with a shortage of architects or engineers, they're always going to need someone to build the shit for them. Pays well too, with benefits. Not everyone can be good at what they do, so why not avoid the massive student debt altogether? 

And as for your last paragraph, definitely the latter, but 90% is still showing up. You can't fail in a situation you didn't show up for, now can ya?

Where's the sense in shooting at a UFO? If a species was able to effectively master space travel and be able to travel light years away, I'm pretty sure a handgun would only piss them off.

Had a meth addict pull a knife on me and put it to my throat before because I was kicking it with his girlfriend. Luckily, nobody got stabbed, so all in all a pretty decent time.

Nobody here is advocating jumping out of windows though, lol. Just that with the way the world is set up nowadays, all it takes is one viral video to launch yourself to fame. Look at Justin Bieber, the reason he got noticed is because a former marketing executive stumbled upon one of his Youtube videos, and was so impressed he brought him on, even though he was only 13 years old at the time. 

Who cares if he doesn't make it? Lol. As long as he's not living on government assistance and blowing off child support payments, there's nothing wrong with him pursuing rap as a hobby while keeping his priorities in order. Nobody said he's going to make it big, but giving up just because the cards aren't in your favor is weak minded behavior. If things turn out well, great. If they don't, not so great, but at least you tried to see what you could make of it. Short of blowing off your responsibilities, there's no reason for somebody not to pursue their dream. All that leads to is a life of regret if taking the safe route doesn't pan out so well.

And that's nothing like saying people in shitty situations didn't work hard enough. Life is shitty, and shitty situations lead to further shitty situations. Life happens, people don't get what they want, but that's still no reason to give up what you enjoy doing.

Another thing, play with your voice a little bit. Rappers are always using different accents for different songs, so don't be afraid to mix it up a little.

And don't let Steve's "life is hard so why bother trying at all because you're just going to fail and end up hating yourself," rhetoric get the best of you. By all means, find a way to support yourself first and foremost, but don't give up on your dream. We've got enough cynical assholes in the world already, we don't need another one. You're young, and you still have so much potential ahead of you, rapping is a craft that takes years to hone, but if you stay committed, you never know what you can make out of it. It's one of the biggest cliches out there, but 90% of life is showing up. 

You might make it to Top Dawg Entertainment, you might not. If this is a serious goal for you, even if you try and fail spectacularly, at least you won't be asking yourself what if. 

And who knows, maybe you'll find a nice middle ground. You might not be known nationwide, but maybe you put on a couple performances for a few hundred people every weekend? Wouldn't that pretty cool in of itself? :)

So edgy

I will give you credit though, you changed my mind. Pedophiles don't need to be killed, we can just chemically castrate them instead. 

You're right, I didn't try to make myself out to be a beacon of morality, I just implied it.

You're west coast, right? Meth's pretty big out there. Here in Ohio all you've got is dope fiends, but that shit makes it's way around every now and then.

Funny story, I actually contracted hepatits C from a meth addict. No, I wasn't shooting up with him, needles in the arm is the dumbest way you could possibly choose to get high. Now stop interrupting me, it's a long story.

So originally, my buddy's uncle gets Hep in prison. C isn't sexually transmittable, so there was no booty snatching involved lol. We're thinking he got it from one of his tattoos, but that's irrelevant. So he gets out of the joint, comes back, and starts doing his thing, which is hitting licks and getting high. He starts shooting up with my buddy, his nephew, and then he contracts it too. Then my buddy starts shooting up with this other kid, and apparently he gets it too.

So other kid is high at his job one day, and starts jacking off in the middle of a Volunteer's of America. Some people I know were in there at the time, and catch it on video. I call kid out on it because my mom shops there, and he rolls through to do something about it.

Long story short, I've got him a chokehold at one point, and he rolls out of it and starts biting my arm. Teeth breaks the skin, and now I've got Hep, even though I'm not a drug user like that.