The Hip Hop Mindset: On Being Driven, Hungry & Committed to Purpose

On Hunger

On Hunger (or being put on)

Hip Hop. When you read those words, are the first thoughts that come to your mind "quit" or "give up"? Probably not. In fact, those words are the opposite of what "hip hop" often looks like in our imagination. Those old classic phrases like "don't stop, won't stop" or "on and on to the break of dawn" have aligned hip-hop culture with persistence and perseverance. Hip-hop is about being unbreakable and unstoppable. In my forthcoming book, "The Hip Hop Mindset: Professional Practices of the Highly Successful, Creative & Dope," I look at the beliefs, strategies, and behaviors of professionals who embrace hip-hop culture in how they work, act, move, think, and generally show up in the world. In the book, I identify nine practices that highly successful people, who claim and identify with hip-hop, seem to share. In this article, I want to particularly explore one of these principles: Being Driven.

In hip-hop, we often see being professionally driven expressed through the idea of wanting to be "put on," craving opportunity, or being hungry. Hunger and ambition are huge in hip-hop culture. And so, it calls us to ask ourselves, in our own career and life, how hungry are you? In other words, how hard are you willing to work, and how bold are you willing to be? Are you committed to giving it your all every single time and in everything that you do? Because everything that you do matters. Let's say that you are a chef at one of those fancy restaurants that serve seven-course meals. Those chefs know that every course matters or customers will pass on the next. If you think the most important course is the entree and you serve an average appetizer and salad course-just throwing something together to quickly get it done, your guests probably won't make it to the entrée. And that's facts. They will not want any more of what you're cooking. You've got to wow them from the first course. If someone can make a salad that blows your mind, imagine how the prime rib tastes. You'll spend that money. You will want more of what they can create. 

In hip-hop history, what would have happened if Dr. Dre or Ice Cube had given half an effort when they were with Ruthless Records, the small record company started by their neighborhood friend, Eric "Eazy-E" Wright? Ruthless was not a major record company. Eric Wright was not well-connected or well-versed in the music industry. He was a guy from the neighborhood who had money. Those members of N.W.A. who were serious about hip-hop (their passion was for writing rhymes and making beats) could have just worked the Ruthless angle half believing in the company's ability to launch them as major artists. Approaching it with the mindset of, "I'm not going to turn this down because it might lead to something, but I'm not giving them my best stuff." They could have given Ruthless "good" holding their "best" for the "real" opportunity with a larger company. 

But they were hungry. Actually, they were young Black men who didn't have money and were living in South Central Los Angeles in the 1980s. They were starving. And that type of hunger makes you show out. What Dr. Dre and Ice Cube laid down during their time at Ruthless Records paved the way for them to chart their own path and blaze trails later in their careers. The first N.W.A. album sold 3.5 million units, and it sealed Dre's reputation as a producer (which is basically a creator/developer) and Ice Cube's reputation as a lyricist (which is basically a writer). These would become foundational skills for the eventual corporate product development deals that Dre secured and the Hollywood scriptwriting ventures that Ice Cube secured. Both of those ventures propelled each of them into significant financial wealth. 

Ruthless was simply the appetizer. It started it all. But I stress again that if they had shown up for work as anything other than a top chef, folks might have passed on the next course or, in other words, not given them the next opportunity. In those initial hungry years, when they were just trying to get "put on" and wanted any opportunity available, they gave it their absolute best, believing and knowing that they would be great. What does that teach us? Your institution, your organization, and your company might not be great, but you can be great within it. The hip-hop mindset teaches us to seize opportunities. This means that we eat even if what we are holding is a burger. Don't sit there half-working with the mindset, "This isn't my dream job; I'm just doing this for now." Have the type of work ethic where it doesn't matter how long you plan on doing it; you do it well. Your dreams and ambitions might be bigger than where you are at the moment. 

That's fine. Have your dreams. Believe in your destiny. But if where you are right now is not the fancy restaurant with the world-famous prime rib, if where you are sitting in life is the hot wing joint, what I'm saying is demolish those hot wings. Eat it all up. Scrape the plate of opportunity. We eat because it will give us the fuel and energy (in other words, the skills, and experience) to keep working and grinding until we are indeed sitting at the table holding that fork and knife and eating that prime rib. 

On Quitting (or f** that sh**)

That's all good, but what if the problem is bigger than this isn't your dream job? What do you do when things get "gully" (for Gen Xers) or ain't nobody around you "Pushing P" (for Gen Z and Gen Alpha)? Facing challenges and difficulties certainly is not a new thing among marginalized and oppressed people. But too often, the idea of social resiliency and grit has been used in a way that implies we should be expected, encouraged, and rewarded for overcoming obstacles that shouldn't even exist in the first place. Forget Grit. We shouldn't have to or expect to struggle in life. But we do have to be realistic-everything is not going to go our way. We will face challenges. We will experience losses. I'm less concerned with our ability to persevere through struggle and more focused on our critical ability to learn from our losses. You can undoubtedly pick yourself up and do the same thing all over again. How do we learn to move, think, and perform differently through those losses? That is the foundation of competition. Everyone really does win (or learn or grow) from simply competing.

While it never feels good to lose, we learn a lot from losing. I have always been a high achiever academically. But typically, when I get an A in a class, I rarely go back and look at all of my assignments to review my performance. I got an A—that's all I need to know. I won. But let me get a B (which, unfortunately, feels like losing for many high achievers). I am pulling every assignment, going through all my wrong answers to see what I got wrong, and ensuring I never get those questions wrong again. As Jay Z said, "competition pushes you to become your best self, and in the end, it tells you where you stand." Indeed, when you step into the arena, take the risk, and compete, even if you lose, you know exactly where you place. You can clearly see your distance from the bottom (where you are strong) and how far you are away from the top (what you need to work on). Clarity. One thing is for sure, you won't face challenges, difficult situations, or conflict if you do nothing in life. If you don't step into the arena to compete, you won't feel the stress or pressure, and you won't interact with folx who challenge or outrank you. If you stay at home, you won't have to face the possibility of losing (losing by not getting the promotion, losing by the group not going with your idea, or losing an argument with a boss or coworker). Doing anything worthwhile probably involves risk-taking and gambling with the possibility of winning and losing. 

I love the video clip of the artist Meek Mill at 13 years old, losing a street battle. When reflecting on the battle, he says, "I watched my whole neighborhood turn on me in a second. When I walked off, I was crying. It was a sad day for me. But it was one of the best days of my life because from here on out, I'm taking rap serious. Y'all gonna remember me. You're gonna be playing my music one day." The fact that he had such a visceral reaction to losing signified that he was always a champion. Champions care. Winning matters to winners. If you can mess up and truly shrug it off, you actually might not be a winner. It shows you a bit of his destiny—he's a competitor. I also want to point out his maturity and resilience. A young 13-year-old Meek carries his defeat with grace. There's no acting out or lashing out. There is no minimizing or diminishing the other kids' win. He takes the loss that he has earned. He stays in the cypher and stands to face his opponent until the end. This is maturity that a lot of adults don't display. Many would run—quit the difficult job. A hip-hop mindset is about staying in the fight, taking the "L" (loss), going back to the lab to perfect the craft, and coming back into the cypher for the win. Giving up is not an option—remember, we're too hungry for that. Marginalized communities of all kinds teach us how to get up, move, create, and shine regardless of how dark the experience that they have inherited is. Remember, hip-hop was created by young people living in a community that was literally burning down. Talk about not a great work environment. If they could create a global cultural phenomenon and billion-dollar industry from that, I might need to re-evaluate my beliefs about what I can or can't do. When I talk about drive and commitment, I am talking about belief in self, understanding purpose, and centering what truly matters.

This doesn't mean that if you can't single-handedly transform some dysfunctional or toxic organization, you've failed. Believe me, I get it. For many people, teamwork or being a team player involves a lot of conformity, agreeing, and being quiet when you should really speak up. This is the type of work environment that literally makes you sick. That dysfunctionality is already failing the organization; you can't let that dysfunctionality fail you. Don't let it crush your spirits, your talents, your dreams, or your joy. So, whether you are a health practitioner, educator, political aid, program coordinator, or account exec, do what you can to create even a small space where you and the people you serve can thrive. Stop worrying about the whole organization and how messy it is. Focus on that what you can control and make that thing great. 

On Purpose (For What & For Whom?)

Focus on who matters. Do you have the agency to create space and make an impact for them? Just because you experience one obstacle or hard hit, it doesn't mean the goal has been completely blocked. When you look around you, do you have comrades in the struggle? If you've got people, you've got possibilities. Don't walk away from the fertile ground just because one spot wouldn't take the seed. If there are 10 acres surrounding you, why are you hyper-focusing on one inch of land? Even if it is in the prime location (even if it's the person leading the organization), is there a larger landscape with which you can work?

And don't just stand alone in a ditch claiming to be right. Walk around the issue, look at it deeply and consider other possibilities. Before you walk away, go back to the lab and work on yourself. Season one of the television show "Origins of Hip-Hop" begins by chronicling Busta Rhymes's journey to superstardom. Busta shares how he lost some early rap battles to emcee Charlie Brown. Those losses moved him to work on his skills and practice. He eventually beats Charlie in a battle and wound up partnering with the very guy who he considers to be his biggest competition. The group, Leaders of the New School, was born from those back-and-forth battles of wins and losses. So, don't be mad because things didn't turn out as you desired the first time. You didn't "win" because you didn't come in first. Maybe your skills could be strengthened. You might be good, but could you be better? Do you feel like you are losing because no one is listening to you in your organization? Maybe your approach could be refined. You can't demand respect. It is earned. So, look in the mirror and ask yourself, is there more to it than my being talented or right? Am I also an asshole? Because even if you are all the way right, people will not hear you if you are a jerk about how you present it. So don't just focus on being right. That's not enough. A lot of people are right about a lot of things. So, what? A lot of people are more talented than the bosses who lead them. There are a lot of great emcees whose names we will never know. Understand what separates the great ones who we respect and admire. It has something to do with approach, flow, and their ability to command attention, not just their ability to rhyme. Commanding attention is not the same as demanding attention; it is about inspiring it.

When you understand your larger purpose— the role that you ultimately want to play in the world, you can see very clearly that an organization is merely a vehicle to help you fulfill that purpose. It is not the purpose. Our goal isn't to work for X organization-the real goal is what we hope to do through that job. The impact that you hope to make. Always ask yourself, "For whom am I working, and for what purpose?" I work in higher education, but I am not working for my university president; I am working for marginalized, ignored, and oppressed people (for whom). I am not working to elevate my institution's status or reputation. I am working to transform that institution into a place where folks like me want to be—a place where they can feel free and thrive (for what purpose). When you confuse working for the organization as your purpose, leaders of that organization might believe that you will never quit because of your literal hunger (you need a job to pay bills, you need the money to take care of your family, you need their approval for upward advancement). But professional hunger is about a larger purpose and passion. You will absolutely leave any organization when those things are being stifled. When movement towards your life purpose is no longer possible within the organization, it is indeed time to move out of it.  

 Eventually, it will be time to leave in some regard (depart, step back, hand over). When that time comes, quit with a benefit. What are you leaving with? It is important to ensure that when we walk, we are walking away with a bag in our hands (a bag of experience, skills, and abilities that will serve as the tools for success in the next life venture). That's being driven. Develop experiences and sensibilities that you take from your last that you can work and build from at your next. Have you ever had the experience of going to the store for something, but you can't find it? You wind up frustrated and walking around aimlessly. You leave 30 minutes later, having bought nothing. Don't let professional experiences become this. Though it may not be exactly what you imagined, make the time that you spend within any experience matter. My aim is always to leave with a receipt. Sometimes those receipts (experiences, skills) are long like the ones at CVS, and sometimes it may just be one important asset that was acquired. However long you stay, just focus your energy, talents, and time on perfecting your performance, making your impact among the people who really matter, and packing your bags full of those fly 'fits (dope skills) that you acquired for the next trip.