Band Aids

Just to start off, I'm not one that likes to incorporate personal baggage with them on their musical airplane. But hey - no one's got it all together, and that's as normal as a delicate setting on a washing machine. That's a face of music that not everyone wants to see, but you're grateful it's around whenever things get you down.

Whenever I'm in a funk, I gravitate towards hip hop and rap. It's a genre I can appreciate because what constitutes as an obstacle to me is eons away from the real problems these artists have seen. It is a humbling respect for true struggle that puts my problems in perspective. So here's a random compilation of Band Aids, and if you just take a minute and let it breathe (like K'naan), you create medication out of your own tribulations.

1. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - The Message

2. Kanye West - Never Let Me Down

3. Gang Starr - Moment of Truth

4. K'naan - Take a Minute

5. Tupac - Keep Ya Head Up

6. TLC - Waterfalls

7. Lupe Fiasco - Hip Hop Has Saved My Life