I grew up listening to a lot of music with this little label on it. I’m not proud of it. It’s just what I was drawn to. I was a teenage boy, enchanted by this gritty world of urban life of which I had absolutely no experience. I lived and breathed hip hop music.

As I’ve aged, I’ve become quite a bit more sensitive to explicit lyrics in my music. I rarely listen to new hip hop artists or albums. I do, however listen to a lot of rock. Even some metal. That stuff can be just as explicit as some of the hardcore gangsta rap albums I used to buy.

The funny thing is, just the other day I threw on an old school hip hop album replete with f-bombs and all gun talk you could stomach. I sang along (without actually saying the curse words of course, I am holier than thou) and didn’t bat an eye as I did it.

Later on that evening, I previewed a brand new metal album (Protest The Hero’s new one, if you must know) and there were explicit lyrics galore. After sampling the entire album, I just could not bring myself to purchasing it. Even though the music sounded amazing, it just didn’t feel right.

I don’t know what that means. I don’t know why I can listen to explicit lyrics on an old album that I used to play all the time, but I couldn’t stomach the lyrics on a brand new album. Maybe one felt like my past and the other felt like my life today. I just couldn’t bring one into the other. I just thought it was strange.

Can you relate?