My music

50cent

I listen to all types of music but my preferred genre is rap. My favorite rap artist is 50cent.
Curtis Jackson III was born in south Jamaica Queens in 1975. The Queens Native grew up without his father and at the age of 8 his mother died, after which he moved in with his grandparents along with his 8 aunts and uncles. At age 12 he began drug dealing in the 1980's crack epidemic era. In the tenth grade he was caught by metal detectors in Andrew Jackson high school trying to sneak narcotics into school,the first of many incarcerations. He was arrested 2 more times one for selling two vials of cocaine to an undercover officer, the second one three weeks later when police searched his home and found ten ounces of cocaine and a started gun. He was sentenced to a 3-9 but managed to serve 6 months in a shock incarceration boot camp where he earned his GED. He adopted the name 50cent as a symbol of change as his music career began in 1996. In the same year he was introduced to Jam Master Jay a famous DJ for Run DMC who at the time was organizing his label JMJ records. Jay was the one that taught 50 how to write songs,count bars, and helped him improve his choruses. his career wasn't looking to bright until he released a controversial song called "How To Rob". The song comically explained how he would rob famous artist. His career started to look up as his buzz grew he was scheduled to shoot a video with Beyonce (of destiny's child), but 2 days before the video shoot he was shot 9 times outside across the street from his grandmothers house in south Jamaica queens. The shooting occurred May 24,2000. In 2002 he released a mixtape called guess whos back which landed in the hands of Eminem (an established rap artist). Eminem flew 50cent out to california to meet Dr.Dre ( the most successful hip hop producer). After signing a million dollar deal 50 cent released a new mixtape which built his buzz back up. In February,2003 he released his debut album "Get Rich Or Die Tryin" which eventually went on to sell 11 million copies. The success of his first album was followed by his second titled "The Massacre" which sold 10 million copies. His 3rd album self titled "Curtis" is currently at 6 million records world wide. Since his debut album he has established his own record company G-unit Records.

I Am Bryan

I am persistent and realistic
I wonder what my future will bring
I hear people screaming
I see happy faces
I want prosperity
I am persistent and realistic


I pretend that I've already made it
I feel blessed
I touch the hearts and minds of many
I worry that I wont make it
I cry when I think of failure
I am persistent and realistic

I understand some people fail
I say I will make it
I dream of success
I try my best to achieve greatness
I hope to succeed
I am persistent and realistic

Habits of Mind

"Habits of Mind are the characteristics of what intelligent people do when they are confronted with problems, the resolution of which are not immediately apparent." (Costa) In other words being disposed to create an effective process that our brains naturally use to solve problems that we don't know the answers to is a habit of mind. A habit of mind attends to 5 characteristics value, inclination, sensitivity, capability and commitment. value consist of choosing to use intellectual behavior, inclination consist of naturally using these intellectual behaviors, sensitivity consist of being able to determine which process would be most effective for solving the problem, capability consist of being able to carry out these intellectual behaviors, commitment is being able to stick to and improve the effectiveness of the intellectual behaviors being used.

A habit of mind that directly applies to me is persistence. Marabel Morgan once said "Persistence is the twin sister of excellence. One is a matter of quality; the other, a matter of time. The ability to be persistent is the ability to stick to a task until it is completed. People tend to give up on a problem when our first solution fails or we simply feel we cannot solve the problem. The ability to analyze a problem to find the best possible solution is key to being persistent. Being able to come up with multiple solutions to the same problem will lead to success. Persistence is a thought of mind that can be applied to anything in life. I am persistent in every problem I face from school to work. If in school I do not achieve the grades desired I sit back and create a process that will lead me to achieve better results. A big part in being persistent is being able to tell when a solution isn't effective and another possible solution must be implemented.