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Thirty-Five-Year-Old Ms.Victoria Vanee' Anderson was born in Kansas City, Missouri and raised in Seattle, Washingon, home of the 12th man. She currently is a full time student working on her communication degree. She is single mother of a teenage son who gave her the inspiration to put extraordinary thoughts on paper. This is her first novel. For any questions please contact her at ms.vanee@yahoo.com or ms.ladyvanee@hotmail.com
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MY ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
- The Best Mother
- The Best Daughter
- The Best Sister
- The Friend
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MY NEWS:
I AM HIP HOP
My generation was the start of the beginning of something that has now become a worldwide culture from the Good and the Bad. I myself will always see the beauty in Hip-Hop, but some will argue it’s useless in our society. When I think of Hip-Hop, I think of a certain type of dance, fashion, and music from the soul, which brings me to movies, books, and basically a lifestyle. A lifestyle that is bigger then you know. It’s not a color nor does it deal with religion. It doesn’t separate us from the rich or poor, but it does let us fill love and pain. I speak on Hip-Hop because I live it everyday of my life. A single black mother who is in school and working on getting my first novel published and A baby momma of a 16 year old son who is struggling through adolescent, but does not wear his pants below his he’s butt or disrespect his elder’s just because! So I ask how useless is Hip-Hop? Is it as useless as a person who don’t understand another race, or what about as useless as people not believing Jesus was a black man? If you ask me, (As a Joke) it’s as useless as watching Mariah Carey in Glitter! You don’t have to watch her movie, but you do have a choice. It’s either your thang or not. It shouldn’t effect the next person on how you live your life.
As I remember back in the late 70’s early 80’s when I was about 9 or 10 years old, in the beginning of Hip-Hop there was Rap. Rap music was a way my people would express themselves through poetry or words over a beat. This was known as rhyming or dropping a line or two. I found it was a better way to connect with the youth of my generation when one Rap about poverty, violence, success, the future and any means of survival. Even though we would party to this type of music, at the same time we were focus on the lyrics. One song in particular, which I would never forget, by Grandmaster Flash in the Furious Five, Melly Mel is ‘The Message’. This song is one of Hip-Hop’s all time favorite. It was about poverty, people living off of nothing, some living on the streets or even in the projects trying to survive. He quoted “It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how to keep from going under.” This song was for some an everyday anthem!
Then there was ‘Rapper’s Delight’ by the Sugarhill Gang. This actually was the first rap song my mother made my sister’s and I learn all the lyrics because she was tired of hearing us mumble the words. Rapper’s Delight had no purpose, I mean no meaning what'’ so ever. This song would go on for about 5 to 10 minutes while you clap your hands and stomp your feet saying God knows what, but hey, it felt damn good.
Over the years Rap music has grown just like everything else. I’ll say about 1985 was the year when Luke of Two Live Crew came out with the album ‘Nasty as they wanna be’ and about a year later I was introduce to Gangsta Rap. N.W.A, Niggas with Attitudes had a Rap song called ‘Fuck the Police’. Yes it was very explicit, but to me it was the truth. I had a choice to not listen, but I choose to listen. It didn’t make me go out and be a stripper nor did I commit any crimes. I’m sure most people who listen to Rock-N-Roll didn’t go bite off a bird’s head like Ozzy Osborne did.
Some claim that Rap leads to violence and we all know that’s Bull S**t! That’s like listening to a minister and he tells you to do something that you know that’s not godly like but you do it anyway. Music doesn’t make you do wrong just like people don’t make you do wrong. You do wrong because you want to do wrong. Gangsta Rap is Gangster’s who live that lifestyle and basically it is what it is. I relate to it all because I grew up in the hood, but I don’t gang-bang. I chose not to, knowing that lifestyle is not for me.
Another all time Hip-Hop favorite was the Ultimate song ‘The Show’ by Doug E. Fresh. You could hear this song at every house party or every Hip-Hop club and that’s where I’ll get into our fashion. The Rappers with the fat gold chains, Kangol hats, different color Levi Jeans with the Polo shirts, Yeah baby you remember them days! Run D.M.C had us wearing the Adidas shoes with the fat laces. It was like when Mike had us all wearing the Thriller jacket or Prince in his lace gloves. People of color have always been into fashion that was different from the rest. We would take Preppy clothes and Jazz the Sh*t up. We can take plan Jane and have her looking like Ms. Thang. There is a time and place to wear certain clothes, like I wouldn’t were a sweatsuit to an interview or I wouldn’t wear a thong with daisy dukes at a wedding, even though I seen that sh*t done. I’m saying I wouldn’t go there. It’s all about choices. Like the way we fix our cars, our style is nice rims, loud music, Dice on the mirror, and some cars go up and down. It’s not hurting anybody, so how is it useless? Do you think just because someone in a flashy car should get jacked up because they are flashy? Hell no, sh*t just happen. Stupid people do stupid things.
Movies and Books based mainly for Hip-Hop is another issue. Let me start with the movie ‘Colors’! Color’s came out in the movie theaters and people then lost their damn minds. That situation was so bad they had to stop showing the film. White People especially couldn’t handle it. Gang members, Gang music and Gang clothes leads to violence. My point to make is it was still a movie and people are stupid. We see it in the hood so if it’s at the Movie Theater, then hey, it is what it is. Books are the same. Urban books are my favorite because I can relate to them. I don’t have to read them, I chose to read them. That’s why I write Urban books because I choose too. From People, Time, or U.S weekly magazine, I have nothing in common, but if you give me a Vibe, Ebony, Sister to Sister or Hip-Hop Weekly, Oh we good!
Basically all I’m saying is you need to understand Hip-Hop before you think of it to be useless. It’s a culture that has its negative and positives. The White, Black, Asian, etc. cultures do too, but it is what it is. It’s a choice you choose to live. It will not me or make me, it’s something I am!
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MY FAVORITE LINKS:
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MY RESIDENCE INFO:
City: Seattle
State/Country: Washington
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BOOKS PUBLISHED:
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Ms. Victoria Vanee' Anderson
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 I Am My Mother
The Phrase “A woman always has the right to change her mind” played so aptly into the negative image of the female that I made myself a victim to an unwavering decision. Even if I made an insane and stupid choice, I stuck by it rather than “be like a woman and change my mind”………………..Maya Angelou
Let me start by saying this is not a diss to my mother in no way shape or form. I truly respect, honor and love her unconditional always and forever. My view of my childhood is not pleasant so as an adult I seem to drift back in time with my thoughts of my mom the main focus. When I was a little girl I use to say I didn’t want to be like her. I never found anything about my mother that made me want to be just like her. There were the good times, but the bad out weighed the good. I always felt out home was unstable, unfair and sometimes non-loving compare to other families. I’m guessing a lot of people felt that way at some point if there lives, but then again this is my autobiography. Little did I know as I became a single mother of a now 16 year old son, looking in the mirror everyday I see myself becoming my mother in many ways then one. From negative to positive, rather I liked it or not, I am my mother.
My mother was brought up in a family were there were too many siblings and a mother and father who never said “I love you.” She was taught to work hard and never play. Matter of fact, my mother couldn’t go to school because she was working so hard with the family business. With nine other sisters and four brothers, that left some of the kids learning by themselves. What I mean by learning by themselves is from personal hygiene to maturing into an adult. So yes, my mother was the fifth child born and basically she self taught herself about life or better yet how to become a woman. Now, let’s see after this being said having five kids of her own, you would expect a person would want to change the cycle. Well, I must admit my mother tried to do just that, but when your raised a certain way, some things will never change. For example, working was mandatory for my mother growing up and so she damn sure made my sisters and I get jobs as soon as we were legal to help take care of the house. We didn’t have a choice just like she didn’t, but school was pushed and no was not an option. Even though my mother got her G.E.D as an adult and completed 2 years of college, she was not having her children doing the same. Work and school was mandatory and if you wanted to play sports or any other activity, you would have to find time to squeeze it in your schedule, and we did. We had a lot of freedom that my mother never had. My mother didn’t support our extra activities because she didn’t do other activities when she was young. Another example was saying “I love you”, hugs and kisses, or even comforting a child when needed. Ha, you have got to be kidding; this was one thing that didn’t change. When you are a little girl growing up with a single mother who was self-taught in many ways and you have seen the normal from other households, you will look at your family as abnormal. Abnormal brought anger to my heart as a child because I didn’t understand. My question would be ask many time, why this and why that, but when your young, there is still no understanding. I felt my mother’s reasons back then had no logic to them. I remember one time during a winter storm and I was about twelve years old, I was playing on an icy hill and ended up slipping breaking my wrist in the process of trying to catch myself. My wrist was so swollen and I couldn’t move it for nothing in the world, let me tell you my mom still thought maybe I sprained it. I cried for about five hours until finally she took me to the hospital, and let me not forget at one point when I was a home crying before I went to the hospital there was a comment made like “Oh, you shouldn’t cry like that.” My mother was worried about the look on my face then my wrist. Then there was the time when I was about five years old. I will never forget that day, I was so sick, running a high fever at school, which was about a half a mile from our house. The school nurse requested my mother to pick me up, but do you think she did? Nah! She call herself teaching me to be a big girl at five years old by walking home alone sick with a high fever, across a very bust street and strangers looking at you crazy. I found no comfort in that situation and it stuck with me for a long time.
Like I said before, when I was younger I never wanted to be like my mother. As I got older, there are some things I could say that made me proud of her like for starters I must admit my mother is a survivor. I remember at one point in our lives we had nothing. I mean we completely started with the clothes on our backs and my mother pulled us through some how and some way. Each day little by little, we has one of the best project homes around. Yes, we stayed in the projects. My mother could cook up a dish with scraps, she could sew an outfit within an hour, and she would never let us go to sleep with a junky house. When I look in the mirror and smile seeing my mother in me, that’s what I think of, how to cook, sew and keep my house clean. Just think she self taught herself then past it on to me. Well it’s not like it takes a rocket scientist to figure certain things out, but I love what my mother managed to do on her own. She wants better and I wanted better then her.
Was my mother dysfunctional? No, she was not. My mother was a loving, caring woman who was not perfect and did the best she could on her own with very little guides. When I was old enough to really listen and understand my mother and the type of woman she was, it was clear to me why she did some of the things she did. Now, here I am wondering just because she was raised one way and she raised me a certain way, what kind of mother would I be? Let’s see!
I became a mother at twenty-year-old. Always kissing, hugging, reading and spoiling my son with all my attention. I quit school and work and as my son got older, I was P.T.A mom, sports mom, and going everywhere with my son mom. Basically I was trying to change a cycle when it came to love and nourishment. I also found myself being very support when it came to my son’s activities. Even though I tried to change my parenting skills from my mother’s, I did start to see some things were I felt I was exactly alike. When I discipline, I feel my mother’s presents all over me. When I would spank my son, I would look like her, have her voice, and her tone. After I would try to change up like talking to my son and putting him on restrictions, something she never did with me as a child, I found that this method worked way better for me. I also learned to let my son have a voice, something I never had as a young girl. There was even a time when my son was about seven years old and he fell off his bed. He wasn’t hurt, but he had this crazy look with his screaming and crying like I did from when I broke my wrist, and sure enough I spoke the words of my mother, “You shouldn’t look like that.” I didn’t notice the situation until my sister reminded me. She remembers that cold winter. “You’re just like mom” was her exact words. Every since that day I try to catch myself, doing things that remind me of my mother. Now see I can look at this as a negative situation, but it’s not. You see my mother tried to change her ways to make things better for her kid’s and I’m doing the same. To me it makes the next generation stronger. Overall, none of us is perfect, but when you study a situation and try to fix it, instead of repeating a mistake, that's where the perfection comes. With my mother, she was more of a child who didn’t have social life and to think like an adult since five since five years old. Me, I was almost the same like my mother, but I had a social life and with my son he is the total opposite. He was a child when he was a child, a teen now he is a teen, and Lord I pray he turn out to be an outstanding adult when it’s time for him to become an adult. He is my son and we see boys become men and hey that’s cool with me, but when you’re raised with a single mother, I’m sure some things will rub off of me unto him. What I’m seeing from my son right now is that he is very a loving caring person that’s not afraid to tell you he loves you and isn’t afraid to hug and kiss you at a drop of a dime. My son is smarter, wiser and definitely active then the average and that makes me proud. I owe all this to my mother and that’s why I say I am my mother. Amen!
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