For many professional athletes, the journey of making it to the big time did not just happen overnight. In many cases, the rough road not only involved the fierce competition of everyone coming for your spot, but seemingly insurmountable circumstances of rough upbringings.
In a story for The Players’ Tribune, Essence Carson began by reflecting on her life in Paterson, New Jersey and how people in those types of communities are given nicknames. One of those was someone who was called Picture Man because he took a lot of pictures, but his life was ended with gunshots.
As a child, Carson used to listen to her grandmother play the piano—and in her grandparents’ house, it was likely to hear something in the background from Otis Redding, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, or another classic act.
One of my favorite memories is laughing with grandfather while we listened to Ray Charles. I would be sitting at the piano mimicking Ray Charles—playing with my eyes closed. But I would mess up all the notes because I wasn’t looking down.
–Essence Carson
It was her father, she writes, who first introduced her to hip-hop and said he was responsible for introducing her to Tupac, Biggie, Bell Biv DeVoe, Boyz II Men, and others.
I wish I could go back to that time … just to hear hip-hop again for the first time.
It had the inner city swag.
Carson writes that since the late 90s, her two passions—music and basketball have only grown since then and that she even had the chance to work with Ro James, whose hit song “Permission” is more than likely playing on your local R&B station.
In terms of basketball, she writes that sports is a method where inner city children can gain a sense of creativity because it allows them to make something out of nothing. She mentioned when her grandmother found out she was becoming a basketball aficionado she did not like it since it reminded her of her father, who was an athlete but got caught up in the local drug scene.
Carson closed with poignant words on how she would feel if someone who is in the same shoes she once was could be reading what she wrote.
Sometimes I wonder what a young girl – maybe she’s from the hood, maybe she’s wondering how to go after her dreams – would think looking at me today.
By: Akiem Bailum (@AkiemBailum on Twitter, Instagram)
