Turning Thirty in Hip-Hop

How long can/should I keep this up?
For those who may not know, today is my birthday. It’s not just any birthday, though, it’s the big three-oh. That’s right, your boy Adam B (pictured above in-between Sav Killz and Conscious) is thirty. I think there’s an aura about being thirty that makes people think that one must have some kind of higher level of maturity (i.e. you're all done having fun), but with my Facebook status set at “Adam Bernard is showing you his Three-Oh face,” perhaps I'm not a shining example of that idea. Societal notions of maturity aside, this birthday involves a much bigger issue for me – how to deal with being thirty and working in Hip-Hop.

I always figured when I hit thirty I’d have to stop writing about Hip-Hop. I mean, let’s face it, the vast majority of thirty-somethings aren’t exactly on the cutting edge of much of anything. That being said, in a bit of irony, and living proof that hindsight is 20/20, now that I’m hitting thirty I seem to finally be getting the recognition within the game that I’ve been working so hard to earn. I now have the title of Urban Culture Editor at an international magazine (Beyond Race) and I just became the Urban Music / Nightlife writer at the Fairfield County Weekly (which is our area’s version of the Village Voice / LA Weekly). Writing for the Weekly is a goal I had almost given up on after so many years of closed doors, but my first article for them hits newsstands tomorrow!

With both of these gigs, and the continued growth of Adam’s World and my work with RapReviews, I see myself having an even greater opportunity to make a difference in Hip-Hop. I’m finally able to get the independent artists I’ve been talking, and writing, about for so many years some bigger press and more notoriety. So while I was in my early twenties I may have naively thought that thirty spelled the end of the road for my work in Hip-Hop, in actuality it represents the beginning of having a little more power and responsibility in the game.

Yes, I will be working on a few other career goals now that I’m thirty. As many of you know I’ve spoken at numerous college and high school journalism and media relations classes and I really enjoy being in front of a classroom. I have little doubt that eventually I will make the leap into the world of teaching at a collegiate level. In fact, I’m already exploring such options. I realize it would take a little bit of work on my part, especially since I’d have to get a Master’s degree if I ever wanted to do it full time, but the reward would be well worth it.

Of course, even if I find a way to teach full time I’ll still be writing full time, as well, and maybe I’d have one of those things… what do you call them again? Oh yeah, a girlfriend. The one thing I don’t foresee happening, though, is me stopping my involvement in the Hip-Hop community. I know that for a lot of the underground’s finest I’ve been one of their only voices, if not their only voice, in the media for a lot of years and I don’t want to abandon that post anytime soon. With most magazines, and heck, I’ll say it, with most writers either ignoring, or choosing not to explore, the underground scene I know exactly where my place is in the game.

So yes, I will continue to build on my life’s resume and do things I’ve never done before, but at the same time, to quote Jay-Z, which all of you know pains me to do, “I can’t leave rap alone, the game needs me.” Once I see that either the game no longer needs me, or that it has passed me by, that is when I will finally stop. Something tells me that won’t be for quite a while, though, so I hope you still like seeing my byline (and that you didn’t mind that moment of self-congratulatory praise. Hey, it’s my birthday!).