I'd encourage you to listen to the song and read through the lyrics before diving into the post.
I get around this rock
Mad homies on the block
In a whole lotta cities I know
Got fam in Youngstown
Many friends up in Bend
And I fell in love with Chicago
But when I’m on this road
And I spit these poems
And they wanna know a little ‘bout me
My home be
Be the City of Long Beach
My home be
Be the City of Long Beach
Minutes from da coast
Never go to the sand
If you isn’t from my home
Then you won’t understand
Meet a Long Beach grown
I don’t care what you do
Only thing I wanna know
Where you went to high school?
I’m a scholar and a champ, green and golden I bleed
Classroom lookin’ like a coalition of peace
Black, White, Cambodian, Polynesian, and Brown
All tight like a fist that be fightin’ the power
Sup foo, aye cuz, dudes ladies and bros
Hands high for the city, dubs up for the coast
I’m Kappernickin’ the flag but Cali until I croak
No matter how far I go Long Beach on my dome
I get around this rock
Mad homies on the block
In a whole lotta cities I know
Got fam in Youngstown
Many friends up in Bend
And I fell in love with Chicago
But when I’m on this road
And I spit these poems
And they wanna know a little ‘bout me
My home be
Be the City of Long Beach
My home be (My home be the city by the sea)
Be the City of Long Beach (My home be the LB, LBC)
Cousin I’m glad that gangsta rap died
Bad for ya mind but ya boy can’t lie
The G Funk ride
Whenever I hear ‘em play Snoop, Dre
Warren, Nate I’m ready to regulate
on my enemies though I never load clips
If you raised in the beach you an honorary Crip
What makes a young church boy
wanna dip to songs about indo
sippin on gin
Really one word I just wanted respect
Black since birth I was born wit’ a hex
Thug or thug-not they treated me like a threat
So I might as well strut wit’ my little bird chest
Feelin’ like a King when I saw how they feared me
Swagger so clean even privilege envies
Tables got turned now White kids they yearn
to have what we got but this is our burden
Our stories finally gettin’ heard
From the ghettos of America to the ends of the earth
Whole world wishin’ they was Black like us
But it ain’t dope to live po’ and oppressed
Oh no my people don’t be pimpin’ your pain
Romanticizing the madness to make you some change
If you reppin’ for your hood hope you rappin’ for change
Do not gentrify, transform hearts and brains
I get around this rock
Mad homies on the block
In a whole lotta cities I know
Got fam in Youngstown
Many friends up in Bend
And I fell in love with Chicago
But when I’m on this road
And I spit these poems
And they wanna know a little ‘bout me
My home be
Be the City of Long Beach
My home be
Be the City of Long Beach
My home be (My home be the city by the sea)
Be the City of Long Beach (My home be the LBC)
My home be (My home be the city by the sea)
Be the City of Long Beach (My home be the LB, LBC)
Ronnie B from the LBC
Class of Nineteen Seventy Three
I know you
You know me
Hey I’m still the same but one thing has changed
I now proclaim Jesus name
I used roll on my Schwinn after dark
Meet the fellas up at King Park
Ride the bridge to the westide
‘Cause it all was Long Beach pride
Met up at the P,O,L,Y
All green and gold inside
I used to hang out with D Dub
Kenny, Kelly and J Dub,
Sed, Lee, and Ricky G
Junior Lee, Anthony, Louie, and Big D
All representing the LBC
I get around this rock
Mad homies on the block
In a whole lotta cities I know
Got fam in Youngstown
Many friends up in Bend
And I fell in love with Chicago
But when I’m on this road
And I spit these poems
And they wanna know a little ‘bout me
My home be
Be the City of Long Beach
My home be
Be the City of Long Beach
My home be (My home be the city by the sea)
Be the City of Long Beach (My home be the LBC)
My home be (My home be the city by the sea)
Be the City of Long Beach (My home be the LB, LBC)
8 - The City of Long Beach (FT Ronnie B.)
I get around this rock
Mad homies on the block
In a whole lotta cities I know
Got fam in Youngstown
Many friends up in Bend
And I fell in love with Chicago
But when I’m on this road
And I spit these poems
And they wanna know a little ‘bout me
My home be
Be the City of Long Beach
My home be
Be the City of Long Beach
Anyone who knows me is aware that I have an obnoxious amount of pride in my hometown, LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA! At the same time however, I have lived in a couple other states, traveled all over the world, and can find some sense of home in the friends I make everywhere I go. The chorus pays homage to every place on earth that has been home to me in one way or another. “I get around this rock”. As a travelling artist, in some sense, the road is also home. There is a familiarity and comfort in making friends all over. It’s a reminder that although many aspects of our cultures and experiences are different, humans everywhere are seeking similar things and having the same range of human emotions. Anywhere people exist, I can feel at home. Youngstown, Ohio is home. My mother was born and raised in Youngstown and I got all kinda aunties, cousins, grandparents, great uncles etc. out there. Chicago. I can’t say enough. Chicago was the first place I lived outside of Long Beach. I went to undergrad in Chicago. My parents were super strict, Chicago was my first taste of independence! During those years, I began taking creativity seriously. Wrote my first rap song in Chicago. Participated in my first poetry slam in Chicago. I explain it like this, Long Beach is my mother. You don’t choose your mom, and nothing can come close to the love of a mother. But Chicago is my boo, my romance, my wife. A man loves his wife just as much as he loves his mom, but in very different ways. After I finished my undergrad degree, I landed an internship in a small town in central Oregon called Bend. Before Bend, I had only lived in big cities. It was quite an adventure to be in a tiny town with a culture of nature recreation. I did all kinda stuff I never thought I’d do. White water rafting, rock climbing, snowshoeing, and made a ton of great friends. After a couple years though, I missed the human diversity and buzz of city life, so I moved back to the place that raised me. “My home be, be the city of Long Beach.”
Minutes from da coast
Never go to the sand
If you isn’t from my home
Then you won’t understand
When people hear the name Long Beach, they will often picture a quaint little beach town with a surfer culture. That is most definitely not Long Beach, California. Long Beach is a sizable city with an urban culture and incredible diversity. The port of Long Beach built a breakwater to prevent cargo ships from being slammed by waves. The unfortunate result is that our beach is pretty lame, haaaa. We don’t have waves and the water is dirty. That’s why we’re “minutes from the coast, never go to the sand.” I love my city but you don’t come to Long Beach for the beach.
Meet a Long Beach grown
I don’t care what you do
Only thing I wanna know
Where you went to high school?
Another thing particular to Long Beach is excessive school spirit when it comes to high schools. Long after graduation, people who grew up in Long Beach possess die hard loyalty to their high school. There are many cross town rivalries and stereotypes about people who attend particular schools.
I’m a scholar and a champ, green and golden I bleed
Classroom lookin’ like a coalition of peace
Black, White, Cambodian, Polynesian, and Brown
All tight like a fist that be fightin’ the power
Sup foo, aye cuz, dudes ladies and bros
I went to Polytechnic, aka Poly High, the first and oldest public high school in Long Beach. The school’s official slogan is “Home of Scholars and Champions.” Our colors are green and gold. One of my favorite parts about Poly, and Long Beach as a whole, is the incredible diversity. A classroom at my high school looked like a United Nations meeting. I grew up around a plethora of cultures. Students formed close friendships with people from all backgrounds. The older I get, the more I value having been raised and educated in an environment like this. Because of the diversity, there was a smorgasbord of lingo used. Latin American students would say “sup foo”, black students “what up cuz”, white students would say “dude” and “bro”, but we all influenced each other, borrowing terms from friends with different backgrounds. Our slang was multi-cultural.
Hands high for the city, dubs up for the coast
I’m Kappernickin’ the flag but Cali until I croak
No matter how far I go Long Beach on my dome
Californians will often celebrate their hometown and home state while at the same time being very critical of the federal government and the rest of the nation. Having lived in California and other places in the states, I do feel a stark difference between the culture of my home and the rest of the nation. I personally am very proud to be from California but I strongly object to much of what America as a whole stands for and how the nation operates. I reference former NFL player Colin Kaepernick’s protest against the police brutality and institutional racism so common in American (and California as well), but I still celebrate my home. She’s far from perfect, but I’ll be an enthusiastic Long Beach, Californian until the day I die.
I get around this rock
Mad homies on the block
In a whole lotta cities I know
Got fam in Youngstown
Many friends up in Bend
And I fell in love with Chicago
But when I’m on this road
And I spit these poems
And they wanna know a little ‘bout me
My home be
Be the City of Long Beach
My home be (My home be the city by the sea)
Be the City of Long Beach (My home be the LB, LBC)
Cousin I’m glad that gangsta rap died
Bad for ya mind but ya boy can’t lie
The G Funk ride
Whenever I hear ‘em play Snoop, Dre
Warren, Nate I’m ready to regulate
on my enemies though I never load clips
If you raised in the beach you an honorary Crip
Gangsta rap was wildly popular when I was growing up in the 90s. Long Beach specifically produced many successful rappers. As a fan of hip hop, and also as a person who takes great pride in his city, Long Beach rappers were heroic figures to me. People like Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg and Warren G were constantly reppin’ for Long Beach in their music. I couldn’t help but love them. Unfortunately their music celebrated and encouraged destructive lifestyles, most prominently, gang bangin’. This is why, despite my love for it, “I’m glad that gangsta rap died”. Gangsta rap has subsided to a hip hop subgenre and is not nearly as popular these days. In my childhood years however, the Crip gang was huge in Long Beach, and their rivals, the Bloods, were not present in any neighborhood of the city. Because of the popularity of Crippin’ gangsta rap and the strong presence of crips in the city, even kids who were not actual gang members (like myself) felt loosely affiliated and loyal to the gang, we felt like “honorary crips”. Blue, the color of Crips, was my favorite color and most people who grew up in the neighborhoods or attended schools with Crips all avoided wearing the color red because it was associated with Bloods. To this day it is difficult for me to wear anything red. Words like cuz and cousin, popular among Crips, were and still are widely used by people in the city who have no interest in actually gang bangin’. “Whenever I hear ‘em play Snoop, Dre, Warren, Nate, I’m ready to regulate.” This is reference to a popular song from my childhood called “Regulators”. The song was by Warren G and featured Nate Dogg, both from Long Beach. The song tells a story that takes place in Long Beach on the corner of 21st Street and Lewis.
What makes a young church boy
wanna dip to songs about indo
sippin on gin
Really one word I just wanted respect
Black since birth I was born wit’ a hex
Thug or thug-not they treated me like a threat
So I might as well strut wit’ my little bird chest
Feelin’ like a King when I saw how they feared me
Swagger so clean even privilege envies
This is a reference to Snoop Dogg’s song “Gin and Juice” which says “cruisin’ down the street, smokin’ indo (a type of marijuana), sippin’ on gin and juice.” I’ll admit, my deep fascination with gangsta rap and gang culture was a bit strange considering I was a church kid with incredibly strict parents. I was raised around gangs but I was never a part of them, so why did I love the idea of them so much? “Really one word, I just wanted respect”. It was my desire for respect, as well as not knowing how to navigate being treated like a stereotype fueled my fascination with gang culture. As a black teenage male who loved hip hop, I wore baggy clothes, corn row braids and flat brim hats. People were often scared of me even when I was doing nothing that should be perceived as threatening. I began to notice how women and white people would take fearful postures or avoid me at all cost. I have a vivid memory of attending a church event as a teenager. I walked into a room and there was a group of white teens that I didn’t know standing right inside the doorway. When they saw me, it was like Moses parting the sea. Immediately they split right down the middle and allowed me to pass. Although I know they did this because they assumed the worst about me, it was the first time I felt respected and powerful. Instead of allowing myself to be saddened and frustrated that people feared me for no reason (which I was at first), I decided to lean into the stereotype. I even found it a little humorous because I knew who I really was. I was a church kid who was the president of the Christian club at his high school, I never touched marijuana, never touched a gun, a beer, I had never been in a fist fight, but “thug or thug not, they treated me like a threat, so I might as well strut with my little bird chest.” All I had to do was walk around with a mean mug on my face, wearing my FUBU jersey, and people treated me like I was someone not to be crossed. It was a cheap way to gain the respect I so desired. I might never have the privilege or opportunities as wealthy white kids, but I could make them shake in their boots, and as a teen, that made me feel even greater than equal.
Tables got turned now White kids they yearn
to have what we got but this is our burden
Our stories finally gettin’ heard
From the ghettos of America to the ends of the earth
Whole world wishin’ they was Black like us
But it ain’t dope to live po’ and oppressed
Oh no my people don’t be pimpin’ your pain
Romanticizing the madness to make you some change
If you reppin’ for your hood hope you rappin’ for change
Do not gentrify, transform hearts and brains
Another thing I love about hip hop is that it came out of the black community, but is admired by kids of every ethnicity. As a child, I felt proud to belong to a people who invented such and amazing art form. Although hip hop talks about a wide variety of life experiences, when I was young, the most popular hip hop in my city was the kind that romanticized the ghetto and painted drug dealing, pimpin’ and gang bangin’ as a cool thing to aspire to. Soon, people from all over the world were mimicking black fashion, music and culture, unfortunately they also mimicked the content of gangsta rap and continued the romanticization of racial oppression and criminal activity in impoverished urban areas. Although I celebrate “our stories finally gettin’ heard, from the ghettos of America to the ends of the earth,” I think it is incredibly important for black artists to stop pimpin their pain and “romanticizing the madness.” I believe there is a way to tell stories of harsh realities without glorifying them, but instead, advocate to change them. We do not need to gentrify ghettos through renovations and displacing the people of color, instead we need to transform our hearts and minds about these neighborhoods and the beautiful people who live in them. We need to come up with creative solutions to improve the quality of life, education, business, infrastructure and, safety in american ghettos. We need to partner with the residents of those neighborhoods to figure out how to meet the needs, instead of displacing them after driving up rent via gentrification.
I get around this rock
Mad homies on the block
In a whole lotta cities I know
Got fam in Youngstown
Many friends up in Bend
And I fell in love with Chicago
But when I’m on this road
And I spit these poems
And they wanna know a little ‘bout me
My home be
Be the City of Long Beach
My home be
Be the City of Long Beach
My home be (My home be the city by the sea)
Be the City of Long Beach (My home be the LBC)
My home be (My home be the city by the sea)
Be the City of Long Beach (My home be the LB, LBC)
Ronnie B from the LBC
Class of Nineteen Seventy Three
I know you
You know me
Hey I’m still the same but one thing has changed
I now proclaim Jesus name
I used roll on my Schwinn after dark
Meet the fellas up at King Park
Ride the bridge to the westide
‘Cause it all was Long Beach pride
Met up at the P,O,L,Y
All green and gold inside
I used to hang out with D Dub
Kenny, Kelly and J Dub,
Sed, Lee, and Ricky G
Junior Lee, Anthony, Louie, and Big D
All representing the LBC
My dad was also raised in Long Beach. He also went to Poly High, and like me, he is quite proud to be from the LBC. When I wrote this song, I thought it would be cool to have my dad jump on the end and do an outro, giving shout outs to certain neighborhoods and iconic Long Beach monuments. Well, when I picked him up and took him to the studio, he did a little more than that, ha! I knew my dad wrote poetry, but I wasn’t expecting him to write a whole rap verse! He walk in with a notebook full of rhymes and spit bars. I am so happy to see pops making his hip hop debut in his 60s. It made this song even more meaningful to me.
I get around this rock
Mad homies on the block
In a whole lotta cities I know
Got fam in Youngstown
Many friends up in Bend
And I fell in love with Chicago
But when I’m on this road
And I spit these poems
And they wanna know a little ‘bout me
My home be
Be the City of Long Beach
My home be
Be the City of Long Beach
My home be (My home be the city by the sea)
Be the City of Long Beach (My home be the LBC)
My home be (My home be the city by the sea)
Be the City of Long Beach (My home be the LB, LBC)
Grace and Peace,
Micah
