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A Stroke Turned a 63-Year-Old into a Rap Legend
- knicholes 8y agoI was a breaker all throughout highschool, and I loved it. I felt a strong sense of community I hadn't felt anywhere. Someone new could come in, willing to learn, and pretty much just get accepted to the group. My group of friends from that time were by far the most diverse (Chinese, Phillipino, Black, Australian, Native American, Mexican). And I'm from Utah-- Not a place known for diversity. We all knew each other's skills, but we still respected each other. It was a pretty interesting dynamic. I love hip-hop culture, and, like the Dr., think violence has no place in it. Ahhh, the good ol' days.
- igotsideas 8y agoMakes me happy there is a bboy/bgirl on here. The good ol days for sure!
- xutopia 8y agoI wished we could actually hear him in action but no... this is just words claiming he's a god of rhymes with nothing to show.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- diminoten 8y agoWhy are there multiple comments claiming the article calls him good at rhyming?
- hobgoblin1234 8y agoRap legend means what?
- mscasts 8y agoInteresting legend, tried to search for him on youtube and other places but nothing showed up. I'm not saying this man can't rap, but how can you call that being a legend if there isn't a single recording? Nowhere in the article is there a link or an embed to an example of his legendary rap.
- rasz 8y agoThats how you know its all fabricated.
- mapgrep 8y agoInteresting that you're postulating a ~19 year conspiracy to fabricate a man across at least two LA Times articles from 2000 and this Atlantic piece in 2019. And I guess celebrity rapper KRS One, quoted in the Atlantic, would have to be in on the fabrication too. And the LA Times photographer who sold his images to the Atlantic.
- drcode 8y agoSomething in the music industry that is fabricated? Impossible!
- mapgrep 8y agoThe article and the subject of it had nothing to do with the music industry.
- pessimizer 8y agoYou mean celebrity rapper KRS-1, who (a long time since he was a success, and when he was trying to start a weird hip-hop religion) met Dr. Rapp, gave him "rap lessons" and planned to write a book or do a record with him (neither of which came to fruition.) This also all happened in 1999, right before the LA Times articles in 2000. This was a KRS-1 publicity project that didn't end up working. BTW, it's a straw man to pretend that this story being a fabrication means that the man himself was fabricated. I'm sure some retired white guy after having a stroke went to a rap open mic battle, got noticed by KRS-1 who thought he might be able to use him, which gave him the social capital to attend events regularly and make friends. I also don't doubt that once or twice during the period of his "rap lessons," KRS-1 trained him like a parrot to have a good minute on stage. Especially with the novelty, I'm sure people gave him a break, and there's no indication he wasn't trying hard, and people like when you try hard. Those lyrics are horrific, though. Also, shit features like this remind me that if the media wasn't 24-hour Trump, it still wouldn't be covering anything important, it would just have to find 10x more stories about waterskiing dogs and rapping grandpas.
- pacaro 8y agoThere’s an article from 2005 with most of the same information https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/going-with-dr-flow/article991014/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/going-with-dr-flow/arti...
- carlob 8y ago> He was tall and lean, ran six miles a day, and was a strict vegetarian. “I believe a physician should provide exemplary motivation to patients,” he once wrote. “I don’t smoke and have cut out all alcohol.” > “Sometimes I worked from 6 a.m. to 3 a.m.,” he recalled, adding that the pressures had cost him his first marriage. I don't understand how a medical doctor can fail to consider sleep deprivation and overworking not to be a health threat. There is just so much evidence out there that sleep deprivation has similar health effects as alcohol consumption, both in terms of impaired cognitive abilities and long term health effects.
- tw1010 8y agoIt's probably exaggeration for effect.
- kitcar 8y agoMany experts feel they have the right to ignore other experts in their field. It's scary how some doctors pick and choose the research findings to reinforce their perspectives, regardless if it's fact based.
- pfranz 8y agoI very much agree with this from what I've seen. I do think it's a bit of an odd situation (I'm not trying to defend sleep deprivation here). Patients often choose doctors because of things specific to them and generally seem to reject the commoditization of things (seeing whichever doctor your insurance tells you or whoever is on call that day). Me, being fairly young and only really seeing a doctor when I need a physical or have an annual exam, I don't care. My mom, who sees a doctor more regularly and has a closer relationships with her specialists has more strong opinions. I also remember hearing from a vet student that their mentor used older techniques, medications, and practices for certain things, but because he had used them for decades were way more comfortable using them than newer techniques (which can some times be more idiot proof, but less nuanced). That student was convinced it was better than if he had stayed up to date and used modern practices. Similarly, I remember hearing about aviators relying on automated controls so much that they're less capable in emergency situations. I'm not sure what you can do about that. Ideally, in aggregate passengers are safer overall.
- RoutinePlayer 8y agoSuch a nice title. Some rare YouTUBE video would have been perfect.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- sbarker 8y agoNo video, fake news. Make Rap Great Again. Drop bars or you're a buster.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- nosequel 8y agoFor all the people saying it is fake unless there is a video on Youtube, pay attention to the dates in the article. Though clearly there were camcorders in 2000, not many people just carried them around. Some people did art, rap, music, sports, etc. just to do it, they didn't need to record it to satisfy their vanity for likes and comments.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Impossible 8y agoYeah, all these comments about Youtube videos, etc. are people that have either forgotten or are too young to remember a time before ubiquitous smartphones. It sounds like he was never signed to a label or recorded in a music studio so its completely reasonable that he was never recorded rapping.
- aaron695 8y agoJust for the young ones who might be tempted to believe the trolls - Pre internet we still had the AP (Associated Press), if this was real we would have heard about it and seen it (Which we didn't) There's more to it than "it's not on Youtube because camcorder footage is pre-Youtube". And the point is the "Rap Legend" bit. Stokes will cause people to do strange things, maybe he might have chosen rap when he never would have before. But the concept it gives you superpowers it wrong and dangerous, it does not ever happen. A 62 who suddenly raps will not be good.... but might be having fun.
- elwell 8y ago> “There was a famous guy in Italy who had what they called ‘Pinocchio syndrome,’” said Alice Flaherty, a joint associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. “When he told a lie, he would have a seizure. He was crippled as a businessman.”