Since today (June 20th) is Father’s Day, AllHipHop.com reached out to a variety of rappers to discuss the importance of the holiday, which was founded in 1910 by Sonora Smart Dodd in Spokane, Washington. Father’s Day is now celebrated by tens-of-millions of people, in 55 countries around the world. “He’s worth more/than every star up in the sky/With that look of forgiveness, always in his eye/He worked so hard, but was gentle as a lamb/He gave up so much to make me what I am/ Let Me Be The Man My Daddy Was – The Chi-Lites Growing up, my father was always active in my life and my brothers and sisters. ALL of our lives!He spent his time working and some of his other time drinking, playing softball and listening to music. Like most African-American men of a certain generation, my father left the South and came North seeking a better life, after being educated and earning a degree in chemistry from Livingstone, University, a North Carolina. After settling in upstate New York, my mom and dad squeezed out my older sister, me and my younger brother, before packing up to live where I call home, Delaware U.S.A. I have been into Hip-Hop my entire life, and it was my father who drove me to get my first pair of snake skin, shell-toes in 1985 and to my first Hip-Hop concert, which featured Run-DMC and Jam Master Jay, around 1986.I feel lucky because I have inherited and benefited a lot from being around my father, including his intellect. I can speak to him like a friend and a brother, although I definitely know and respect my boundaries as his child. I have inherited his sense of humor, his laugh, “some” of his old habits 🙂 and even the mole on the left side of my nose.But I grew up with and around plenty of people who didn’t have fathers in their lives and most of them have grown up perfectly functional, due to a loving, extended family. Wu-Tang Clan’s Raekwon the Chef is a working example of this concept.“Growing up without a father in the home, I have always treasured the role I play in my children’s lives,” Raekwon told AllHipHop.com. “The greatest gifts I’m given by my children don’t come on June 20th, it’s when they wrap their arms around me and give me the ‘I Love You, Daddy,’ that I live for. This day reminds me of my accomplishments as a man. I encourage any man with children to take your role seriously. This year step your game up with your kids. They need to know that they can depend on you. They need to be able to look at your life as an example of how they should live their own.” But due to war, violence and oppression, communities around the world have had to learn that a father isn’t always a “male.” Sometimes the father figure is a grandmother, mother, sister or brother out of a necessity.“I respect all fathers who handle their responsibility to their children,” Trina told AllHipHop.com. “I’d also like to send out a special thank you to all the women that have to play father today as well.”For Houston rapper Paul Wall, his father has always been his #1 hero and inspiration. “He adopted me and showed me what it means to be a real man,” Paul Wall told AllHipHop.com. “I hope to honor him and walk in his footsteps, and hope that one day my son will have the same love and respect for me that I have for my father.”Tek, of Smif-N-Wessun makes sure that he plays a role in his son’s life each and every day, despite the his demanding job as a rapper who travels around the world on a regular basis. “Everyday I’m with my son, I can’t take time off when it gets crunch time,” Tek told AllHipHop.com. “I can’t pick a day in a month to love him any more or any less, it’s still the best feeling I ever experienced and it’s on the job training is priceless. I plan to spend the day as all other days. Wake up brush our teeth, shower get dressed so fresh while we listen to music. I’ll tell him I love him and do what we do, yadigg!”When we last interviewed Compton, California rapper Game, he was disappointed because of a travel commitment that cannot be broken would interrupt this year’s Father’s Day celebration.But he was quick to shoot down any notions that his children were neglected in any way shape or form, because of the quality time that he spends with them on the norm. “I ain’t gon’ be no where near my kids. So I’ma cry on my own time and I feel a tear coming on now (points to the tear tattoo on his face…,” Game told AllHipHop.com. “I’ll probably celebrate, but just talking to my kids and maybe have a drink and just enjoy that day. My kids do that most amazing stuff for me and I love them to death. And they love me. They love me everyday. I be having Father’s Day on regular days of the week.”According to Xzibit, being a parent is one of the most challenging tasks he faces on a day-to-day basis. After losing a child at birth in May of 2008, Xzibit was overjoyed earlier this week when his second son, Gatlyn, was born on Wednesday (June 16th). “They didn’t asked to be brought here so, MAN UP, and handle it,” Xzibit stated in an Father’s Day special he penned titled Fathers & Figures. “When you have children, love them, stay involved with them, teach them what you know. If you don’t know much, love them enough to make sure they get the education and opportunities you didn’t,” Xzibit told AllHipHop.com.Happy Father’s Day, from AllHipHop.com.
