Are You On Your Grind?

I find inspiration in various places. Sometimes it comes from blog posts written by my peers. Sometimes it comes from reading great business (or, for that matter, fiction) books. And sometimes it comes from music.

One place I didn’t expect to find inspiration is in the intro track to rapper Killer Mike’s independent album “I Pledge Allegiance To The Grind, Pt. II.” On most rap albums, intro tracks are filled with self-promotion and self-adulation. But Mike (or Mike Bigga as he’s now going by), takes a different approach with his intro track. And I think it speaks not only to me, but to anyone who listens to the record.

(Please note: I’m going to paraphrase and censor/edit some of his words from the intro so you feel the power behind them without having to read a few more profanities than most of my blog posts contain.)

For the most part, here are the important elements of what Mike says in the intro:

“You see the grind believes in you because we know you believe in us, therefore we don’t BS you. I want to see whoever’s buying this record win and do great things. But the only way you’re going to do that is if you get up off your butt and you get in the act of DOING something.

You can NEVER lead if you only follow. If you sit around and you look at people and you wait for them to give you permission to do something great, you will NEVER do ANYTHING. So get up brothers. Get out on your grind.

Your work ethic will determine your worth, meaning whatever you get is determined by how hard you work to get it. There is nothing that can stop you from achieving whatever it is you want to achieve. And I want you to let our Pledge Allegiance To The Grind Part II be the soundtrack to your success.”

Keep in mind that Mike has an inspiringly commanding voice (both when speaking and when rapping) and you can tell that these words are strictly from the heart.

How he’s unique as a rapper is that, although he was signed to a major label and released a successful first record, he didn’t feel that career path would help him reach the goals he wanted to accomplish in his career. So he left his label to go back to his independent “grind” of making everything happen for himself, from album creation to promotion to every other facet of a music career.

So when you hear these words from Mike, you realize that he’s not just inspiring fans (or supporters, because, as he puts it, “if you’re familiar with the grind you know we don’t have fans, we only have supporters") to listen to his music. He’s inspiring them to work hard enough to change their lives.

He’s not saying they should listen to his music. He’s saying that he wants his album to be the soundtrack to their SUCCESS. Every track on the album is meant to push and inspire people to work harder. This album isn't a collection of songs. It's motivation to improve your life.

The point is that Killer Mike takes his inspirational words and hits his listeners in the gut with them right out of the gate. And you know they come from the heart because he’s gone through everything he tells them they’ll need to go through to reach success.

So what can we learn from this? Be inspirational to others. Let your life story be an example for others to follow. And if you don’t think it can be, do something to make it so. If you want to be remembered for anything, you have to do something worth remembering.

You have that chance to do that now. Today. Go do it.

P.S. – Here’s a link to the intro track. As a warning to you, there is profanity. Strong profanity. You’ve been warned.