How I Aged Gracefully in Hip-Hop

Going from being fixated on good green and syrup to obsessed with rooting for my granddaughter at her cheerleading competitions

Bernard “Bun B” Freeman
LEVEL

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Photo Illustration; Photo Sources: Taylor Hill/Getty Images, Gary Miller/Getty Images

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“All! Star! Revolution!”

I hear these words at least twice a week. It’s the name of the cheerleading organization that my granddaughter Taylor cheers for, and something my wife and I support to the fullest. She’s been cheering for three years now and loves it to death. So I find myself there almost every Wednesday for practice and at a competition on most Saturdays. This isn’t how I saw myself spending my weekends at 46 — but it’s my new normal.

For the past 27 years, I’ve been a professional recording artist. Rapper, to be exact. But as I’ve gotten older, my life is no longer dominated by recording studios and nightclubs. Even though I still perform 60 to 75 times a year, my downtime doesn’t revolve around all things rap. As a father of two and now grandfather of a five-year-old granddaughter, I find myself in places I never thought I’d be in. And that’s okay.

I started my rap career in 1992. It was a great year in hip-hop: Dr. Dre released The Chronic, Gang Starr’s…

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Bernard “Bun B” Freeman
LEVEL
Writer for

Recording artist. Guest lecturer at Rice University. Husband. Father. Grandfather. Sneaker aficionado. And sometimes a writer as well.