The Making of a 70-Year-Old YouTube Rapper

I rap at the end
of good classes.

In 2009 I wrote one poem I started saying when I substitute taught in public schools --"Longing to Chat on the Front Porch With You." That poem is in my book and talks about the importance of talking face-to-face rather than using all these media. Those 2009 students I substituted for told me it was a "rap". I barely knew what a rap was, but I wrote more raps. My late husband would enjoy my practice performances at home whenever I wrote them. I miss his encouragement.

Several adults in my acquaintance have told me they don't like the genre of rap. However  students encouraged me since because they want to hear me rap at the end of classes when I substitute teach. You see students have to have a reason to be good for a substitute and it works for me. I don't have to rap for adults.

When I got an idea, I would write a rap and memorize it. The practice was saying them over and over for a week of teaching in different classrooms. Soon I had over a dozen raps memorized. Students trained me in rapping and showed me how to move with my rap.

My Huntsville, Alabama niece and nephew decided in 2013 to put me on YouTube. They gave me the rapper name of "MC AC The Rap Lady. " It turns out that MC is the title of a rapper, or the "emcee" who has the microphone. AC is the name they have always called me--Aunt Carol. My niece produced a clever ad video and "Cursive Writing". A year later when I visited Huntsville my niece helped me produce "Cell Phones" on my Mac Mini computer, hoping I could take over putting raps on YouTube myself because my niece is very busy.

The challenge was that I had to learn iMovie to be able to put up more YouTube videos. I put off that challenge while taking care of my late husband.

Last spring I bought lessons for a year from Apple in Brandon and I think it was $99 for unlimited lessons for a year. After my husband died, I was free to work on the project. I would bring in my box holding my Mac Mini hard drive to the Apple store in the mall. Could I learn iMovie? What about GarageBand to add beats to the raps? Hour sessions at Apple still didn't make me a producer, although I did learn more about my computer.

Rapping put a smile on people's faces and as a recent widow, one Friday night I rapped with a backup of a band in downtown Lakeland. See Rapping in Downtown Lakeland. Our Toastmaster booth was right across from this band, so I had the nerve to walk over there and tell them that I was a rapper and could I perform one rap with their backup.

Later last summer people in my Lakeland Toastmaster's Club were invited to a networking business meeting in Tampa. Since I was no longer a caregiver, I ventured out. When I was introduced, I had to tell about my lowly job as a substitute teacher and the fact I am a rapper. After this networking meeting, one man told me about Rody Davis, a young college student who could produce my raps for YouTube. I called Rody in Alabama of all places and we agreed to meet when he came back into town. He not only takes college classes, but for several years Rody has had the prestigious position as a Sound Engineer for the college. When he came back for college, I met him at his college studio and he recorded ten raps which he agreed to produce for me for only $400.

Ten raps were finished last week and I gave him the $400 in cash. I wonder how many hours were really clocked on this project and I really appreciate Rody's faith in my rapping. He said it was fun for him to do.

Rody Davis

Rody enlisted his roommate Travis Smith to put visuals to the project. Travis has access to many visuals he has purchased. 

Travis and Rody

So Friday night, March 27th, 5:30 PM, here I was at the college studio again ready to become a YouTube rapper with ten more raps. I brought my MacMini computer from which we thought we could be able to add to MCACProductions1, the ten newly-produced raps. It turns out that Rody found my YouTube playlist where he uploaded the ten raps. Now, mind you, I didn't see these videos first. Within about an hour these were loaded onto a file on my hard drive and my YouTube playlist--but not that channel. Travis and Rody were ready for dates with their girlfriends and I went home ready to view these ten raps. 

Rody and Travis did a great job--I couldn't have produced these, nor had the insight into beats and visuals for raps. It takes a younger generation to make the wisdom of an aged rapper come alive. (Some of my raps are silly, but some have sound wisdom.)

Monday night I spent an hour of One-on-One professional time at Apple in Brandon. We just couldn't crack to code to get them up to the original channel. That was a shame, because MCACProductions1 has had over 5000 views on its three videos and over 120 subscribers!

I came home totally frustrated. People could go to my personal YouTube playlist and see them, but also see other videos I had downloaded. I texted my friend Sherry and she called me and listened to all my stress with this rapping business, with being a widow and with selling the house. We prayed. 

Our prayers took wings and I did the next thing, staying up over midnight to accomplish a new channel since Apple had taught me about YouTube. I used my new skills to create a logical YouTube Channel, MC AC The Rap Lady, the name I write on the white board under Mrs. Johnson when I substitute teach. I was able to upload nine of the ten videos on this channel I created. I put MCACProductions1 under channel on this new site. 

MC AC The Rap Lady --new channel

The tenth rap called "Pizzazz" will be uploaded sometime in April. 

So this is the story of how I became a YouTube rapper. Subscribe to the new channel above and share if you like. 

MC AC The Rap Lady

Getting Away on a Cruise

Items from gift shop

Last week I had the privilege of being a guest on a Caribbean cruise paid for by the same sister-in-law who took me on a cruise in 2012 HERE.  Her next door neighbors (a couple) whom I have known over the years went as well.

Sunday November 2 the three of them arrived at my house. Then  the four of us went by car to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We stayed over night in a hotel which let the couple's van stay in the hotel parking lot for the week while the hotel bus drove us and our luggage to the dock on Monday where we waited in line to get on the ship.

The weather seemed foreboding as we left.

Ruby Princess

Bahamas

The prediction said  80 to 90 % rain chance. However, no rain. and the weather was beautiful that week, including our trips ashore in the Bahamas and Jamaica.

Now when you take a 70 year old widow on a cruise (me) she gets tired and needs afternoon naps, but she gets new delightful memories. Here are some highlights in the week.

• Being with people you like was delightful. Ann and Kim are so much alike. They both wear head bands, drink a orange spiced tea, and even had the same bags on the trip. I joined their club when I had orange spiced hot tea for dinner the last two night. Kim's hubby had a great sense of humor and went around taking pictures. 
  
• I also met two couples and two women at the ship's morning Bible Study. I introduced myself to two Amish couples--Florida snow birds and I invited them to Plant City's Strawberry Festival--I will go pick them up as they do not drive. They liked my Southern Wonderland snowbird song (see HERE) and I wrote it out for them so they can share it with the Amish and Mennonite community in Sarasota, Florida. (I didn't rap for them--might have been TOO much of a cultural shock.)
• The food was outstanding and hard to resist. At one multi-course dinner I counted four different knives including a special one for salmon and between each course the silverware was changed. So much pampering!  Not sure how much weight I gained back, however. Some of it may disappear by my next Weight Watcher meeting November 15th,  and my jeans still fit.
• The walking helped me get back into exercise as well as burn calories. I have an Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk-a-Thon next Saturday after that Weight Watcher meeting. Will be on the treadmill at home so I can maintain new fitness levels. 
• My spirits seemed to sore after a few days on the trip. I did talk about my grief with my travel companions at first. All three of them have experienced significant losses of parents. Two grief bursts came and went for me. One was seeing a dog ashore, but I pick up Ziggy from the kennel tomorrow. Another strange grief burst was hearing and seeing "Tonight" from West Side Story performed. Suddenly I missed my husband terribly. You just never know about grief. 
• Speaking of spirits, I had a rare strong drink because I did not have to drive. It was just an experiment so I could empathize with students in the DUI class I teach. It was called Beverly Hills Iced Tea and I had the bartender write out how much liquor was actually in that drink: vodka, gin, rum, tequila, etc. I drank it slowly over two hours and then took a nap.  

• I rapped in a Karaoke event and gained some fans who will follow me on YouTube. 

  

  Karaoke Rapping

• I thoroughly enjoyed live entertainment and even a movie, Jersey Boys. 

Entertainer Steve Moris at left almost looks like a relative. 

Wish I could have taken you in my suitcase. 

Back to unpacking.

Grieving

Am I sad, depressed or grieving? Yes to all three at different times.

How are you? people want to know. It's hard to know how to answer. However . . . . . .  

My days of being depressed are less and less and I am weaning off of an anti-depressant (Paxil) now. I started taking it in May when my husband was going downhill. I take this pill every other day now instead of every day. In November I will take Paxil every third day.

No wonder I am not as productive as I usually have been. When I lose something or something needs fixing, it is A HUGE DEAL to me now. 

Less than a month after my husband died,  Tim Fall, a judge in California, who blogs more than I do, and who has commented on this blog, asked me to write about my two times being a widow on his blog. It is HERE. Of course the loss of both husbands is different--one suddenly and one from dementia. 

I am going to a Grief Share group at Sally and Jake's church. It is great to be there with others who have lost family members or friends. I can see those of us who are sticking with this series are all getting better. 

A discovery I made last week in Grief Share was that I am comfortable being a caregiver and have been reaching out to other caregivers now. However, being a widow is less comfortable. You have to eat out by yourself at times. You remember when you went places with your late husband. At home you remember his pastimes and think about how the home is different now, and what is comfortable as you forge a new life and changes you aren't ready for yet. 

Tonight in Grief Share we dealt with what people say to us when we are grieving and how to forgive them with God's strength. 

Grief us indeed complicated. 

Guess What Happened!!!!!!

Last Friday night, in downtown Lakeland, I volunteered to be at our Toastmasters booth, the first time I could do this.  I talked with passersby's on the closed-off street about Toastmasters International and the local clubs. I told some that I have confidence to speak as a result of Toastmasters and, in fact, at age 70, I even rap!

Across the way from us was a musical group, the John Rhey Band.

I had the nerve to tell John Rhey himself that I am MC AC The Rap Lady. Could the band accompany me while I spit a rap, I wanted to know. It happened. A crowd gathered and I just kept on rapping, not afraid.

In the next twenty-four hours the word spread about this widow on a reprieve from her bereavement. Pictures went on Facebook and John Rhey and myself befriended each other on Facebook.  I promised to pray for the band's career and his upcoming CD.  He promised to pray for this crazy widow.

Now I am hoping to get ten raps up on my YouTube channel in the fall. Go there to subscribe and when a rap is produced for YouTube it will come to your email. There are three videos up now.

How did I get into rapping? When I wrote my book, Getting Off the Niceness Treadmill, I put a poem about social media in that book. I started saying this poem in middle school and high school and the students told me it was a rap. It caught on with the students who even ask for my autograph now. My rapping makes life easier and I even put smiles on people's faces when I rap for them apart from school.

A student made this for me. 

MC AC The Rap Lady

 on YouTube

who is looking forward to substituting 

again in a few weeks.