How I Found My Doppelgängers Through Hip Hop 

by: Osahon Tongo

[Video] Nate Parker - Double Victory Q&A (by DesignerofDoom)

I read this article about a man going to find his doppelgänger in a rock band and interview him in GQ last month. It was a good read about an older guy finding the cooler him. I feel like I could be someone else’s doppleganger because I feel like I’m on the right track and I do pretty much whatever I aim to do but at the same time there probably is a cooler me out there that’s taken more chances.

 Many people have told me I look like Nate Parker, and you can agree or disagree but that’s the closest celebrity twin I have. One of the things I keep wanting to be is more righteous standing for causes like Nate Parker. But helping the black society is not at the top of my list anymore, and it might be because I live in Atlanta, Is the low expectations of the American black. I had a period of my life where I was super conscious and conspiracy theoretical about religion, race, systematic racism and all the worlds ills and realized I was just finding reasons to be mad (though valid). After a while of wearing my football jersey to talk to bad ass inner city kids and telling them not to do the things I never had a problem not doing, I started to focus on getting myself on another platform other than sports and finding other passions so I decided to focus more on my passions and my unique identity outside of race. I turned the creative nerd on and started making shorts, next thing you know I decided to go to Greece. 

It was dope as hell, beautiful landscape, historical landmarks, great culture. I stayed there for 6 weeks and really got to feel the culture and I got to know and see people that are really poor. Like, no microwave, no dryer poor but they were happy. But it was crazy because they were white and poor and happy at the same time. In America we usually only see poor white people in rural areas, but this whole country is in economic ruin. One conversation that changed how I thought about things was one of my last nights, when I was walking in Athens with Manolis and he was schooling me on Eric B. and Rakim and how he loved that style more than the new stuff and I was telling him about underground hip hop artist he might like. He started telling me about how he used to watch Tip Drill and other BET:Uncut music videos at night just like any horny teen in 2002. That conversation about hip hop made me realize that we shared a culture with music, videos, stories, language, dance, and this culture was Hip Hop at it’s purest form. 

So I say all that to say I love and identify with hip hop more than any race and it spans all tides. Manolis was my Greek doppleganger and it was not about looks. I don’t want to corny and hold hands around the globe with a coke in my hand but this connection, this bond, this culture is the real thing!

Peace,

@nerdyjoq