BROWN SUGAR, PART 2: A CONVERSATION WITH MONTY

The General's Briefing · Apr 21, 2026 · 1h 29m

Thirty years ago, I was 11 years old when I saw a boy on a talent show tape, rapping on stage. I was immediately captured. A few weeks later, he rode down my street on a moped, stopped, and we talked. And that was it. That was the beginning of everything.

His name was Monty. And he was my first love.

But Monty wasn't just my first romantic love. He was the boy who introduced me to the grit and the hood of hip-hop. He was the boy who showed me that the poetry I loved in Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes could also live in the streets. He was the boy who made me fall in love with hip-hop—and…