When my son Madison graduated from Reed College, a private liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon, I never expected him to become a rapper. Like many parents,  I wanted my son to have a career with a major corporation like IBM with health benefits and a 401K.  I wanted him to follow in my footsteps because I knew that this path was safe. So, when my son told me that he was going to call himself Madison LST where the LST stood for Light Skin Trouble and was leaving home to start rapping in New York, I was not happy. In fact, I was downright scared because I thought he would not be able to support himself and end up living a limited life in the concrete jungle that is New York City.

Madison learned to rap in Los Angeles from his friend Lino and others. He took his rapping to college with him where started a program called Free Style Fridays.  Madison would sit outside of his dorm and invite his fellow Reedies to join his rap sessions. These sessions would continue late into the night where each participant would get his chance to express himself with creative lyrics to the captivating beats coming from his computer.

Madison had a dream to merge the best of his urban background with the academic training he received at Reed. So, when you listen to his lyrics, you will get a sense of his training but when you hear his beats or watch him dance you will get a taste of his urban past.

This video, The World, was made at a beautiful house in upstate New York with his video team, Martin and Magnus, and many of his model friends from New York City. His goal was to make a funny video for the summer, and I think he achieved his goal.  I was there watching Madison orchestrate this video and thought to myself that he was born to do this.