Yesterday was a sad day as we lost John Singleton, who I would consider the first Hip Hop movie director. The news was inconsistent for a minute as there were rumors floating around that he had already passed away. We knew that things were looking grim when we heard that John had been placed on Life Support and even more grim when we heard the family was taking him off Life Support at the end of the day.

This man has been a part of my life as I remember when I first saw "Boyz N The Hood". At that time I had never visited Los Angeles, but watching that movie familiarized people all over the world about that California Gang Culture. We were also introduced to the acting skills of Ice Cube, who is one of my favorite rappers. The movie is still a classic til this day as it truly showed how a young black mans world was a day to day struggle. It also educated us on gentrification of our neighborhoods and so much more.

John went on to make plenty other great films that the world would remember, but there was this movie "Baby Boy" that was released that I remember like yesterday. The movie was released on the weekend before I was set to move to Lake Charles to start my new life with my wife and son. We had been packing things and luggage and was all set to go, so we decided to catch dinner and a movie before we left.

I should have known when we went to go and buy our tickets and the female in the ticket office asked me was I sure, that maybe it was going to be a proble.

Our son at the time was three years old and while I knew it was a movie directed by John Singleton, I really didn't think it would be that bad. When the scene with Tyrese and Taraji P Henson in the bedroom came on, you could have seen my wife and I blushing from ear to ear. We couldn't cover our sons eyes quick enough. I knew at that moment that we would not get parents of the year after that episode.

John Singleton is going to be missed and with his latest project "Snowfall" going into it's third season. Only time will tell if the show will be able to continue without the visionary behind the scene. He will most definitely be missed and the Hip Hop community has lost another one of the real ones.