" Fatherhood is life-altering, and I am living proof."
challenged my manhood. To be fair, she did throw me a softball first with the bedtime story request. I should have just made up a story. Instead, I found myself staring at the ceiling, questioning my entire existence.
At the time, I had just turned thirty years old. We had two children. I was traveling off and on and making music, and Yvette was working as a math teacher. Over the next few days, I got really frustrated with myself, and I knew I needed a plan. So I went to talk to a good friend of mine named Scotty James, who is very practical and asks good questions. My wife is insightful, but sometimes she’ ll just say things and walk away, and I’ ll be left standing there like the end piece on a loaf of bread. I needed something more concrete.
“ Don’ t just think five years ahead,” Scotty told me.“ Where do you see yourself in fifteen years?”
“ I don’ t know,” I said,“ but when I’ m fortyfive, I know I don’ t want to be on a stage talking about,‘ put your hands up.’”
“ What do you want to be doing?”
“ I want to be writing music for other people, and I want to be telling people how great it is to be a father, because I never knew how good it could be.”
“ Whoa, wait,” he said.“ Really?”
“ Yeah.”
“ Well, you’ re already writing music. Tell me more about this fatherhood stuff. Who do you want to be speaking to? Where are they now? Where will they be in fifteen years? How can you reach them?”
By the time I left his office, I had a blueprint for a social presence that I knew would impact future families— especially fathers— over the next fifteen years.
" Fatherhood is life-altering, and I am living proof."
At this point, I had been a stay-at-home dad for about nine months. The backstory there is that Yvette had come up with a crazy idea: Because all the money I was making at my warehouse job was going to childcare, she suggested I stay home. I could make extra money by moonlighting as a rapper. She thought it made more sense for me to take care of the two boys because her job provided health insurance and other benefits, and mine did not. She also told me it would be cool for them to see their dad modeling love for them since they are both boys.
I was reluctant at first. More accurately, I hated the idea, mostly because I thought my friends and family would judge me for not working. I had no idea how much work it took to raise an infant and chase a
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