O.C. - Born 2 Live

"From time to time you wish you could find a way to forgive and let them know you forgave."

Album: Word Life [debut album]
Genre: Hip Hop, East Coast Hip Hop
Album Release: October 18th 1994
Single Release: November 22nd 1994
Length: 4.46
Producer: Buckwild
Cuts: Roc Raida
Vocalist: O.C. [age 23]
Label: Wild Pitch Records

Music Video


Live on NPR Tiny Desk in 2018


Organized Konfusion Remix

Charts, Streams & Sales

Spotify: 130,000 +
YouTube Music: 800,000 +

Credits & Gear

Features samples from Isaac Hayes and Keni Burke.

Details

• O.C. is a part of the hip hop crew D.I.T.C. (Digging In The Crates) whose members include Lord Finesse, Fat Joe, Big L, Diamond D, Buckwild and Showbiz and A.G..
  
• O.C. takes his moniker from his birth name Omar Credle.
  
• O.C. serves up a dose of reality rap detailing the death of his childhood friend who was hit by a car in Baltimore. The track is about a complex and serious subjects which is how the death of a child effects children. In this case, a friend of the deceased, but it's also about the fragility of normalcy. Things are normal until one day they're not "dying all young at the age of seven". In 'Born 2 Live', Mike Boogie gets hit by car and his death hits his loved ones like a train. The song is insightful, poetic and poignant "when somebody is gone that's when you realise how close you was, how close you are, like a scar." It displays the type of insight revealed to someone who has actually lived an experience. Time might heal the wound but the scar is always with you and serves as a reminder to avoid unnecessary risks but also to be grateful that you were lucky enough to live while others died.
  
  On 'Born 2 Live' O.C. practices what he preached on 'Time's Up' by keeping it strictly real. He shoutouts his real life friends "Zach, Leo & Ed" and names the real life street he grew up on "Harmon Street". Such attention to detail paints a convincing picture of a time and place that allows the listener to invest in the story. Even though the death of O.C.'s friend is tragic, the song has a sense of nostalgia that springs from the neighbourhoods camaraderie and community spirit. A community coming together in the face of tragedy can be of tremendous comfort because it allows the bereaved to focus on what is truly important: the people around you. I get the impression that despite its hardships O.C. enjoyed his childhood "every other brother in Bushwick rushed to your side thick". His recollections have a fondness normally found in a life well lived.
  
  In the spirit of the song I would like to humbly send peace and love to the family of Mike Boogie.
  
  
• There is a remix by Organized Konfusion (see above)
  

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