Pasadena artist Bing Bing has quietly been tha loudest artist coming from tha Rose City. On tha rap circuit at least, he dominates with consistency. I mean, tha kid damn near does it all. After working on his latest music project and ThaWilsonBlock Magazine, he combined both of tha efforts to help create a demand around his digital products. But, since it took him 3 years to release a new mixtape, he's decided to give music a break to focus more on writing books.
As a kid, Michael Taylor, now more commonly known as Bing Bing, was an enthusiastic creative writer. He would win writing competitions for clothes and stuffed animals. In fact, a big part of tha reason he ended up moving to Pasadena had almost everything to do with his ambitious writing. In 2002, Michael was in a group home off of Van Ness & Florence in South Central Los Angeles. The group home he lived at was called "73rd" and housed younger boys between 10-13. The group home even housed some kids with autism. In tha cool of tha day, while tha rest of tha kids were outside playing, Michael was in front of tha computer writing short stories off tha top of his head. From one-pagers to captivating stories stretching several pages, Michael had a gift for expression through language arts.
Michael's writing was so good that the therapist who would come out to tha house once a week invited him to her book club. Her club turned out to be a bit mature for Michael's age. Soon enough, Michael's writing skills would reach Eric Shepherd, a staff who worked at tha same group home agency but in Gardena with the older boys. Eric was the nephew of the woman who owned tha group home agency Michael lived in. Once Eric became aware of Michael and his abilities, he took a special interest in him and opened his home on Wilson Avenue in Pasadena in an attempt to give Michael a better life. Eric's interest in Michael grew so much that he went and got married thinking it was a requirement. He took Michael to Home Depot to pick tha paint for his own room. In September 2002, Michael officially moved into Eric's home in Pasadena.
There was a time when Michael became too much to handle living at Eric's house. He was placed back in a group home in Northridge, California. While living in Northridge at tha age of 15, Michael began writing short stories again. He got so deep into it that tha entire wall in his room was covered in short stories written by himself. Staff would come in and stand there for awhile reading these stories. It would really win people. Of course, there's always room for improvement, but Michael did it out of passion. He chose to write. It was therapy for him long before he even knew it.
As Michael's writing skills developed over tha years, he's transitioned into songwriting. Since 2001, Michael has been experimenting with writing lyrics. He was writing lyrics long before he decided to become tha artist that he is today. He was living in a foster home in North Long Beach and everyday after school Michael would go home and write lyrics in his composition book. In his young imagination, he created two rap groups: tha eastsiders and westsiders. He attributed most of his best lyrics to tha imaginary westsiders rap group. Fast forward to 2006, Michael took writing lyrics a little more seriously when he heard tha superb flow of some of his peers. When Compton rapper The Game dropped his YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS Volume3 mixtape containing tha 300 bars is what ultimately pushed Michael to take on songwriting. Michael soon found out that he had songwriting capabilities along with a developing stage presence and live spit.
As long as Michael Bing Bing Taylor has been pursuing a career as an artist, it's always been about tha music. When he publishes magazines, photography, and even when he ran tha 2014 LA Marathon, it was all fueled by tha music. But, as Michael grew up and matured, music became more than just entertainment. It was therapy. If you look at many rappers these days, they have ghost writers. Because in tha industry it's about having product. So, artists need to be making songs all tha time. But, if you are a true artist, you will understand that you can't rush art. Sure, you may drop a hit song that probably took an hour to write, but how many times can you do that? Tha same way to defeat writers block, you have to step back, live a little, and find some inspiration. That's how you produce/write your best work. That's why it took Michael so long to release his Beautiful Struggle mixtape, because he didn't rush it. If you hear tha project, it sure has some imperfections, but there are no song fillers. Every song is heavy and substantial.
Furthermore, another reason Michael is considering taking a break from music is because he claims to lack tha means necessary to release a quality sound product, let alone give it tha promotional campaign it deserves. On top of that, Michael's frustration working to unite tha local music scene in Pasadena has attributed to him choosing to take a break from music. He claims that tha same artists who didn't believe in a unified local music scene were tha very artists who didn't participate in tha BringingItTogether movement. Because of this, Michael has linked with Lyndrum to curate tha all-new United Music Scene. Michael is definitely behind tha scenes, but he's not going to put any of his own musical projects on tha priority list any time soon.
For tha duration of 2016 and into 2017, Michael plans to publish his first ever book series about fulfilling his million foot commitment for causes and charity. He's a kid on a mission to make a difference. And for a foster kid whose been through it all, we should support him. Especially since he accepts responsibility for how he influences his peers. Michael is also helping fellow artist Dominic Poole write and publish his first book about him fulfilling his commitment as well. Stay tuned for more details..
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