My best friend wanted to be a Muslim rapper. Now he's a business man.

All through the nineties I had this friend named Moe Sinno. I met him in seventh grade, but never talked to him since he was the kind of kid that sat in the back of the bus. When I signed up for lessons at the Dubuque Karate Club to boost my confidence, I met Moe the first night. It seemed like fate that we both started lessons that night, and both shared at the time a passion for Bruce Lee films which later developed into a passion for hip hop music.

When the time came for both of us to earned our yellow belts, we were best friends. Now I got off the bus at his stop and hung out as his house after school until my mom came home from work to pick me up. I remember Moe's house was decorated like a museum and always smelled like hummus. I had to watch were I stepped to avoid disrespecting his prayer rugs with my dirty feet, and there was a new smell around each corner. His dad, Abdul, was a Professor of communications at Clark College in Dubuque and director of Radio Lebanon in Beirut who fled Lebanon during the war in the early 80's. The Sinno's had seen a lot of shit, and had worked hard to afford their upper-middle-class lifestyle in Dubuque.

By junior year of high school, Moe was my best and only friend. We pledged to avoid Prom and the "temptations of women," including the allure of AOL.com, since it conflicted with the true teachings of Islam. But when the Sinno's bought their first Cadillac, Moe got the old-school white 1988 Oldsmobile Delta Eighty-Eight as a hand-me-down for his seventeenth birthday. We cruised around town listening to Bone Thugs N Harmony's new hit "Crossroads" and telling us how great we were since we had religion unlike the other Catholic students at Hempstead we went to school with. Moe and I imagined ourselves on an escalator moving upward, with the other students going down. "See you at the crossroads," we'd say as we blew past them on our way to class.

Moe said his true passion was to become the first Muslim rapper. He listened to Bone Thugs constantly, and even recorded a few tracks with his brothers [ed.--I remember he called himself Big Peace, and his two younger brothers Middle Peace and Little Peace] at his dad's communications studio at Clarke. At the time I thought he was crazy for trying to follow his dream.

In college I lost touch with Moe. He started going by his middle name Rafic, because he said he was just named Muhammad because it was tradition for the first born son to be named that. Now that he's grown up and dedicated his life to "international business" or whatever, he introduces himself as Rafic Sinno. I came back from my second year of college ready to tell him I finally realized my true calling is art, but by then he no longer cared for art or music. Bone Thugs was just a phase. That is where Moe and I left off.

I hope Rafic is happy and successful. I haven't talked to 'Moe' since 2000. I googled him and found out he's in South Dakota, at some business school. I wonder what he is up to. Maybe I'll email him tomorrow. Nah, who am I kidding. I probably won't. We're too busy following our dreams.

I want to dedicate this song to Big Peace
aka Muhammad Rafic Sinno

Bone Thugs N Harmony "I Tried" (featuring Akon)


[Intro]

Bone Thugs, Akon...yeah
You know though, nothin' come easy, you gotta try real, real hard
I tried hard, but I guess I gotta try harder.

[Chorus]
I tried so hard, can't seem to get away from misery,
Man I tried so hard, but always be a victim of these streets,
It Ain't my fault cause I, try to get away but trouble follows me,
And still I try so hard, hopin' one day they'll come and rescue me,

But until then, I'll be posted up right here rain, sleet, hail, snow (hail snow)
But until then, I'll be posted up right here with my heat gettin dough (gettin' dough)

[verse 1]

First, let me explain that I'm just a black man,
And I come from the dark side, so I'm havin a hard time stayin on track man,
My mind be racin', and I don't even know what I'm chasin yet
Been in and out of relationships, I'm startin to see that it's me where the complications at,
But I'm layin back, prayin' that, you get that piece of mind of me
I thought I was right, but really I'm wrong, but again I was too blind to see,
I was in the fast lane chasin my dream,
And then it seemed when the fame and cash came, they just got me,
Goin crazyyyy, (lately, lately) lately I been so faded trying to erase it,
But I just can't cause the drama just grows greater,
And I been in so many collisions by puttin' shit off till later.

[Chorus]
I tried so hard, can't seem to get away from misery,
Man I tried so hard, but always be a victim of these streets,
It Ain't my fault cause I, try to get away but trouble follows me,
And still I try so hard, hopin one day they'll come and rescue me,

But until then, I'll be posted up right here rain, sleet, hail, snow (hail snow)
But until then, I'll be posted up right here with my heat gettin dough (gettin' dough)

[verse 2]

It's like I'm takin five steps forward, and ten steps back
Tryna get ahead of the game but I can't seem to get it on track
And I keep runnin away the ones that say they love me the most
How could I create the distance when it's supposed to be close? And uh,
I just don't know but I be out here fightin demons and
It's like the curse that I can't shake this part of Cleveland and
Lord, would you help me? And stop this pain
I keep inflinctin on my family (family)
Hustlin and gamblin, drinkin' and scramblin'
And losin sight of what I supposed to be handlin'
It's hard to manage cause every days a challenge and man
And I'm slippin can't lose my balance and tryin not to panic

[Chorus]
I tried so hard, can't seem to get away from misery,
Man I tried so hard, but always be a victim of these streets,
It Ain't my fault cause I, try to get away but trouble follows me,
And still I try so hard, hopin one day they'll come and rescue me,

But until then, I'll be posted up right here rain, sleet, hail, snow (hail snow)
But until then, I'll be posted up right here with my heat gettin dough (gettin' dough)

[verse 3]

I see thangs won't change (wont change) I'm stuck in the game
As soon as I get out it keeps pullin me back man (pullin me back man)
Got me doin' dirty dirt, so used to this hustlin money,
That I don't understand no nine to five work
Studied on the streets, hustlas know what I mean
Thugstas ballin' before us I'm tryna make that major league
So we never leave never till the sun came up (came up)
Gotta get it nope, no leavin, no grudge (no grudge) today games they play gotta go hard to get what you put in, if you fall off then its all on you (on you) gotta watch what you sign too, try so hard but I won't act a fool.

[Chorus]
I tried so hard, can't seem to get away from misery,
Man I tried so hard, but always be a victim of these streets,
It Ain't my fault cause I, try to get away but trouble follows me,
And still I try so hard, hopin one day they'll come and rescue me,

But until then, I'll be posted up right here rain, sleet, hail, snow (hail snow)
But until then, I'll be posted up right here with my heat gettin dough (gettin' dough)

May the two Bone Thugs live on. Moe, see you at the crossroads... 8'^/

Peace.