As some of you may know, 50 Cent was shot nine times before. I was shot 10 times. Okay, not really. I was shot AT a couple times and almost got shot. This was during my "I'm-a-gangsta-even-though-I'm-in-my-pre-teens-and-only-been-to prison-once-to-visit-my-cousin" days. I was around 12 or 13 years old and my best friend invited me to a party. It was my first house party. I realized at the last minute that it wouldn't be like how it was in the Kid n' Play movie, but instead it would be a bunch of hormonal teenagers dry-humping eachother. And I swear I only went to view this, I didn't partake in any of that... plus, you have no proof. The only problem with our plan was we had to take the bus there. My mom was always the type of mother that said she wasn't overprotective but when it came to certain things she'd give me this look like, "Oh really? When did you think this was going to happen, during this lifetime? I think not". So my best friend and I created some story, and it worked. 

When we got to the party, we were all sitting there, staring each other in the face, not knowing how to start the formation of grinding. Yet we knew our backsides and their frontsides would somehow collide by the end of the night. A fight broke out between my best friend and some guy who called her a "fat trollop". I still to this day don't know what that means. Someone yelled behind him, "Yo' she's from (my neighborhood), leave her alone," and the guy backs up and says, "Oh, you from over there huh?". My best friend didn't say anything, but she nodded her head. It turns out, we traveled to the wrong territory. Since we took the bus farther south, it happened to be where the rivalry gang existed, the ones who were against the gang in my neighborhood. Great...Now, I've never really seen a gang fight before then and I always instantly thought of Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' video. I wasn't ready for any well-choreographed, gangsta, foot-steppin or whatever may come our way. I told my best friend, we should leave. She agreed, so we left.

While we were walking to the bus stop, we see the same group of guys. We hear one of them yell out, "There they go!" and started running toward us. Then we heard gunshots coming from their direction. It happened so fast, but I remember it being absolutely terrifying. But I kept running and running. I do remember thinking I was going to get shot directly in my ass. We ended up hiding inside someones garage until we thought the coast was clear. When we finally decided to leave, we walked pass someones house, an older lady sitting on her porch. She started yelling at us like, "Were they chasing ya'll? They had guns!" We didn't answer her, she could've been tricking us. Don't trust a trick, even if they' are an old lady. But the coast wasn't clear yet. When we reached the bus stop, again, they were about two blocks away. They hadn't seen us yet. I started crying. 50 Cent didn't announce in his story that he cried before he got shot, but I bet your ass he did. My best friend ended up calling her mom to come pick us up so ended up running into McDonalds to wait for her, praying those fools didn't stop by for some cheeseburgers after loading off some gunshots.

When my friend's mother picked us up, we told her the party ended early. She believed us, thankfully. Sometimes I realize that I could've gotten shot, there had been many, many victims of shootings around that time in my life, but I try not to think about it. Coincidentally enough, eight to nine years later, I ended up moving two blocks from where it happened. I never told my mother about it until last year. One day we were walking pass the same McDonalds, and  I blurted out, "I ALMOST GOT SHOT BY THAT MCDONALDS!" My mother looked at me, perplexed, and started laughing. Really, really hard. I don't know why, but I got really offended. But I realized, it wasn't as gangsta as it sounded. HA!

What up gangstas?

(My mother and I did this interview together tonight. I asked the questions, then I answered, and she answered afterwards. It was quite funny.)

1. Who are you and what do you do?

Sharena - My name is Sharena aka Harperhippie. I'm a student, a writer, a goof, a supporter, a weirdo, a lover, and I like to play Scrabble. 

Cora - My name is Cora. I'm a mom, a sister, a daughter, a lover not a fighter. And I do...as much as I can...everyday.

 2. What's the origin of your artist name?

Sharena - Welllll....obviouslyyyyy... my name isn't Harper (it's okay to call me so ^_^) but the night I created my hitRECord account I was reading To Kill a Mockingbird and had just watched a documentary about hippies on the History channel, so it was a moment of shear...randomness, which are my best moments.

3. Who or what is your biggest influence?

Sharena - Out of respect and honor of me doing this interview with my mother, I would have to go ahead with her. Due to the fact that I'm too scared to chose otherwise.. but mainly because she's the most beautiful human being that, I believe, ever graced this planet. I strive to be anywhere near that extraordinary. 

Cora: Well I would have to say my mother too, she was the first person to teach me right from wrong, and good from bad. And she was the first thing I saw when I came into this world, so she deserves full credit for everything.

4. What is your wildest story?

Sharena: I almost got shot once. 

Cora: I did get shot before, back in 1982. I'm just kidding, but no, it's way too many to tell, don't even get me started. 

5. What is the last book you read?

Sharena: Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk. 

Cora: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.

6. If you could be any character in fiction, who would you be?
 

Sharena: I would rather be an object, like the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, so I could repeatedly appear and be worshiped and sought after by Tarantino characters.

Cora: I'd like to be a character that everybody knows instantly, like Darth Vader or Oprah. (yea...she said Oprah.)

7. What couldn't you live without?
 

Sharena - Something to eat, write on, sleep on, laugh at, cry with, and someone to spontaneously bust a move with me.

Cora - What she said!

8. What is your secret talent?

Sharena - I use to think ketchup was blood, so I never ate it....wait...that's just a secret. Not a talent. 

Cora - I can break dance. Just give me a boombox and a cardboard box... No but I can sing, i love to sing.

9. Tell me about the last dream you remember having?

 Sharena - I was the plant from Little Shop of Horrors and I  kept singing Feed Me Seymour, but no one would come and feed me, so I ate them all.

Cora - I was on a date with George Clooney. hmmm.

(eww)

10. What are you craving right now?

Sharena - For Spring to get here.<3

Cora - I really want some peanut butter cookies right now. <3

11. What was the last song you fell in love with?

Sharena - Perfection by Clint Mansell

Cora - You Send Me by Sam Cooke, it's always stuck in my head.

12. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

 Sharena - Probably 'don't stop believing' or to 'crank that soulja boy' or other titles of overrated songs...just kidding. When I was younger i heard, 'Never assume, because it makes an ass out of u and me' and I didn't get it then...I definitely get it now. 

Cora - I've always been given advice on love when I was younger, and the best advice I was ever given about love was from my Dad and he said 'Don't take my advice, because your experience is going to be solely your own.

13. How and why did you start RECording? 

 Sharena - I saw an interview Joe did where he mentioned his Twitter name, and then I wondered what the hell was hitRECord? So I went to site and panicked when I saw a message board (back in v3) but then chilled when I saw how lovely&inspiring&beautifully talented everyone was. I started posting videos, then got my mother involved by getting her excited about the Regularity coming back on 11/11/09, then we rapped and joked around and BAM, now we're here and we ain't going anywhere suckaaass! :-)