Sharon Lawrence, female Poet/Hip Hop Artist is known to the world as Spoken Word. She was born on October 7, 1978 in small town Suffolk, VA. She grew up in a low income neighborhood during the time drugs flooded poorer black communities throughout the nation. A recession was a normal thing for her household where she was the middle child of four in a single parent home. In the midst of it all, Spoken Word developed a gift that would change her life forever. In the late 1980’s, she learned how to rap. Rapping became the thing that kept young minds occupied in a suburban area where there was little to no transportation to participate in positive activities outside of her community. Spoken Word better known as Lady Vixen during that time did not have a hard time getting attention in the male dominated genre. By the time she was 12, she was performing in local schools. One of the highlights of her life was performing an educational rap over the loud speaker for her peers. Her first poem was published at the age of 13, and placed on the back of the schools programs for the school’s graduation that year. Literally, it was her passion that gave her inspiration to do positive things in rap. But that wouldn’t last long.
“When you grow up poor, it changes your way of thinking. It’s easy to get caught up in the traps of the streets especially when all you see is negativity around you. As a female growing up in a ruff area, you have to be tuff because there is always someone lurking around to try to pimp, manipulate or trap you.” Spoken Word
It was then that her lyrics became more hardcore. She joined up with an all male rap group along with her twin brother G Valley. The group was known as Southside Soldiers. After performing with them for a few years, the group called it quits. Instead of continuing to make music, she solely began writing poetry. To Sharon, spoken word was deep and it addressed the real things that were going on in poorer black neighborhoods.
“My way of thinking changed. I began to see things clearer than I had ever seen before. Maturing with age, I decided to let rap go. I became a mother, a wife, fulltime employee, and a fulltime student. There was no room for entertainment.” Spoken Word
