It wasn't until my family relocated to the predominantly African-American community of Prince George's County that I understood where our differences stemmed from. "As a child, I observed our differences as personal and not cultural. "One of my closest friends at the time was a white male," Oddisee tells NPR. It's a story inspired in part by his own, growing up in the diverse Silver Spring community of Montgomery County, Maryland. Throughout the song, Oddisee raps about the xenophobia that makes a moderate, loving Muslim ripe for radicalism, the harsh realities that turn a young idealist into an old cynic and the fear passed down from one generation to the next that turns childhood friends of different races into inherent enemies as adults. "You Grew Up," premiering today on NPR Music, captures the loss of innocence that occurs from adolescence to adulthood. In his latest video from the album, he distills America's ills by critiquing how society socializes all of us into darker versions of ourselves. That irony isn't lost on Oddisee, whose keen observational eye fuels his latest LP, The Iceberg. In times like these, smothered by so much cultural discord, the United States often resembles a tragic oxymoron.
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