Talking with the homie Wendell on MSN Instant Messenger has caused me to recall simpler times. Those good old dorm days at Morehouse, Freshman year.

When I wasn’t in class or trying to get noticed over at Spelman, I was having the time of my young life living like a Freshman in the Penthouse, 4th Floor of DuBois Hall.

Just about everyone on my floor had a nickname. I hated mine. See when I started college it coincided with the rise to stardom of one Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs. This was RIGHT when he started using the nickname P. Diddy (first time I heard it was on the song on his first album “Victory” when Biggie Smalls is like, “P. Diddy run the city/show no pity”). A few people have always held the belief that me and said Diddy have a physical resemblance, including my pops. I don’t see it, but whatever.

Before I knew it, people started calling me P. Diddy. Like some people knew me as P. Diddy WAY before they knew my real name (like the homie Zach whose roommate was “Black Rob (join the mob)” coincidentally). Anyway one time I was out in the hallway playing football when this dude Agaba came out of his room and he was like, “Yo Joe” (he was from DC and called everyone Joe) “Look it’s Shotgun P. Diddy!” And just like that, the name stuck like glue.

Now I didn’t have the worst nickname on the floor. Hell I lived two doors down from The Fly and Crustache. And we had The Lemur and Gritface by the stairwell.

The nicknames were hella creative and most were the result of collaborations between the homie Nile and Agaba. One dude was named Midnight Man for his sour demeanor and the fact that he looked like he hadn’t gotten to bed before midnight since he was 4 years old. You had the Brow aka the B-Row (pronounced Bee - Rwow) who had a funny eyebrow/forehead combination.

Other nicknames came out of experiences we had during the year, like when the East Side (a story for another day) of the Floor all went to see Halfbaked. There is a well known character in the movie named Nasty Nate who had a bodybuilder type frame of body, well it just so happened a certain conk-haired dude on our floor was also into bodybuilding and was named Nate. So of course he got that nickname!

We had a Steppen Wolf and a Sabrewolf, both because, well…they had wolfy characteristics. We had a HoneyBear because he looked like Winnie the Pooh, and a Big Bird. We had two dark skinned roommates called “Black and Blacker”.

I wasn’t the only rapper on our floor, we also had “Method Man”. Method Man’s roommate was named after one of his famous sayings. He would go around kicking people’s doors as he walked by, so one day someone comes out and says, “what the hell?” and he’s like, “What happened???? Who’s room is this??” in a thick New York accent. So that became his calling card.

Man we had some colorful characters. Tomorrow I’ll tell the story of the East Coast/West Coast battle in the hallway!