Puckett, a Sinclair Community College student and aspiring rapper, is confined to a motorized chair.\u00a0 He said the disease makes him fatigued more often than a normal person.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get tired way quicker,\u201d Puckett said.<\/p>\n
Despite that, he said his disease affects his music in a good way.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy music\u2019s so much stronger with it,\u201d Puckett said.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been in the chair since he was 3 months old, but said he has no issues getting around campus and thanks to Disability Services he can have note takers with him in his classes.<\/p>\n
\u201cSinclair\u2019s pretty good [for me],\u201d Puckett said.\u00a0 \u201cBut the elevators are really slow, so that\u2019s an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Puckett, who said he goes by Puck, loves hip-hop music.\u00a0 He lists Kanye West, Eminem and Jay-Z as his modern favorites, and he also likes older acts like A Tribe Called Quest.<\/p>\n
Puckett has released two EPs\u2014short for extended play\u2014called \u201cMillion Dollar Dreams\u201d and \u201cStill Wishing.\u201d\u00a0 He is recording his third EP right now but doesn\u2019t have a name for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHip-hop is definitely something I want to pursue as a career,\u201d Puckett said.<\/p>\n
Puckett said he does 3-4 shows a month opening up for more established acts, including Talib Kweli.\u00a0 On Oct. 22 he\u2019ll do his first show in Dayton at Hammerjacks.\u00a0 He said he\u2019s not nervous though.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never performed in Dayton, I\u2019m looking forward to it,\u201d Puckett said.\u00a0 \u201cHopefully gain some more fans down here.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the only show he\u2019s ever gotten nervous for was last year at his high school in Springboro.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was different, I got nervous because, you know, there were teachers there,\u201d Puckett said.\u00a0 \u201cSo it was a little different than normal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Puckett said he enjoys being in front of a crowd and enjoys proving himself to those who haven\u2019t seen him perform.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first, if I perform for a crowd that\u2019s never seen me before I can tell,\u201d Puckett said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cBecause I\u2019m in a wheelchair it\u2019s a little different [for the crowd].\u00a0 Their initial reaction is that they are curious, and that\u2019s what I like, because I know how they are going to react to me and I want to change that reaction.\u00a0 I like to change them from curious to, \u2018okay, I can rock with this kid.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the venues he performs at are not handicapped accessible so he went down to Fairfield and bought a 9-foot ramp to take with him to shows.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s pretty supportive and likes what I do at my stage shows,\u201d Puckett said.<\/p>\n
He said he wants his music to be uplifting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not killing anyone in my songs,\u201d Puckett said.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s more of a positive note, kind of tells my story.\u00a0 It\u2019s the main reason I do it to begin with.\u00a0 I never wrote it to be motivating but a lot of people tell me it\u2019s motivating and that\u2019s a good thing.\u00a0 Ever since people started telling me that it\u2019s changed my music in a good way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Puckett is a Communication major and is taking mostly general education classes right now.\u00a0 He said he\u2019s a procrastinator and that the tests in college are a lot harder.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was kind of nervous about college to begin with,\u201d Puckett said.\u00a0 \u201cSo I didn\u2019t want to take more than I could handle.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Sinclair he plans to go to Wright State, which he said ranks as one of the best schools for disabled students.\u00a0 Despite all the challenges he faces with muscular dystrophy, he doesn\u2019t let the disease define him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just got to stay positive,\u201d Puckett said.\u00a0 \u201cWhen I picture myself I don\u2019t see a wheelchair.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Puckett, a Sinclair Community College student and aspiring rapper, is confined to a motorized chair.\u00a0 He said the disease makes him fatigued more often than a normal person. \u201cI get tired way quicker,\u201d Puckett said. Despite that, he said his disease affects his music in a good way. \u201cMy music\u2019s so much stronger with it,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":229,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-1sW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/229"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5638"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5669,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5638\/revisions\/5669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}