Choices are some of the only real power individuals have in this small world.  Choosing to win, lose, take risks, lay back; these choices determine our many different routes in the short lives we're offered. 

For Hill-B, aka Hillary Butler, a native of Lakewood by way California's Bay Area and a former University of Washington national champion in football, former Seahawk and Super Bowl-winning Denver Bronco, the taste of life has at times been bittersweet.  Along with the highlights, Hill-B's career also includes a stint in federal prison for narcotics trafficking. 

With his new release, Back N Da Game, due in September, Hill-B is sweetening-up the honey pot for another go ‘round of choices that will again determine his future.

It's a sunny summer morning and Hill-B is at his studio in Lakewood already at work. Yeah, I said morning. Few MC and rappers that I know do any recording or work in the a.m. hours (except between midnight and like 5 a.m.), but Hill-B is focused on completing the final touches of his new record.  Featuring old friends like Wojack, Knucklehead Banga, Real and E-Dawg, Back N Da Game is a testament to Hill-B's survival and philosophy of life - and it speaks to the lifestyle he leads and has led. 

A lot of people would think a U-Dub Husky football player and former pro athlete would have it made, living in mansions with yachts and carefree funds to rely on. So why would a guy like Hill-B enter the dope game and risk freedom? 

"It was a bunch of different (pressures) going on, from child-support payments I'd slipped on and not being smart with my money," says Hill-B.  "The lifestyle I was living was good money-wise, but I was injured and money stopped. It took years for my injury settlement to complete, and when I was down, my homies offered me a one-time deal (that didn't work)." 

Hill-B says prison is "the wrong place to be." While he used his time in federal prison to take classes, and earned awards for his efforts as an inmate, he adamantly states, "It definitely ain't no place to go back to."

After being released in late 2008, Hill-B did go back to something - something he's been embracing since he was a child: hip-hop culture.  Growing up, Hill-B was a b-boy with the San Francisco Street Breakers.  He grew up in the richness of the Bay Area culture with peers from Fillmore and Hunter's Point. His cousin, Andre Nickatina, has enjoyed a fruitful career as a hip-hop star. 

Hill-B was a true b-boy, moving to the Lakewood area in 1988. Soon after, he developed a taste for rapping. 

"It happened naturally," says Hill-B. "We'd be in the car and just start rapping - in 1999 after my injury, I really focused on rapping.  I was in Canada and did a 16 (bar verse) and the crowd went crazy!  Since then, I've been doing it."

With Back N Da Game, The 253 gets a dose of one of its own, and also a glimpse into the life of a man who's been places, seen things - and can spit about his experience in the vein of the traditional West Coast MCs. 

Hill-B's choices are now catching up to him in a productive way.