Whether it was never listening to an entire album from The Beatles until college or picking up a hip-hop album just one week after it was released and trying to talk about how good I thought it was, in my position, no one lets me slide on being late.

Few things are as cutting and condescending as getting a "you're late" reply to something you praise that didn't just hit the streets ... but realistically, aren't we all late to some degree?

Unless you're the DJ who played someone's track for the first time, someone who ran with an up-and-coming artist, chances are you were the person throwing their mixtape or flyer on the ground after they tried to sell it to you in the parking lot of a show or a Walmart somewhere.

But who is really impressed by me saying, I remember playing Soulja Boy's mixtape my sophomore year of college and him performing at the hoodest of hood venues back then, well before he was multiple times platinum and selling out arenas? No one gives a shit, but I'd be an early adapter.

He was a record label's dream. All they had to do was master his debut album and repackage it because the songs had been done before he ever even signed. So was every 14-year old kid who bought that album late?

What about Pharrell? There's tons of people who weren't really checking for him back when he was producing "Rumpshaker" for Wreckx-N-Effect or "Weak" by SWV but when The Neptunes-sound was all over the place, they were diehards.

Isn't the gift and curse of being indie the fact that you do have all the control over your music but you'll have to go largely unnoticed for a while (or forever) depending on how long it takes you to build a following and subsequent demand?

See, the whole early adapter thing only works when it's a "cool" band. I had friends who tried to tell me about Little Dragon on their earlier visits to Charlotte. Went so far as to show me YouTube videos and everything but it wasn't until I got bored one day and played some tracks that I cared. It's kinda like losing your baby teeth. Some people lose them early, others way later, but at the end of the day, you all go through it. Musically, if it's a market for it, we'll hear it. Hell, even if it's not we'll hear it if they have the right promotion.

I've written in the past, that early adapters are a great friends to have and in many cases, I'm that friend but this time I'll spare you the list of acts I've put people on, bite bullet and admit I've hopped on many-a-backwagon after it'd left the station.

Better late than never though, right?

Apologies to bands/groups/artists I've been slow to catch on to lately; Pac Div, The XX, Little Dragon, Mr Hudson, etc.