ok so i'm thinking about starting to make music of my own. Any suggestions on things i'd need to know and what i need?

pick up an instrument. any old instrument. mabey it's a computer instrument. maybe it's a real instrument. maybe it's not an instrument but it makes cool sounds.

what kind of music do you like?
what kind of music do you dislike?
what kind of radio do yo listen too (you don't always have to like what's on the radio)
did you have a cretin kind of music you want to play in mind?
do you know any theory?
do you own an instrument?
are you still in school? (band and orchestra and choir are excellent places to start)

well. i'm thinking more like rap/hip hop but like i know i need like midi and all that jazz.

can you recommend any good keyboards that i could look into? (preferrably cheap ones)

you dont really NEED midi. unless you want to do lots of melodies. for making beats, honestly, fruity loops is a good place to start. not the best place to stay, but it will get you started.

I prefer trackers. Renoise is amazing, but any tracker will do. (I use one on my DS quite a bit, too)

if you want/need a keyboard, i cant really help ya. UBS keyboards aren't much less then...100 bucks..look around though. anything by yahama will be solid... don't know too much on that end though.

There is a software called M-Audio Fast-Track USB which you could purchase at a local Best Buy for about 100 bucks. They also have a MIDI keyboard made by M-Audio that hooks up with the Session that comes with the Fast-Track. That's like $200, which is not bad knowing that most softwares would cost maybe $300 bucks at least and $200 for at least the keyboard. Try it out, I have that before I got myself Pro Tools. Try it, or u could always get Sibelius which is like $600 unless your a student, that could possibly give you a discount through their website. It's all up to you.