Give It A Listen

Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals “With My Own Two Hands” Give this cut a listen. If you know it, dust it off and take it around the block. Your might enjoy a pleasant flashback or two. If you havent heard it you should give it a listen. I really like how his voice cracks sometimes. One of the musical traditions I grew up with in Chicago was the Mississippi delta blues. My mama ‘n’em (thats “and them” for you who need an explaination) come up from Ole Miss with that tradition. When I was young you could find old men on just about any corner with make shift instruments moaning and crying the blues. Their voices sometimes cracked when they got to the especially difficult parts of their stories.

I had the chance to see Ben live in Raleigh back in 2001. It was the best show I had seen in a while at that point. Small venue. Soulful music. If you are looking to find a song that may not stay in your heavy rotation but that certainly has its place in your life from time to time give this one a listen.

Eating Healthy and Bad Loans…. What They Have in Common

Ok. So how come if I want to eat healthier I have to go to a grocery store in an upper middle class area to get my healthy food cheaper? I live in a workig class area and my local grocery stores carry some healthier food options but they are always overpriced and the selection is skim to say the least.

However, if I go to an upperclass area, same chain grocery store, they have the healthier options at a cheaper price. It makes no sense. In an area where the people have higher rates of diabetes, finding sugar free food and drink is damn near impossible unless you want to overpay and you dont care if you have choices. Whereas if you go to an area where the tax bracket is higher, healthy choices are abundant and more affordable.

So the rich pay less for more and better options while the poor pay more for less and crappy options. Does that make sense?

Now. I dont live in a fairy tale world where I think the people I grew up with and the communities I lived in were pressing anyone to swap out their bacon with turkey bacon. I know better. I know there isnt any out cry for a diet that shuns cheap crappy food. Infact I admit to thinking that the powers that be had done me a favor when the $1 menu concept caught on. Cheap. Crappy. Fast. Just up my alley when Im busy and broke.

But notice I didnt say “good”. I would be a muthafuckin fool to assume that what I used to eat all the time was good because it was cheap. However, many of us do. We assume that because $5.36 cents gets you three sandwiches a fry and a drink that this equates to somehow being good. It doesnt. The word “supersize” has a negative connotation but “go large” doesnt?

OK. So you want to continue the act of pushing unhealthy food and you want to mask that fact then you can change up how things appear. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. .. Hey. Afterall, some of us prefer the crap.

See… I didnt use to believe that. I thought some of us ate shitty food because it was cheap, and realatively quick. I believed that the 24 hour concept made it more of a convience thing than a preference thing. That is until I started paying attention to my 13 year old stepson and my teen and preteen nieces and nephews. They dont seem to KNOW that this fast food concept isnt good food. I have done several unscientific polls lately and have learned some terifing information.

If told they can have anything they wanted to eat in the world, no matter the cost or the lenghts required to get it… to a person they all said fast food. No shit. AND! Here is the is the gotcha… they thought that that thing they never get… the more expensive item on the menu… was the thing to have.

None of them would say anything that would be home cooked.

Not surpisingly, cooking for them, is a concept that involves a microwave and something that only needs to be heated to be served.

ATAB! (aint that a bitch!… start using it in your text and chatting until it catches on!)

Im guilty of eating fast food. I dont want to appear as though I think it has no right or place in the world. But I DO know that nothing that comes from a fast food joint can top what the fuck I can cook myself. Period.

Now. You can go back in time on me with this one and check the handful of friends I once had and none of them, not one single one of them will say they ever saw me eat fried chicken out a bucket. If their memory is worth a damn about the topic they will recall I have sworn up and down since I was 13 that I can cook it better than that. I have insited since I was younger than that that the local chicken joints and even the chinese places make better chicken than the bucket joints, Maybe it was just chicago… maybe it was the southern culture my people brought there with them. Whatever it was, I thought most folks where I was from knew that wasnt good… i was wrong. Now I know everyone cant cook but I never figured there were so many people who didnt know anyone who could. Hot damm!

People I figured should know good fried chicken (taste, not health) didnt nessisarily grow up with a mama or a cousin who could throw down. Hell. Some people only ever ate chicken from the bucket places. ATAB! So I have come to accept (it was hard to do) that some people’s idea of good food is fast food. That deflates me a little bit inside. So sad. So very very sad.

I am one who wants to generalize the older I get. I hate this about myself because it is a shitty, lazy way of thinking. I do admit to doing it sometimes. I had gone through and made the generalization that only these dumbass kids were being raised on junk food and that they were the main ones being sucked into an unhealthy way of thinking about food. But then I caught myself.

I too once held a belief/practice that made no sense. There was a time.. lets say five years ago, when I wouldnt be caught dead drinking a diet ANYTHING. Fuck that shit! If you would have killed me and put a diet drink in my hand I would have reanimated myself and threw it far away.

Now why was I like that about diet? The word diet had such horrible connotaions for me. I can only speculate as to why without justifing how I thought. Diet was nasty to me. It lacked the taste. It wasnt good. Fuck. Now I suppose that one TAB I drank when I was four years old ruined me on diet for the next 25 years. I dont know.

I do know that if I saw something diet and something not diet I ALWAYS assumed the not diet was better. It didnt matter if I had ever had that thing before… I knew it wasnt very good.

Rewind to december 2005 and I end up in the hospital with an entire assortment of shit wrong including a blood sugar number that Im still not comfortable telling anyone and a blood pressure so high the admitting nurse ran and got an ER nurse to make sure that was right. I have said what that was… for the record my blood pressure was 245 over 215. And yes! For those of you who know those are stroke numbers and i was having an ocular one.

Until that day I could deny that I had any issues although the resulting afflictions were not instant they were gradual. Until that day I drank Mountain Dew all day everyday. Anyone who knew me or worked with me, if asked, would tell you that I was bound to have a 20 oz. Dew in my hand. I had an unhealthy obsession with the Dew. Infact, lack of time and money are the only reasons I dont have the 1985 mountain dew logo tattooed on my body somewhere. No shit. I still think of it in a fond way. I think of Dew more than exes and I think of Dew fondly more than I do any woman I ever thought I loved except my wife. Dew was my down fall… with her sweet, satisfying taste… I miss her sometimes… But Alast she is a memory that has about as much bearing on my life now as does who my 6th grade teacher was… It matters. But not really.

Oddly enough though, despite all that sugar and caffiene I wasnt calm unless I had my drink. Two or three hours and no Dew? I was the biggest bitch you ever seen.So even now, when all I drink is water and diet drinks, i dont drink diet dew out of respect for my ex lover, the Lady Mt. Dew… and that shit dont taste the same! It tastes like it has cloves in it. Blah! I’d rather not sully my feelings for dew and forget her wonderful flavor. You cant go from sugar to shit and lie to yourself and say they are the same. Fuck that.

Ok. Ok. I am waaay off from what I wanted to say. I set a drift a memory bliss (duh duh duh daaaaa daaaa).

So. Is there a conspiracy to keep poor people in a perpetual state of shitty health? We know from the current economic situation that some of the those have been preying upon the havenots for quite some time. Our economy and the health of our banking system was being held up by the poorest people. Banks and other financial companies were gambling on being able to make money off poor people who couldnt afford what they were getting financed. Imagine their surprise when poor people didnt pay….

I explained to my wife that banks need poor people to make money. Banks dont make money making loans to rich people. First of all “rich” people dont need to borrow $100,000 but if they did they pay a floss thin intrest rate. Lets say that over the cource of the loan they pay an average of 4% and they pay it off in 10 years.. Now. Lets take someone with credit as bad as mine. I borrow $100,000 I can be expected to start out with a 15% intrest rate. I would need longer.. say 30 years… to pay that off. Even if you shitty at math you can see that the bank will make more money off me in both the long and the short term. Even if you and I and Joe Sixpack dont know this THEY DO. If I had the money to lend I too would take some risks because my return stands to be greater both now and later. Any collateral damage I take, and I assume there will be some, I have aloquated for.

Either directly or indirectly I am going to be seeking to add some risky loans to my thing. Now. I know where the people I want to loan to are and I market to them directly. I know how to make it convient to them and i know how to work it so that we can smudge a thing or two that we maybe shouldnt. Allow you to think that what we are providing for you is helping you when it clearly isnt. Benifit from you not knowing any better and draw you in deeper and deeper.

Its like fast food. The convience is hard to argue with. The fact is you can get something at any hour of the day. Impressive! Particularly if you dont look too closely at what you are getting. Home loans with an adjustable interest rate… car loans with crazy low payments with a huge balloon payment at the end.. 3 burgers a fry and a large tea for under $6. Shit that shouldnt pass for mexican food for under $1… Its insane. And its all related…

This guy I went to high school with who was from a better than me to do family (most the kids I went to high school with were) once told me how to win at a game I loved called SIM CITY. He told me that you build your city up and put all the poor people and crime in one area and you isolate that from the the rest and you have a controlled area surrounded by police stations… In doing so you win.. you get better scores… Turns out he was right. I havent played since the very first version for the Macintosh came out mainly because it directly or indirectly teaches that idea.Couple things that go together and keep them from influencing the greater population. It can be achieved through questionable lending practices. But it can also be reenforced by catering to our worse dietary ways.

What Im Listening To

So Im online digging trying to find something to bring me back to the keyboard and get me writing again. I come across this site;

http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/03/discover-music-bands-you-listen-to/

The site lists a wide variety of musicians and what they lisren to. I thought it was very interesting reading about who listens to what. At first I was oddly surprised at what I found. Who knew “California Love” is one of Patti Labelle’s favorite songs. I wouldnt have guessed that if I was trying to. I read the lists of each and every artist whose music I know and or like and a few folks I never even heard of. I got the feeling that some of the music listed by some of the artists isnt so mich what they listen to but more what they want you and I to think they listen to.Read Weird Al’s entry and you will see what I mean….

I went through and started my own list. Music I listen to and love. I caught myself trying to include music I love but that I havent exactly listened to in ages.  I wanted to reflect my wide musical tastes but I kept on forcing music in just because it goes some ways to making me feel like I have musical taste worth mentioning. I was able to work around that when I came across my old cheapo Creative brand mp3 player. It has the music I listened to at work for almost two years straight. Seventy seven songs… a few hours of music…. that used to get me through the long nights doing my old crappy government job. This was my Creative brand mp3 player number two. Both met some sort of strange half death where I can no longer add or remove the songs and the drives wont format so Im stuck with what I have. The songs are in the order tthey played in and I am not sure if that is the order I loaded them or not. These songs ate indicative of the music I love and here is why.

INXS “I Need You Tonight” I think his approach to the woman he is speaking to is sexy as shit. This song put me in the mood to handle my buisness at night and it set me up  to give myself a feeling of how sexy and confident I would be all night.

James Brown “The Boss” Cool cool shit. Put me in the mindset to know how good I was at my job. I used this song to get me in the right mindframe.

Dave Bruebeck “Unsquare Dance” This is just an energizing piece. I love the drummer doing his thing with the sticks.

From the soundtrack for the move “Shine”, “La Campanella” It means little bells. This is one of the first piano pieces that made me want to learn to play.

Deborah f. Shabba Ranks “Dont Test Me” I like the premise of this song. “I can be as good as the best of them and as bad as the worse so dont test me!” Again with the sexy. I have no idea why feeling sexy made my work go easier but it did.

Lenny Kravitz “American Woman” I like Lenny Kravitz’ music in general and this song just rocks to me.

Ben Harper “Burn To Shine” This is my idea of soulful rock. This album plays like the soundtrack to my first marriage. This is the only song on that album that for me isnt about anger hate and spite.

Black Rob “Ready” I love this drumline type beat. gets me in the mood to work hard. Short song. like a long hype you up cpmmercial.

Boogie Down Productions “Tcha Tcha” When this song first came out I used to rewind the tape over and over again so I could memorize the entire song. When I hear this song I still feel like its something to be commited to memory.

Freddie Foxxx “Scram” Listen. If you arent familiar with hot mcs unless you see them on MTV and BET all the time you have no idea who this cat is. Its important that you check your sources and ask them why this man’s shit is not banging everyday where you are. The live bass is bad ass hell and yes that is the ledgen DJ Jazzy Jeff on the turntables at the end. This is hip hop to me.

Shabba Ranks “Wicked In Bed” This was my introduction to dancehall reggae. I love this song.

Dave Bruebeck “Take Five” If I could only have one song for the rest of my life and I had to hear it all the time I would want it to be this song. Its beautiful. And no matter my mood this song fits the situation.

Tito Puente “Take Five” Upbeat and fun. I dont think i can be still when I hear this song.

Joe Simon “Drowning In The Sea of Love” This is that old soul shit that touches me in a beautiful hurtful way. I feel this man’s pain and if Im not careful this cut makes me cry. I cant listen to this if Im in a bad place. It hurts too much.

Peter Brown “Do You Wanna Get Funky With Me?” I cant explain why the song is so much fun for me. I think its because I so much enjoy the tension that having a woman try to seduce you creates. Yes. I do want to get funky with you but I’ll have to pass because I dont want to know what being set on fire is a metaphor for….

50 Cent “I Get Money” I love everything about the song. I love the old Audio Two sample. I love the shit he talks. Love it love it love it! If I had this man’s money I would be so fuckin hard to handle… Actually I already am and Im broke!

Stevie Wonder “Master Blaster” Wow. I cant hear this song and not sing alomg and I sound like shit. Its fun and impressive how he dabbles in a sound not his own and does it so well. “Heavy D has a song called, “Long Distance Girlfriend” where he almost pulls off the same feat. You almost forget this isnt their genra.

Bobby Byrd “I Know You Got Soul” Eric B and Rakim. I still think that everytime I hear this song. Classic.

Lil Louis “Video Clash” You couldnt be in my neighboorhood in chicago in the late 80s early 90s and be outside on a hot day and not hear someone playing the “ann ann ann ann BOOM BOOM” song or “Percoulator” and any time you heard it you had to dance.

Leon Haywood “I Wanna Do Something Freaky To You” Aint nothing but a g thang bay bay! This that old school shit that makes me think about an old 225 DOOSE! the duese and a quarter. I remember when my older cousins started to drive in the mid 80s and they used to jerry rig tape recorders and house speakers in the car! They used to blast that old school gangster music. For you cats under 21 that old school gangster shit is the shit your favorite producer samples now. See Zapp and Roger….

The House Master Boys and the Rude Boys of House “House Nation” Man… WBMX and WGCI used to throw down late nights on the weekend… The Hot Mix 5… I still remember staying up late at night listening to Northwestern’s college radio rap show and their house jams… I used to go in the Korean hair care place on Madison at Central and buying those cheap ass tapes so I could tape the rapdown! and the house music. 3 tapes for $1. You could record on those jokers once or twice but after that you were bound to get overlap…WESSIDE NIGGA! WHAT!?

Baltimore Club Music “Mr. Postman” I wont even get started about how you cant find chicago house online unless you search for Baltimore club music… Pisses me off. I been up that way… They think old chicago house is they music… I beg to differ.

Baltimore Club Music “Watch Out For The Big Gurl” I have no words. I love it! Nothing like a sexy big gurl who can dance! Do yo thang big gurl! And when you wear yourself out dinner is on me… I know you hongry! See Ludacris video for “The Potion” As Redman put it, “I love a fat chick with a body enourmous/ It aint about the weight, its about the performance”

Beatnuts “Off The Books” First of all I LOVE when a cut has some old soul sample of a man or woman hollin like they been touched. And i love the way this cut starts. “YOUUUUUU BEDDA WATCH YO STEP!” Sounds like something Lawanda Page woulda said to Redd Foxx… with a “Sucka” on the end for good measure. The Beatnuts hit an all important and VERY SMALL catagory for me as far as beats go. Their production is 100% good. Any CD any track. There are only a few hip hop producers who I feel cant go wrong with the beats, This is my fav cut with Big Pun in it too.

Beatnuts “Watch Out Now” Come on… this shit makes ME think I can rap. This bumps in the ride and sets good headphones on fire.

Beavis And Butthead “The Cornholio Megamix” hahahaahahahaha. Techno. It has its place in the world. This is a very creative use of a lil beavis and butthead craziness.

Beenie Man “King Of The Dancehall” Listen. I dont agree with or even claim to know the politics of every musician I like or listen to. I generally dont defend anyone I dont know’s opinion. So Beanie Man’s homophobic whatevers… I dont pay that any more attention than I would pay anyone else’s. I like this cut. Its flat out fun. If you get in the club and this is playing the ladies make it hot then thats all that matters. If I werent a happily married man now I would be somewhere with a (2?!) honey grinding up on me and this would be one of the songs I would be listening to.

Blur “Song 2″ This is my kinda wild random shit. I play this when I need to get a pick me up. Short. Fun. And Im not certain what the fuck they talking about.

Bob Marley “Burnin and Lootin” Woooo. When they rioted in LA over that Rodney King bullshit I was away in boarding school. I remember this senior running down the hall to go watch the coverage on tv. as he passed me he told me they were rioting. I remember thinking his tone indicated I knew them and that I didnt send him the memo saying we had planned to get our riot on. My predomanately white dormmates asked me what I thought about the riots. I milled it over for a while as they commented on the senselessness of it all. I went and put this song on and once I listened to it all the way through i had an answer for the next person who asked me what I thought. I told them that it was a good thing I was here at school with them because if I was out there I would have orgainized the rioters and took that shit to someone else’s neighborhood. I played “Burnin and Lootin” until the LA riots ended. Ask somebody.

Bob Marley “Iron Lion Zion” Oddly enough this song along with “pass the Dutchie” and “Electric Avenue” were the first tastes of roots reggae I ever heard. I Love the groove.

Bob Marley “Kinky Reggae” The first version of this song that I heard i hated. It was a crackly recording that sounded like it was done in a cargo van during rush hour. Many years later i heard a good studio recording of this song and it made me go through and reexamine this man’s music..

Bob Marley “No More Trouble” The intro to this song is so stirring to me that I have sat and listened to the intro for hours on end. It may just be my upbringing but I read something into this song. I hear the message but I feel like this song comes in life… but if you wont work with us… “Burnin and Lootin” comes next.

Body Head Bangerz “I Smoke, I Drank” Roy Jones Jr. getting into rap. Uh. Ok. “Is this christmas? cause everybody;s wrapping” -Kwame. I Like this cut. This cut came out back when the popular hip hop disposition was that the dirty south sucked and the music was all booty music and shitty rhymes. Some of the very same people who regularly go down on an effigy of lil wayne, t.i. and the like. I got your magazines. I know what shit you used to talk about the dirty south. That look in my eye when you ride the wave of who they say is good this year… that look in my eye is beacuse the dirty south had great lyrics BEFORE you decied it was ok to admit it. See “Southernplayalisticcadaliacfonkymusic”  or “The Diary” by scarface.

Bran Van 3000 f/ Curtis Mayfield “Astounded” I associate Curtis mayfield with the old dice playing weed selling wild irish rose drinking thugs from my early youth. They listened to a chicago sound. Tyrone Davis,.. Donny Hathaway.. It was just a “Cooley High” kind of vibe. So imagine my surprise to be flipping channels one night when this song came on the satalite. I think more cats should take the old cuts and put some new production behind them. Expose young people to what their idols’ idols listen to. And it could remind us old cats what the music used to be about.

DJ Funk “Booty Bounce” More of that old chicago house. I cant get enough of this. You got a long drive to make. Load this shit up and zone out.

Carl Carlton “Bad Mamajamma” Speaks for it’s self.

Chops f/ Ras Kass, Talib Kweli and Phil Da Agony “Commin From Da Lower Level”  Either of these cats can out rhyme 5 out of your favorite 10 mcs. But they  dont get near the fanfare they deserve. This has that old school flow that makes you want to rap. It seems so effortless for them that its easy to wonder why the shitty popular rappers dont have these cats write their shit for them… oh wait… they do… “Ghostwriter. And for the right price I can make yo shit tighter.” -Jay Z

Craig Mack “Flava in Ya Ear (remix)” Baaad boy! Come out and plaaaaay!”  This would make my list of top 25 complilation/remix cuts. I love it. Even the weakest verse on this track is hot. Cant say that about most remixes.

Dazz Band “Let It Whip” If you can pull up the video of these cats performing this cut on soul trane you will see what I look like now. If my hair is wet it looks like Im rocking the dry gheri curl with the full beard! This song is about flashbacks for me. I already said one… Gheri curl… no. I never had one….

Def Squad Presents “Why Not (instrumntal)” Anything Erick Sermon produces is hot. The words are cool with this one but I really only want to hear the beat.

Dirty Vegas “Days Go By (scumfrog Deep House Club Version)” I like a little pop house from time to time.. Song has a good vibe.

Donna Summer “Hot Stuff (2001 White Label Mix) Download some White Lablel remixes if you like that chicago (baltimore) house sound. They do it to all kinds of music.  Check out their remix of The Steve Miller Band’s “Abracadabra” Old school heads from the early eighties will love that one.

Erick Sermon & Marvin Gaye “Just Like Music”  The green eyed bandit can do no wrong as far as Im concerned. I with he would give Marvin’s less popular hits this new shit treatment. I’d love to hear a dab dancehall version of “i Come Apart” The part where marvin sings sometimes brings a tear to my eyes. It always makes me smile. Now thats great music kids. Music that can cause two different emotions at the same time.

Eurythmics “Sweet Dreams White label Mix)” Im telling you. These cats make it do what it do baby. Sweet Dreams is a classic that need not be tampered with. that said, they make this feel like ole school house.

Rage Against The Machine “Bulls On Parade”  If I ever was to snap and pull an OJ and decapitate someone you can bet your bottem dollar I would be listening to Rage Against The Machine. This music makes you appropriately angry for the situation but if you aint careful this can make you go crazy. I love it!

Brass Construction “Firecracker” Ok. So yes. i associate this song with the working ladies out there who use old 2 Live Crew songs to show their skill set. Sure. and I absolutely reccomend “Little Miss Sunshine” as a hilarious movie. “Firecracker” is a fun song that takes me back to my youth. Back when I liked songs without having any idea what they meant or implied. Ahhh. Innocence…

Fixx “One Thing Leads To Another”  I remember this song from the miami vice days. I know it got hot again with the Vice City game series. When I was a kid before FOX became a network in chicago, channel 50 (or super66) used to show like a 4 to 6 hour loop of the same videos ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT. Thats right bitches. I know Fixx. Pat Benatar. Twisted Sister. Talking Heads. Lionel Richie. Micheal Jackson. I know all that old early to mid eighties shit they didnt play in the hood. And I liked it!

Fred wesley and the JBs “Doing It To Death (Parts 1, 2, 3 &4)” My mama’s favorite musician was and still is James Brown. I been rockin this shit since I was a zygote! This music brings a smile to my face no matter whats going on. I have found this music like Huck Finn. At each and every stage in my life I can revisit this music and see something new. learn a different thing about the song. Apprieciate it on an entirely new level from year to year. When I was a child I loved the beat. As i got older I began to hear the music as a collection of parts… I began to hear the music one instrument at a time. It took me years before I could hear TWO instruments at a time and isolate them at the same time. I submit this song as proof that music as we know it now is lacking on almost every level.

Fred Wesley & The JBs “Gimme Some More” I offer this cut up as being one of the best songs ever made. I offer up Fred Wesley as the best trombone player ever. My stepson took trombone lessons and I came to understand that the notes Fred is playing are bent so hard that basically its as if he wrote his own notes. My kids teacher couldnt have done this. If I were a gambling man I would put money on it. Short sweet and hot! Wait.. what am I talkin about? Oh yeah. “Gimme Some More”… the song… the first 15 seconds… the drummer.. you could pull that out and lay that down as a track right now and put any meelymouth young dumb r&b cat on it singing “oooh girl.. baby… boo…” and have a hot track on your hands. When Fred comes in … I loose my mind! If I believed in pomp and circumstance and was going to have a new orleans style funeral I would want the to be playing this song as the people marched me to my last resting place. hahaha  Too late to ask for more but cant hurt to try!

Tom Browne “Funkin For Jamacia” Chaka Khan can sing her ass off. “I feel it inside my soul!” hahaha Again. There was a time when I had no idea what these songs really meant and I loved them then too.

Hidden Beach Recordings Presents “Music” This is the erick sermon marvin gaye cut. If You arent familiar with hidden beach, these cats are the house band for some of the neo soul philly folks. They do popular cuts over with a jazzy type style that i promise you is worth the time it takes to illegally download. Once you do, buy a legit copy you cheap ass (and send me one too please).

Chicago Old School Ghetto House Mix.  This mix is 66 minutes long. It has ALL the classic hardcore house. “Work That Motherfucker”… “Booty Call”… “I Got A Big Dick” You name it its in there!And of cource, “Perqulator”

Jay Z “Encore” One of the best to ever do it.

Jay Z “Dirt Off My Shoulder” When the president made the gesture you knew hip hop and hip hop culture has assumed the role of most influental music in the world. Now if the president had have thrown up the W I would have shit my pants.

Jay Z “Lucifer” If you have ever loaded a pistol with revenge in your heart then you love this song but its hard to listen to without feeling hatered well up in your heart. I cant really listen to this song without crying. I know I said earlier that if I ever snap I would be listening to Rage against the machine. Check that. If I ever snap I’ll be listening to this.

Justin Timberlake “Sexy Back” This song has the talk shit concept down to a science.  Flirt and talk shit at the same time. It reminds me of some the the sexiest shit I wish I had ever said. “..I’ll let you whip me if I misbehave..” wait a minute. Look. If I manage to slip that line into the conversation with a serious face me and you gone go at it that night till one of us taps out. I wouldnt fix my mouth to sat a thing like that unless I had my wheaties! I got something to proove and I just talked you into letting me proove it.

Lenny Kravitz “If You Cant Say No” Ok. For starters I like this man’s music. All of it. the nutty random rock. The strange soulful r&b cuts he mixes in. I like it all, I think of Lenny as a cross between Prince and Hendrix. Not the way he plays but the way his music sorta knows no bounds. I wouldnt be surprised to hear Lenny kravitz buss a rhyme on a rock track a la “Last Resort” by Papa Roach. I love this this song. If you arent familiar its definately worth a lil youtube action.

Shabba Ranks & Michael Rose “Shine Eye Gal” IOnce upon a time… I used to go get my wind on. Back before I retired the old dip and wine. My wife will tell you I aint got too much dip and wine left in me now a days.

No Good “Ballin Boy” I love this beat. Its a trunk thumper. I used to blast this cut so loud that the bass would blur my vision!

Whispers “And The Beat Goes On” This is that ole school music from right before i understood love songs and relationship music. I just liked the groove. Pick up some old whispers  “Get You In The Mood”. mix in with a little marvin and some melba moore or anita baker and you got a soundtrack to make sweet slow love to for certain.

Big Daddy Kane, Chino XL & Kool G Rap “3 To The Dome” Again. This gets my stamp of approval. Any one of these cats is better than any 5 of your favorite 10 mcs. And if you call yourself a hip hop fan and you cant quote at least a verse from each of these cats you need to… if you dont know at least one verse from either of these cats… I would stop telling people I know hip hop if I were you. You can say you know hip hop once you learn at least one of these three cats verses…

Shabba Ranks “Mr. Loverman” Maxi Priest and shabba! This song makes me smile.

Peter Gabriel “Shock The Monkey” Look. I had no idea I liked songs about masterbation so much. I used to like this song when it was new back in the 80s. Then I stumbled upon it in a mountain dew induced download frenzy some years back and it was like I was hearing a new song. I understood it differently than I did when I was 10 or 11…

Peter Gabriel “Sledgehammer” This is still one of he best videos I have ever seen. Song is fun. Video is fun. Back in the day I couldnt wait for the next Peter gabriel video to come out. I wonder why I no longer see his videos… Oh yeah. it might be cause Im getting old.

Pitbull, Nina Sky, Jabba, Elephant Man, Lil Jon “Culo vs.Move Your Body vs. Jook Gal” Ok. So i clubbed a little bit between wife #1 and wife #2. Can you blame me? “The way you move your body girl, makes the fellas go oooooh..”

Ray Charles “Unchain My Heart” I didnt know this particular ray song until I saw the movie. I feel this song and the pain and confusion it causes him. I love the vocals on this cut. Has an old Chicago blues feel to it. No im curious to see who else covered this song…

Royce Da 5′9, Can I Bus, & Chino XL “I Wish You Would” Yup. better than half the cats you swear are great. “Street education/ I slip it in like white boys who think they down do the word ‘nigga’ inside they conversation…”    “I noticed your CD for 99cents, what!? Blank CDs a $1.50 you’d make more if you shut the fuck up!” Chino XL

Sean Paul “Deport Dem” Like I said.. I was single in there for a while. Who am I to discourage a sexy young lady from feeling the music and doing what she showed up to do?

Shop Boys “Party Like A Rock Star” Sometimes you KNOW a cut will be a one hit wonder. Those songs are a guilty pleasure. Fun and yet in 5 years you can deny you ever liked it. Everyone does. Even though they dont sell a gabillion single to no one in particular. Admit it. You like this dumbass record. We all do.Its ok.

Sick Jacken, Chino XL, Sinful & Pitbull “Latinos Stand Up” This timbaland remix is outstanding! A third of this cut is in spanish and people who I play it for who dont speak a lick of spanish love this song. The beat alone makes it worth the time it takes to find it.

Slim Thug, 50 Cent, Young Buck, Paul Wall, & Mike Jones “Still Tippin (remix)” I love this beat. I love the slang and the way the verses that were not written for the track were added seemingly as though they were. Well done. I need to get a copy of FRUITY LOOPS for linux and start mixing my own songs.

Snoop f/ Xzibit “Bitch Please” Dr. Dre on the beat… “Who do you trust? They just aint rugged enough, when things get rough, Im in the club shootin with Puff” -Xzibit

Soul II Soul “Back To Life” This was my song! I got my first 12 inch subwoofer and hooked it up to my mama’s cheap ass GPX (or GXP) stereo… I drove the lady downstairs from us CRAZY! It only got worse as I aged… Except for a few rough spots in there I tend to keep ball shakin bass in either the house or car.

Supercat “Ghetto Red Hot” Wow. This video… was the first exposure i had to dancehall videos… those of you who know the video know there was a scene where a lovely young lady in some white biker pants was dancing in a pan shot… that 3 second snippit got removed once that video made mtv. This was like 1990 maybe.. NOW teen and tween pop queens do more than that on MTV all day. ANYWAY. This was the start of the hip hop dancehall combos… Love this cut.

The Tramps “Disco Inferno”  Its unfortunate that this song in modern day applications, is synonamous with gay. Its great music. the lead singer has a powerful soulful voice. Its odd the way we look back and assign unimportant labels to music Its sad that we put any labels on music. But thats another post for another time.