"You may be a cunning linguist, but I'm a master debator..."
Okay, so I didn't mean to write so much when I started this, but when you start flowing it just can't be stopped.
Sometimes it's pretty uncanny as to how much of my life has music behind it. It's like I can break my 23 years down and make a soundtrack out of the things I've seen and been through. I remember having a tiny record player in my room when I was a kid and being scolded when my parents couldn't find various pieces of their respective collections. When I wasn't outside playing I was listening to a mixture of Alvin and the Chipmunks, Sesame Street, and jazz. A few years later I had to have a boombox like everyone else in Brooklyn, and that meant tapes. Stacks and stacks of tapes, and by then I was onto Run-DMC, Whodini, Kurtis Blow, The Fat Boys, and a handful of others. And jazz tapes that my uncle would make for me, of course. Because I was always doing little odd jobs and had a paper route, I was the first kid I knew of that had a walkman. The walkman days were full of Boogie Down Productions, Erik B. & Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, and more jazz. At that age I started getting into blues to go along with the jazz, and some older soul music too. Around 8 or 9, I found out I was a James Brown fan. My family got a CD player WAY back in the day; like in 86 or 87, whenever they really hit the market. My father's always been into toys and we were always the first family on the block to have the "hot" new electronics. But when I was about 12 I had a CD player of my own, in my room. I'd already left most of my friends behind too, spending more time in the company of "unsavory" adults and the girl that babysat the kids next door. The neighborhood I grew up in has always been pretty diverse but for the most part the friends I had up and down the block came up the same way I did. Amanda, the 16 year old babysitter, was the first person that ever really sat me down and played rock music for me. Keep in mind that the hair metal era preceded my adolescence and no one I knew was into that; besides, my father raised me up believing that only a sissy would get his ear pierced. What was I to think about men that wore spandex, had longer, bigger hair than most women, and wore makeup? Even now I don't have a lot of love for the music that came out then -- 'cept for Van Halen -- but that's not because of how the bands looked. Guns N Roses was pretty hot too, but I digress. I started listening to a new kind of music right about the time that Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Green Day, and a bunch of other bands literally exploded across the country. And I was feeling it. It's wild because when I listen to some of those older CDs now I don't see the music or the lyrics really; I see where I was in my life when they came out. I remember the first time I ever heard those songs. It was so fresh and real; not manufactured and dolled up, not some kind of pretty packaging covering a bland product. And at the same time, my beloved hip-hop was making the same kind of transformation; it was getting grittier and raw. It didn't matter if you could dance like MC Hammer because his day was over. The Wu-Tang Clan came out then. And the Notorious BIG, and Mobb Deep, and Dr. Dre came in with his own sound... and it was just a good time overall. To this day I think the stuff that came out between like 92 and 95 is my absolute favorite as far as contemporary music goes. Damn, even what I considered to be "punkass" R&B was changing. I'm sure the fact that I was in the firm grips of puberty and was a walking erection most of the time helped too... but R&B singers had edge too. And the songs got sexier. Jodeci, R. Kelly, Silk, Aaron Hall; man. Those guys were really saying some shit. And just oozing sex. I lost my virginity with Silk's Lose Control in the background, which forever endears it to me. That era kind of reached its fever peak with me when my two absolute favorite bands, Wu-Tang Clan and Rage Against the Machine, went on tour... TOGETHER. Holy fuck, I thought I died and went to heaven. I saw them in Connecticut, Philly, and in Richmond that summer. All during high school I kept a walkman or CD player in my bookbag for those breaks in the day where I had enough time to sneak off campus and smoke a blunt somewhere. And don't even get me started on the marijuana. That brought Pink Floyd, Cypress Hill, Beck, The Alkaholiks, and the immortal GOD of stoner music, Jimi Hendrix into my life. Floyd, Beck, and Jimi survived that period, but those other two I don't listen to anymore. I also gained a new appreciation for the Beastie Boys when I smoked weed but that's neither here nor there. Before every football game, track meet, and lacrosse match I had the headphones on and just zoned out; that was my preparation. My own private mantra set to music. Don't try to give me some kind of pep talk or speech to try to get my blood going; give me my walkman and some RAtM. For a big game or when I really wanted to fuck someone up, some Metallica. Before track meets I wanted some inner calm, so that was when my Chopin or Beethoven entered the mix. If I was feeling saucy, it was Maxwell or Groove Theory. Today I'm basically the same except it seems that my mood dictates the music. Some days I want a barrage of wild lyrics and crazy basslines; others I don't want to hear anything made after 1975. Some days I want to drown in guitar, others I want to be sang to. I have CDs playing all day at my desk while I'm at work, and I have to put something on before I fall asleep. The list of artists I enjoy has grown since then, naturally, and I hope that trend will continue for the rest of my life.
Sometimes it's pretty uncanny as to how much of my life has music behind it. It's like I can break my 23 years down and make a soundtrack out of the things I've seen and been through. I remember having a tiny record player in my room when I was a kid and being scolded when my parents couldn't find various pieces of their respective collections. When I wasn't outside playing I was listening to a mixture of Alvin and the Chipmunks, Sesame Street, and jazz. A few years later I had to have a boombox like everyone else in Brooklyn, and that meant tapes. Stacks and stacks of tapes, and by then I was onto Run-DMC, Whodini, Kurtis Blow, The Fat Boys, and a handful of others. And jazz tapes that my uncle would make for me, of course. Because I was always doing little odd jobs and had a paper route, I was the first kid I knew of that had a walkman. The walkman days were full of Boogie Down Productions, Erik B. & Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, and more jazz. At that age I started getting into blues to go along with the jazz, and some older soul music too. Around 8 or 9, I found out I was a James Brown fan. My family got a CD player WAY back in the day; like in 86 or 87, whenever they really hit the market. My father's always been into toys and we were always the first family on the block to have the "hot" new electronics. But when I was about 12 I had a CD player of my own, in my room. I'd already left most of my friends behind too, spending more time in the company of "unsavory" adults and the girl that babysat the kids next door. The neighborhood I grew up in has always been pretty diverse but for the most part the friends I had up and down the block came up the same way I did. Amanda, the 16 year old babysitter, was the first person that ever really sat me down and played rock music for me. Keep in mind that the hair metal era preceded my adolescence and no one I knew was into that; besides, my father raised me up believing that only a sissy would get his ear pierced. What was I to think about men that wore spandex, had longer, bigger hair than most women, and wore makeup? Even now I don't have a lot of love for the music that came out then -- 'cept for Van Halen -- but that's not because of how the bands looked. Guns N Roses was pretty hot too, but I digress. I started listening to a new kind of music right about the time that Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Green Day, and a bunch of other bands literally exploded across the country. And I was feeling it. It's wild because when I listen to some of those older CDs now I don't see the music or the lyrics really; I see where I was in my life when they came out. I remember the first time I ever heard those songs. It was so fresh and real; not manufactured and dolled up, not some kind of pretty packaging covering a bland product. And at the same time, my beloved hip-hop was making the same kind of transformation; it was getting grittier and raw. It didn't matter if you could dance like MC Hammer because his day was over. The Wu-Tang Clan came out then. And the Notorious BIG, and Mobb Deep, and Dr. Dre came in with his own sound... and it was just a good time overall. To this day I think the stuff that came out between like 92 and 95 is my absolute favorite as far as contemporary music goes. Damn, even what I considered to be "punkass" R&B was changing. I'm sure the fact that I was in the firm grips of puberty and was a walking erection most of the time helped too... but R&B singers had edge too. And the songs got sexier. Jodeci, R. Kelly, Silk, Aaron Hall; man. Those guys were really saying some shit. And just oozing sex. I lost my virginity with Silk's Lose Control in the background, which forever endears it to me. That era kind of reached its fever peak with me when my two absolute favorite bands, Wu-Tang Clan and Rage Against the Machine, went on tour... TOGETHER. Holy fuck, I thought I died and went to heaven. I saw them in Connecticut, Philly, and in Richmond that summer. All during high school I kept a walkman or CD player in my bookbag for those breaks in the day where I had enough time to sneak off campus and smoke a blunt somewhere. And don't even get me started on the marijuana. That brought Pink Floyd, Cypress Hill, Beck, The Alkaholiks, and the immortal GOD of stoner music, Jimi Hendrix into my life. Floyd, Beck, and Jimi survived that period, but those other two I don't listen to anymore. I also gained a new appreciation for the Beastie Boys when I smoked weed but that's neither here nor there. Before every football game, track meet, and lacrosse match I had the headphones on and just zoned out; that was my preparation. My own private mantra set to music. Don't try to give me some kind of pep talk or speech to try to get my blood going; give me my walkman and some RAtM. For a big game or when I really wanted to fuck someone up, some Metallica. Before track meets I wanted some inner calm, so that was when my Chopin or Beethoven entered the mix. If I was feeling saucy, it was Maxwell or Groove Theory. Today I'm basically the same except it seems that my mood dictates the music. Some days I want a barrage of wild lyrics and crazy basslines; others I don't want to hear anything made after 1975. Some days I want to drown in guitar, others I want to be sang to. I have CDs playing all day at my desk while I'm at work, and I have to put something on before I fall asleep. The list of artists I enjoy has grown since then, naturally, and I hope that trend will continue for the rest of my life.