No, No, No Part 2
I recently rediscovered one of my old unabashed favorite albums from high school - "Save the Last Dance." It features the likes of Chaka Demus, Montell Jordan, Ice Cube, Notorious B.I.G., etc....aka the best of 90s hip hop. My friends in high school were always surprised/amused by my enjoyment of hip hop, and I've finally realized distinctly where&when I got hooked on this music.
When I lived in Houston for 6 months in 1998 (my dad was teaching science in an inner city Houston high school), I rode the bus to school at 6:20am every morning. My block was the first stop on the longest bus route in the district - a good 30 minute ride in the muggy foggy weather. Even better, I was the new girl, and my seat buddy on the bus chart embarrassingly read "musical instrument". However, I always looked forward to the bus-singing sessions - it's where I started to get a kick out of Destiny's Child, Aaliyah, etc. Almost everyone on my bus was black, and they were REALLY good dancers and singers. One of our favorite bus anthems was Jay-Z "Can I Get A...", and the boys would say "Can I get a WHAT WHAT" and the girls would answer "Can I get a (high pitched) WOO WOO." Classic bus songs.
All this stands in contrast to my reaction to some current rap, i.e. when I used to hear Sigma Chi blasting the bass across the street from Columbae. I could never fall asleep with their music selection. Something about the reductive bass BOOM and some dude whispering something over top of it all really annoyed me. I don't even mind all of the Rihanna-style Timbaland-produced auto-tuned hip hop. (To learn about auto-tuning, I HIGHLY recommend this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBb4cjjj1gI, 1:19, Katie Couric, auto-tuned as she talks about global warming) Anyway, I'm baffled - why do I enjoy Destiny's Child and Montell Jordan but can't stomach the current Top 20? Maybe I just need to start singing this stuff on the bus...
When I lived in Houston for 6 months in 1998 (my dad was teaching science in an inner city Houston high school), I rode the bus to school at 6:20am every morning. My block was the first stop on the longest bus route in the district - a good 30 minute ride in the muggy foggy weather. Even better, I was the new girl, and my seat buddy on the bus chart embarrassingly read "musical instrument". However, I always looked forward to the bus-singing sessions - it's where I started to get a kick out of Destiny's Child, Aaliyah, etc. Almost everyone on my bus was black, and they were REALLY good dancers and singers. One of our favorite bus anthems was Jay-Z "Can I Get A...", and the boys would say "Can I get a WHAT WHAT" and the girls would answer "Can I get a (high pitched) WOO WOO." Classic bus songs.
All this stands in contrast to my reaction to some current rap, i.e. when I used to hear Sigma Chi blasting the bass across the street from Columbae. I could never fall asleep with their music selection. Something about the reductive bass BOOM and some dude whispering something over top of it all really annoyed me. I don't even mind all of the Rihanna-style Timbaland-produced auto-tuned hip hop. (To learn about auto-tuning, I HIGHLY recommend this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBb4cjjj1gI, 1:19, Katie Couric, auto-tuned as she talks about global warming) Anyway, I'm baffled - why do I enjoy Destiny's Child and Montell Jordan but can't stomach the current Top 20? Maybe I just need to start singing this stuff on the bus...