Aw, memories. Mine get hazier by the day due to age and certain “lifestyle” choices I have made over the years. I used to be cool (I think) and I used to listen to good music before my responsibilities got in the way. However, my sweet neighbor kid is in high school and he always enthusiastically shares what he is listening to with me. He is crazy for Jay Z. Crazy on the way that only a teenager can be for music. Before pretension, before bitterness, and before life attaches too many memories to your music.
I love it when I hear him singing this in the hallway:
So Crasstalk, what was your favorite band or artist in high school. Who spoke to your little rocker?
Living with Mom and Dad in the Ancestral Family Split-Level was quite an experience, and law school was boggling. When I moved back home after college, I was unprepared for the efforts of my Old People to stay young.
I don’t know if it’s a Scot thing or a Milanese thing, but we all tend to sing when we think we’re alone and are doing a domestic task. Mine tend to come from VH-1’s Top 20, and Mom and Dad tend to Motown, since in 1961 that was the thing.
The central staircase of a split-level separates the living areas by function, which is cool. It also enables one to spy on what’s going on on other levels without being seen.
So, when I came home from work and discovered that my Jamiroquai CD was missing from my car, I was a tad startled to hear it blasting from the stereo in the dining room.
Mom.
She had her friend Pam in the living room and was dusting. There was wine – a huge bottle of Pinot Grigio. She sang “You know this spooky is for real!” and Pam folded up on the sofa in a pile of giggles. I stood there on the stairs to the den with my jaw unhinged as Mom pranced around with a can of Pledge. Canned Heat with lemon freshness. “I threw my caution to the wi-hi-hind! Oh. Hi. I borrowed your CD. Do you want some wine?”
“Mom, I think you’ve had enough for both of us.” The crazy bitch was actually speaking LOLcat.
Finally, I tottered out to the terrace and called my friend Bill. After telling him what was up, I asked if I could move in with him. “My Mom sings ‘Stairway To Heaven’ when she dusts.” he informed me. “You’re better off.”
Then, the next day, I was watching HGTV in the den with the kitty, and Dad was working in the garage with the door open just a bit. It was just enough to hear him yell along with Boston “I closed mah eyes and she slipped away-ayyy-hay! She slipped away-AY-HAY! It’s moar than a feeeeeling (moar than a feeling) when I hear that old song play woo-ooh-ooh-hoo!” The cat cocked an ear in that general direction, then shook his head, like “Christ, make it stop.” My sentiments exactly.
I peeked in, and there he was at his workbench – making a goddam birdhouse, so that the goddam blue jays have a haven from which to dive-bomb our outdoor meals.
“Are both of you batshit?” I asked him.
“Maybe, a little.”
“Great. That looks terrific for me and my future.”
“Heh-heh-heh.”
Don’t get me wrong. If I had boring Old People I’d be bored and more than slightly irritated. I just wish they were a little less musical about it.
And I’m so glad I live 20 minutes away now, with my Cap’n. Though he thinks I’m a bit kooky when he catches me singing Colbie Callait to the cats.
Wake up, Wake Up, WAKE UP! Happy Monday Crasstalk. We have another exciting week planned for you and we are hope you are ready to go. Let’s get this moving.
Hi gang and welcome. I think we all know that it has been a long week and it is time for a little relaxing. Let’s get to the party part of the week, shall we?
Yes, I know those videos had nothing to do with each other. Deal with it. Have a hard-rocking weekend, my friends.
Happy Friday everyone. For today’s Flashback Friday I thought we would play off the Open Thread from last night and continue on with some hippy music. Here are a couple to get you started.
This one is an unorthodox choice, but since it was banned from TV by CBS during the Vietnam war I think it is worth sharing.
Here’s another great one.
All right you dangerous Obama radical types, show me what you got.
Well here we are at the end of the week. It’s been a pretty exciting week around here and I hope all of you have some fun plans for the next couple of days. Since I know full well a bunch of you are going to post versions of that damn Friday song I am going to beat you to the punch. Yeah, it’s gonna be like that.
The first one is a fundamentalist Christian version. I dare you to find a more obnoxious Friday parody than this one. It’s awfulness is worthy of an epic poem. Make sure you stick with it to get to the breakdown at the 2:30 mark.
Since I made you suffer through that I will give you something that is genuinely fun. Add this to the 789 reasons I love Dr. Stephen T. Colbert DFA.
Hello and welcome to Crasstalk. Hope all of you are having a great night and are ready for the end of the week. Since most of you are socialist hippie clowns, here’s some damn hippy music. Now get off my lawn and get a hair cut!
I would hate to leave out our few Crasstalk conservatives, so this is for you guys.
Cormega photo via the excellent photoblog G M D Three. Please go check him out!
Is there any other music scene that obsesses over mass appeal quite like hip-hop does? There’s a whole ecosystem of rap terminology related to fame. Now you’re famous? You just blew up. Having trouble getting radio airplay? Man, they’re sleepin on ya.
So who are the all-time most slept-on MCs? Me personally, I still absolutely love the mid to late 90s rhymes, so my list is big on East Coast mixtape heavy hitters and battle MCs. These are the best of the best, the ones who should have been household names, but no, you just had to have your PM Dawn and Kriss Kross.
(Warning: This is not an invitation to post awful Kriss Kross or PM Dawn videos in the comment section. If you do, I will personally ridicule your questionable taste. This is the GOOD HIP-HOP THREAD, not one of the many, many threads devoted to lame guilty pleasure music! I’m serious.)
In no particular order:
1. Ras Kass
Ras Kass has been putting out albums and mixtapes for years now. The L.A. rapper definitely has a hardcore cult following, but despite a Tupac-esque snarl and wicked vocabulary, he’s never been able to really break out. It may partly have to do with the fact that a lot of his songs reflect on deep, centuries-long themes such as colonialism and racism. For some reason, rap was way more political in the 90s.
2. Cormega
Oh, what could have been. Cormega was actually an original member of The Firm, along with Nas, Foxy Brown and AZ. The Queensbridge rapper unfortunately had a falling out with Nas early on, then left the group, then had a legendary beef with him, then went to prison for a little while. What a shame. Cormega has one of the greatest rap flows of all time. His voice is super nasally and actually kind of soft in a way that conveys a certain vulnerability that all the great rappers have had at one time or another (Tupac and Li’l Wayne come to mind).
3. Kool G. Rap
They call him Giacanna because he’s about as close to a rap godfather as there will ever be. Kool G. Rap had a few minor hits in the early 90s, then saw his brand of cocaine raps blow up with Pac and Biggie. Today basically EVERY rapper from Rick Ross to Young Jeezy to Waka Flocka Flame can thank him for taking rap to new heights of drug-trafficking braggadoccio. Also, he has an absolutely DOPE New York flow that’s deep and rich and funky.
4. Big L
This is probably one of the saddest rap stories of all time. Big L was young and on top of the world, with his debut album getting love… and then in 1999 he was shot to death in his Harlem neighborhood. To this day there are hip-hop heads who still haven’t gotten over it — with good reason. Check him out freestyling with a young Jigga and see if you can really tell which one would be the star.
5. Jadakiss
Jada has had one semi-big hit (“Why”) but the man is always named when talking about rap’s most slept-on. His rhymes are so rough and gravelly it’s like the devil himself is coming out the speakers. Jada may never have the mainstream appeal of Jay-Z or Kanye, but good luck finding another rapper with this level of street cred. He’s also got some of the most famous rap freestyles of all time… fast forward this video to the :30 when Kiss takes it to another level.
6. Memphis Bleek
Here’s another Roc-A-Fella veteran who never quite blew up. Even Jay-Z has said he could never understand how Bleek wasn’t a bigger name. Here he is on “Change the Game.” Bleek comes on at the 1:00 mark and just destroys it.
7. Third Degree
Third Degree was a group of rappers from San Antonio with pretty much a strictly Texas following (I’m pretty sure they’re no longer recording together). I have no idea how I discovered them (probably on some Houston mixtape). Anyway, I love them and how could you not? They named one of their mixtapes after their love of gold teeth, rapping and the Purple Drank: “Grills, Skills and Purple Spills.” Texas rap is just criminally underrated.
8. Rah Digga
Rah Digga was (and still is) the total package. She had the dope voice, the dope flow AND the dope look. And she did it all without being a chickenhead like Lil Kim or Nicki Minaj. She was knocking on the door of superstardom in the late 90s as a member of Flipmode (Busta Rhymes’ posse) but for some reason it never quite came togther. Anyway, I love her. R.D., I’m single now. Call me!
9. Keith Murray
What a great voice. I always kind of lumped him in with EPMD, Redman and Def Squad and I guess he sorta got lost in the shuffle of dope New Jersey rap flows. It’s too bad because he has some sick, sick rhymes.
10. Papoose
Papoose was born about 15 years too late. He would have been HUGE in 1992! He’s a pure battle rapper. (Warning: Old Man Rant coming up!) Unfortunately these days the rap game is all about who can sell the most ringtones, so things like lyrical skills don’t really matter. Here he is alliterating his way through the entire rap alphabet.
Good morning gang. Since it is the painful middle of the week I am going to give you something loud and fast to wake you up and get you ready to conquer the Internet.
There, no go out and tell the world to fuck off. Unless that will get you fired. In that case just seethe at your desk and hope your boss gets hit by a car. Have a great day.
Ahhhh yeah baby. I’m way too excited for this. I know you Crasstalkers have been ready and waiting for today since last week so here we go.
Sam Cooke is a beautiful man with a beautiful voice. This song is so heart-breaking, so wistful, so poignant. There aren’t enough adjectives that are fitting for this song.
Now, let’s get funky with The Staples Singers. Roebuck “Pops” Staples, the patriarch of the family, formed the group with his children Cleotha, Pervis, Yvonne, and Mavis. Fun fact: Bob Dylan wanted to marry Mavis and asked for her hand in marriage. Can you imagine the talent their kid would have had?
Let me to just also add that videos from Soul Train’s Soul Train line will not be turned away. If you have been to a wedding and not done a Soul Train line, you have not lived.
