I think you may have misunderstood me, or I didn't explain my position well enough. I don't hate on everyone on assistance, and I actually don't hate on everyone that doesn't play by all the rules. I realize that some may scheme the system because if they don't their kids don't eat. I have issue with the people who take it and don't need it, or need it only because it's easier than earning a living. I don't know why my mother likes Louie so much. I can tell you I've heard "You're gonna miss my lovin" a Million times...LOL My father exposed me to some jazz also. Not the old Blue Note type stuff unfortunately, more of say like Earl Kluhg, Spyro Gyra or the Rippingtons. That kind of thing. I like it all but rarely listen. When it comes to jazz I'm more of a Donlad Byrd guy. I love horns! Put it to you this way Nino...this will tell you how good (at least in my opinion lol) my musical instincts were when I was young.....the very first tape I purchased with my own money...with no outside influence...was Chakka Khan....I was about 8 or 9 maybe. Picture a little white boy in Caldors, wearing his tiny ass 80's shorts and long tube socks with the stipes putting Chakka Khan on the counter!...LMAO Where I grew up there was no real hip hop on any radio. In my later teens I could sometimes pick up a channel out of UCONN that played good stuff on the weekends. I used to just let the tape record and then go back and make a tape from what I liked. Other than that it was parents Don't Understand and Summertime and that was it. That's all I got on regular radio for rap music. And I know what your saying about the DJ talking over the tracks...too funny. 10 years ago I would have told you that chick in the Montana video was too curvy for my taste. Now? Right up my alley homie..lol The older I get the more curves I like. I am a real Hip Hop fan! lol.....Dealt with the doubters all my life because I don't wear Averex, or Timberlands, or speak in ebonics (although I'm fluent lol). In other words I play the hand I'm dealt. I'd look like a moron if I dressed in "urban' attire. I dealt with it even more on the basketball courts. I can't tell you how many times I was called "pretty boy" or was treated like just a shirt and a pair of sneakers...until I started raining 3's on'em like Larry, threw a showtime pass on the break, or threw a dunk down in between games (I'm almost 6'2'). I loved proving to those guys that this white boy had game! Consequently, the respect I earned on the court put me in circles I would have never associated with otherwise, deepening my love of hip hop.
Seriously good stuff ! But yeah, my favorite hip hop artists since the mid 90's. 2naFish is like silk but with that deep voice. I don't know whop else to throw in there since then. Maybe Pharcyde? I liked Black Star, Common, Talib and Mos Def. But I really stopped listening to hip hop after Lil Wayne came out. I don't actively go looking for new artists anymore but I really feel J5 is one of the best as of late. Canibus was cool, but you are right he has no hooks. LOL, never thought of that.(Poet Laureate for the win) My buddy tried to get me into Aesop Rock. Didn't really get into him, but I never really heard enough to. Up until then my favorites were as follows: Redman (Whut thee album) - Jam 4U was the shit. Tribe Called quest - ANY album but Midnight Marauders was my fave and Low End Theory to follow. Pete Rock and CL Smooth EPMD Black Sheep- (Kind of goofy, but great stuff. Flavor of the month? Love that track. Strobelight Honey!) Eric B and Rakim - Paid in Full tape cassette was worn out. Rakim had some good stuff later on but it wasn't played like it should be. (Finest Ones) Inspectah Deck - THIS GUY SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE ONE. His intro into triumph is the best intro ever. Anything with GZA, I could listen to him all day.
Nose...Inspecta Deck's verse in Above the Clouds is Sick! the maka', owna' plus soul controlla Ayatolla rest in the sky the clouds my sofa
Ok..i think I figured this out, Oz. go to 1:54...or just listen to it all cuz it's good. Another from Mos Def with some Doors flavor. And one from NAS with some rock flavor.
Maybe G can help...if it's not just you or your computer......you still usin' that commodore 64 ain't you??? You gotta spring for a new box homie!.......LOL! I got you though if nobody has already done it...or you have as I read the next few posts.
I feel you.....I guess I just have bigger issues with the whole "earning a living" thing while others just get richer on the backs of everybody else on their grind! I'm a believer, so if you aren't you'll excuse me for saying it this way, but God put enough here for everybody and some have turned the whole thing into sport for their own gain....and it just ain't right no matter how many history books or tv shows try to convince me that it is! She playin' Lou for your pops homie......LOL!!!!!! She be hittin' him with the "Lady Love" and "Spring Again".....keepin' it spicy!!!.........LOL!!!! OK...Donald Byrd......I'm down.....how about Grover and those Marsalis boys? Nuff said!....LOL! (really???....the long boys with the stripes on 'em???....LOL!!!) I hated that mess......you finally get a good recording of "Me, Myself, and I" goin' and all of a sudden he gotta break in to mention the 9 at 9:00 on power 99 countdown.......! Word!!! Maybe it's an acquired taste.....LOL! You gotta get enough grooves in your soul and then you can appreciate those hips movin' to those grooves! You gotta be grown or somebody grown gotta teach you 'bout dat.....LOL! Ya moms was tryin' to help you out playin' that Lou all those years....LOL!!!!! That's tacky....let me move on and stop pickin' on ma dukes rockin' the Rawls!!!.....LOL!!!! I feel you....it was much of the same for me in the opposite direction. Because of my strong performance in academic subjects and my entertaining talents...I ended up in some situations and places that I probably wouldn't have chosen otherwise as well. Some things made the world a little clearer for me. Stuff like having to prove I belonged on the all white academic decathlon team as a freshman in my predominantly white high school by winning a debate with the senior captain. That was a fine how-do-you-do coming from the only predominantly black feeder school the year before. Found out later everybody else just had to take the test I had aced and they were on the team. Can't tell you how many times they tried to teach me a lesson and help me learn my place. Most of my teachers kinda dug me, but a few didn't care for me at all. Remind me to tell you how I ended up having to take American History I twice without failing it the first time! And it never really stopped the whole time either with some folks. I was voted best male actor and best male vocalist in my senior class superlatives and was supposed to automatically get a solo at graduation as a reward as would the best female vocalist. Wouldn't you know "somebody" decided I might make the ceremony a little too "ethnic" for some seniors and their guests. (possibly Jenn Caldwell's dad who just happened to be the superintendent of schools, that was angry his daughter wasn't going to be able to sing since she lost best female vocalist to Tanya Roberts who was also white and therefore apparently deserved her solo I guess) They decided to take it to a senior class vote (again) in my predominantly white high school on who should sing the class song and had us perform for them to decide. It was 1993 dude!!! Guess which one of us sang "End of the Road" by Boys II Men better and won the vote of 334 seniors by 309 to 18 with 7 absent?.......LOL!!! I flipped the words to fit a graduation and blazed that joint! You learn a lot from earning your place....so to flip it back to where we started..... I can see how earning what you get can be important, and if the system rewarded people properly for effort and gave people an equal starting point that would make perfect sense. But reality being what it is....the system is broken.....and I don't know about you, but if I roll up on the broken vending machine giving out free Snicker Almond bars.....I am an honest enough person to tell them it's broken, but you can be dang sure I got some gettin' smashed all up in my pockets!!!
