I cannot
unlisten to the sounds of Travis Scott’s “Goosebumps”, but I can at least
explain to you why MC Ren has been asking for years for other artists to stop
“Putting wack records in the make / By using R&B f*%#ing singers in the god
damn breaks.” I have read Shea Serrano’s “The Rap Year Book: The
Most Important Rap Song From Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and
Deconstructed” cover to cover and I am happy to say that not only did I know
the tracks but had educated opinions on each one. And at the peak of when
I was booking new and upcoming bands, I can proudly say that I booked Major
League Entertainment recording artist Tribeca at both the Middle East and S.O.B’s. I want my boys to look back on this
blog and understand that I know something about music – maybe not how to play,
but how to listen and discuss hip-hop and be a connoisseur.
I am always
trying to teach my boys something new: how to run a pick & roll in
basketball; the proper way to answer a knock on our front door and my love of
hip-hop music from the era of approximately the fall of 1989 until the summer
of 1998. Even though I live in Pittsburgh and my boys know the names of
Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller, I am trying to explain to them that before those
performers there was the 1991 release of the “The Low End Theory”. Then
there was the April 1992 release of “Check Your Head” or later that same year
in November 1992 when “Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde” was released. It
continued with Guru's Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 in 1993, “It Was Written” in
1996 and “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” in 1998.
I distinctly
remember my cousin Jason and I running into Mister Cee near the train platform
in New York City’s Penn Station. I was so excited to see a DJ that I had
seen on “Showtime at the Apollo” in person. However, maybe it was my Charles Oakley jersey, or the style
of my high top Converse sneakers that I was choosing to wear at the time, but
with a stack of vinyl records in hand, he vehemently denied being the person
that I knew who he was. And although Mister Cee did not view me as
someone who was striving to be an authority on hip-hop, I now believe in my
ears and what I am able to pass along to my boys.
I do not make
beats like my cousin Daniel and the mix-tapes that Jason I made as DJ Feldi and
Kool Mark Dee are only alive for those who still have a tape-deck, but I still
know what you should be listening to: Jonwayne’s “Rap Album Two” and
Oddisee's "The Iceberg".
Thanks for
reading.
