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Pop Rock Nation

Category: People

all-about-musicians-and-the-people-who-help-them-make-music

  • Friday Throwback – Falling

    Most know Montell Jordan for his party anthem This Is How We Do It. In fact, my friend just sent me that YouTube video the other day for no reason other than to pump herself up. It’s become that iconic party anthem. But Montell Jordan didn’t only have one song. On his second album More…, the 6’8 Jordan released Falling as the second single (if you count I Like as the first). It’s probably my favorite Jordan song of them all.

    • I think that’s Krayzie Bone by the way, and the version of this song that I really like is the one that he’s not on.
    • What do the sirens signify?
    • Did Montell really have to match the lenses in his sunglasses with the color of his shirt?
    • “I dial your number on the phone, it’s steady ringing, you’re not home.” Where’s Mr. Telephone Man when you need him?
    • I wish I could get my sideburns to do that.
    • Now why is Krayzie Bone in jail?
    • I think I’d fall for that girl too, especially if she can look like that while still eating Hagen Daz.

  • Infatueighties #48: Nasty

    nasty

    “No my first name ain’t baby, it’s Janet. Miss Jackson if you’re nasty”.

    That line has become legendary in the twenty-three years since it first was popularized, but a lot of folks forget how surprising it was to hear it coming out of Baby Jackson’s mouth at the time. After releasing two albums of sugary-sweet pop/soul, Janet traveled to Minneapolis to meet up with producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, changing the course of her career forever. Jam & Lewis helped Janet come up with songs that took her far away from the fantasy world she and most of her family seemed to be living in. By adding in some hip-hop attitude and a whole lot of sass, Janet was humanized. “Nasty” remains their greatest work, even if Janet’s Jackee-esque voice is a little funny now. The producers’ keyboard work is inventive, Janet’s vocal is tough as nails, even the video is killer (see if you can spot Paula Abdul in the clip).

    Of course, now that Janet herself has turned into a Nasty Girl, I wonder how she feels about this song.

  • Infatueighties #49: Rock Box

    rockbox

    If any one song summarizes why Run-DMC will be taking their rightful place as inductees in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year, “Rock Box” is it. Even if you take away Eddie Martinez’s squealing guitar histrionics, “Rock Box” just oozes rock & roll attitude-moreso than any other hip-hop record that had been made up to that point, and more than many records that have been made since!!

    In today’s super-consumerist musical world, where everyone and their momma has a clothing line or an endorsement deal, it’s refreshing to hear “Calvin Klein’s no friend of mine/Don’t want nobody’s name on my behind”-yet another example of how much hip-hop has changed over the years.

    Also worthy of props? “Rock Box” was the first hip-hop video ever played on MTV, one of many firsts Run, D and Jay racked up during that period in the Eighties when they were pretty much the face of hip-hop to most of America. The song itself still kicks ass HARD. Take a listen and judge for yourself.