Hey Folks, I’ve been asking for volunteers to put their iPods on shuffle and let me know what they’re listening to (in totally random fashion, of course), and lo and behold, somebody bit!
Ladies & Gentlemen, coming straight out of the Jersey suburbs, here’s my boy Kyle, taking over the Sunday Shuffle from me. Kyle is a full-on hip-hop head, although he’s also enjoyed music by everyone from John Mayer to Ben Folds (which means that this is someone who has damn good taste in music similar tastes in music to mine). Take it away, Kyle!!
Aight, since my iPod lacks a working skip button thanks to a dumb decision I once made to listen to it during a long walk during a rainy vacation day I was thinking about listening via iTunes, but decided I might as well just listen to it through my iHome. There are plenty of times I skip songs just to get to ones I wanna hear, so I am not doing that today.
“Puppy Chow” – Common: Maybe it’s finally time I try to write a review of “Can I Borrow A Dollar?” (although one of these days I also have to do “One Day It’ll All Make Sense”.) I’m sure as of now there are plenty of people ready and willing to write an essay comprising 24 paragraphs about how and why Common has fallen off (even though I’m worried about his new album too) but I won’t go into detail about that right now, I’ll fight temptation. This song is fun and has a lot of Common’s hard-to-describe old style, but it’s definitely not as memorable as some of my favorite tracks on his debut.
“Electric Relaxation” – A Tribe Called Quest: I’ve been meaning to pull out my copy of “The Low End Theory” for weeks (although I do think “Midnight Marauders” is better.) My opinion of this song is no different from any other big hip-hop head/Tribe fan, and it also has a classic Phife Dawg punchline, great stories from both emcees (I’m relistening to Q-Tip’s November solo album to see how much I like it) and I accidentally once found out the actual words they say in the chorus. There’s actually been a remake of the song by producer Marco Polo and J*Davey (that I thought wasn’t too good) and I think it’s also been sampled a few times in hip-hop songs as well. Probably the best song on their best album.
“Mama Had A Baby And It’s Head Popped Off” – Atmosphere: Not my favorite Atmosphere song (off my favorite Atmosphere album – their debut “Lucy Ford”.) It’s got some interesting lyrics from Slug regarding God and politics, but the beat is just sinister and not something I really like. I don’t know what else to say about this one…wish a better song from them came up here.
“The Definition” – DJ Jazzy Jeff & Kel Spencer: The emcee Kel Spencer (ed.: Isn’t Kel Spencer the dude who was on “All That” with Kenan Thompson back in the 90s?) raps over some pianos and DJ scratches here about observing the bad habits and trends perpetuated by wack emcees around him, and how he doesn’t like being overlooked by them. Jeff’s last album, “The Return of the Magnificent” was started off by lesser-known rappers like Kel (that has so far been the only time I’ve heard him) but still was one of 2007’s best, and perfect to listen to during a long-ass road trip (the album concept was that Jeff was forced to listen to the radio during a trip between Philly and Florida because there was no CD changer in his rent-a-car.)
“Final Frontier” – Blueprint & RJD2: I want Soul Position to release another album, and I also want to know whether or not it has been confirmed that RJD2 is no longer doing hip-hop producing. This is kind of a tough song to describe thanks to Blueprint’s unusual lyrics, which some people could say are obviously pretentious. Blueprint also needs to release another album – it’s been pushed back for years. He’s done better than this song, but it’s still enjoyable (although the best performance on “Deadringer”, RJ’s first album which this is on, is from Copywrite on “June”…but that’s another story.)
“American Dreamin” – Jay-Z: This song is kinda moody. Jay rhymes about trying his hardest in the New York grind he’s detailing, and he sounds good throughout the whole song (even though there are many other tracks I’d rather listen to from “American Gangster”.) Considering Nas and Kanye West dropped great albums I was really anxious about this year, hopefully Jay will next year.
“Inherited Scars” – Sage Francis: Damn, had to end this on a depressing note. And I’ve been in a decent mood today so far too. He’s an easy artist to play when you want self-pity or are reflecting about your life’s misfortunes, but here he’s kinda vulnerable, talking about a secret his sister told him about a deadly habit of hers and is not sure what to do about the situation. The lyrics are fantastic as is the message, and he details what he’s feeling and what he expects his sister is feeling, hoping for empathy from her side. I’m gonna have to listen to some more happy music soon.
There ya go, folks. Thanks Kyle, for sharing at least a portion of your music collection with us. Now that someone has thrown down the gauntlet. Anyone else wanna share? You know where to find me.