MUSIC TO FILE YOUR TAXES TO: THE MAD MONEY MIX

O'Jays "For the Love of Money"
Gucci Crew II "All About the Money"
Dismasters "Small Time Hustler"
Lightning Rod "Sport"
Geto Boys "I Ain't With Being Broke"
The Kinks "Sunny Afternoon"
Junior Parker "Taxman"
Notorious B.I.G. "Respect"
Puff Daddy "All About the Benjamins"
Jackson Five "It's Great to Be Here"
Jay-Z "Money Ain't a Thang"
Pete Rock and CL Smooth "Good Life (Group Home Mix)"
Funkadelic "Funky Dollar Bill"
Hossam Ramzy "Khusara Khusara"
Jay-Z "Big Pimpin'"
Gil Scott Heron "Pardon Our Analysis (snip)"
John Lee Hooker "War is Over (Goodbye California)"
The Stooges "Money"
Beastie Boys "Super Disco Breakin' (chorus) (Kidda Remix)"
Eric B and Rakim "Paid in Full"
Beatles "Baby, You're a Rich Man"
Audio Two "Top Billin'"
Audio Two "I Get the Papers"
London Posse "Money Mad"
Pink Floyd "Money"
Showbiz and AG "Fat Pockets"
Clipse "Mr. Me Too"
Buddy Baker "Sing Song"
Beatnuts "Off the Books"
Clash "Straight to Hell"
M.I.A. "Paper Planes"
Jay-Z "Dead Presidents II"
J-Zone "I'm --ckin' Up the Money"
Madvillain "Curls"
Wu Tang Clan "C.R.E.A.M."
Jimmy Spicer "Money (Dollar Bill, Ya'll)"
Dexter Wansel "A New Beginning"
The Lox "Money, Power, Respect"
The Lox "Get This $"
Gangstarr "All 4 the Ca$h"
MF Grimm & Kool G Rap "Money on My Brain"
Zhiggie "Rakin' in the Dough"
J Rock "Root of All Evil"
Ed OG & The Bulldogs "Gotta Have Money"
James Brown "I Got Money"
Apache "Make Money"
MC Breed & 2Pac "Gotta Get Mine"
Lil Wayne "A Milli"
James Brown "For the Love of Money (Live in Zaire)"

Hip hop's love for money has existed since the Genesis. It was born out of the burning projects of South Bronx by poor kids with nothing better to do, just trying to get up and get ahead. From the Fifth Ward of Houston, the mean streets of Compton, West Philly, Englewood, Jersey...when labels started handing out the cash, the love affair was born and hip hop was a means to the luxuries of life which, to that point, were unrealized. Money is to hip hop as cheap beer is to country music. They're practically inseparable.

And it ain't just hip hop that has a love affair with money. Hip hop only magnifies and exaggerates everyone's greed and paper chase. When you see Lil Wayne on TV waving his cash around like Kleenexes, it's only a parody, an ideal. But that fantasy has so deeply embedded itself in our minds and spirits that glamour and fortune ultimately underlies everything decision we make in this modern world. Oblivious to troubles of the world and shamelessly driven by the almighty dollar, the American Hunger is that of excess. It's not enough to shove plates of pasta, shrimp and lightly salted steamed veggies down, we want the chocolate cake that's stacked up to our chins and dripping with syrup too. Hip hop's only the soundtrack. Extortion, embezzlement, fraud, tax evasion. Amazing what money is worth sometimes. It's just dyed paper.

So, for that reason as well as the approaching Tax Season, I started conceptualizing a mix which would bring together as many different cultural connotations dealing with money. We're no rappers. We're the common man. We gotta do our own taxes (of course, Clint's services are always available too). Needless to say, hip hop offered many songs that fit the bill, but I wanted to cross genres and pull from a few different origins. Songs qualified by either expressing the recognition that you have no money, the dangers of having it, the desire to have it, the celebration of having more than you know what to do with. It's that time of year where we have to come clean, air out our dirty pocketbooks, fully disclose everything to the big bad IRS. What we foolishly spent, what we managed to save, what we gave to charities (hopefully you remembered to give to a charity, greedy punk). It's time to audit your household, your wife, your husband, your kids, your dogs. Taxman's coming to town and he wants what he's owed. If you've been a good kid, he might even put a quarter under your pillow. So, as Uncle Sam is pickpocketing your earnings and using it to make another politician fat, The Root Down invites you to enjoy the sounds of MUSIC TO FILE YOUR TAXES TO.

Click the cover art at the top or click THIS RIGHT HERE. It's John Lee Hooker, Scarface, Bob Barker, Gil Scott Heron, Junior Parker's covering a Beatles classic, the Kinks, the Geto Boys just trying to not be broke, a cautious J Rock warning, Ed OG's observations of women paperchasing, Lil Wayne stacking cash all the way to a Grammy nomination, Iggy Pop, Apache, Puff Daddy and Zhiggie all getting theirs. Enjoy. And watch for the z-share thongs and bikinis.

Home sick again today. Feel worse today than I did yesterday. My chest feels like someone punched me all night. Watching "Gangland" and learning all about the Hell's Angels. Greatest show on television without question.