I'M A FAN OF FIGHTING...I ALWAYS HAVE BEEN, PROBABLY ALWAYS WILL BE.

Let's get something straight. I'm a fan of fighting. Now, I don't mean violence. I mean fighting. There's a difference. Violence is an ideal, a theory. Violence is what happens when people fight incorrectly. But fighting is a pure, untainted act of force against another. It's not always pretty. In fact, the uglier the better. Violence is video games. It's depicted in movies. It's sometimes absurd. But fighting, doesn't necessarily draw blood. Fighting is not like dancing.

I've always thought myself to be a fan of violence, however, in time, I've found that the by distinguishing the difference between the two, I've now found myself more drawn to fighting. Violence has no point or purpose. There are no random acts of fighting. Only violence. Fighting happens for a reason. You pitch high and inside on the league's best hitter--there's gonna be a fight. There's territorial fights. There's political fights. There's fundamental fights. Some fights turn into wars. I don't know if I'm a fan of wars, but definitely fights.

Physical fights? Yeah, I like physical fights. I don't so much like arguments. They're too commonplace. People always like to talk. And even some talk alot of ish. But there's something about when grown men are talking, then arguing, then all of the sudden they come to fisticuffs. That's awesome. I think that a good fight is needed in all office spaces just to get the blood running. Yeah, I know most would disagree, but wouldn't you secretly like to see some cat just get beat down right there in the cubicle?

Violence, however, just bums me out. It's like, "Damn, kids exhibit such violence these days. Whatta bummer." Like those kids on YouTube videoing themselves beating each other up--that's just violence. They're acting violent. They're not fighting. The difference is fighting is not glamorized. It's not so theatric. I can tell you this, most kids don't want to get in fights. They might be troubled kids, but if done correctly, they don't want a fight. They might have violence in them, but they don't wanna fight.

I only bring it up because, well, I'm not really prone to violence or fighting. I'm a pretty relaxed guy and, despite having the tendency to show emotional votility, I don't ever start swinging because, well, I'm 30 years old. But to be honest, I've never been that type of cat. I've fantasized about doing it one day.

I guess this is kinda like a therapy session. It's one that my insurance doesn't need to cover because, well, it's just me and The Root Down. If it's true that I struggle with internalized anger issues, maybe this will help me clear my head and stop grinding my teeth at night.

The other day, I thought to myself, "It's been way too long since I've seen a good fight." The exhilaration that I feel from simply witnessing a fight is very difficult to explain. It's much like a bee sting or a adrenaline shot. It's like dark coffee. Or a good funk record. It just knocks the cobwebs loose and gets the heart pumping. Notice, however, I said "seen" a good fight.

Fighting is not something I would like to see family or friends involved with. I don't roll with a lot of fighters. I know that hurts my street cred and, likewise, hurts the street cred of anyone I hang out with, but c'mon, who are we kidding. We don't go fighting. Sometimes, I think about how bad ass it would be to roll with a dude like Begbie from Trainspotting. Maybe just for one night.

Alright, so tonight we learned there's a difference between violence and fighting. I like fighting, but I won't throw a punch. And if I talk trash, my friends won't have my back. Therapy session over. I'm taking my magnesium.

BODY COUNT APPARENTLY TOO LOW IN "THERE WILL BE BLOOD"

So, my lovely wife and I finally got our opportunity to see There Will Be Blood this weekend and, it's always difficult for me to prepare myself for close to three hours of cinema, but I had wanted to see this since long back in December. I was ready. Not sure if my lovely wife was. Generally, we believe that if you're accomplished filmmaker, two hours should be enough for you.

Well, the movie was bad ass. It's a complicated tale that bares warning to the lure of greed and its impact on the human spirit as well as a classic good versus evil spin presented in a haunting manner by a jaw-dropping performance by Daniel Day-Lewis. Yes, his performance is that good.

At the end of the movie, the theater that was about three-quarters full rose to their feet--some began chattering excitedly, others offered a joyous chuckle. The folks behind me complained.

"Only four people died?! Only four people died!"

Apparently, the title of the movie was a little too heady for the Yellow. I decided to sit back while the credits rolled because I was particularly interested where the movie was shot. As I'm sitting there in the now-empty theater, I'm approached by this figure out of the darkness. He's walking directly toward me just a row in front of me. This fumbling idiot voice pours out.

"Was this movie good?"

I sit there ignoring him at first.

"Was it good?"

I nod. He leans in closer.

"This is that movie with Dennis Lewis, right?"

"Daniel Day-Lewis, yes."

"Oh, that's right."

He stands there for a moment or two longer during which time I positively identify this moron as the one, the only...Dr. Goldstick the "Optometrist." He was alone. Looking alone. Very alone. Part of me wanted to pity him with his medium cola and popcorn for one. But I didn't. I just sat there and ignored him in my perfect pair of glasses that took him two attempts at my prescription strength meanwhile suggesting that I had an astigmatism as well as eyes that were in a severe state of degredation and soon I would be blind if I continued to alternate between my glasses and contacts. I wanted to tell him, "Hey, Goldstick, still not blind!"

As we made our way home, I stopped off to get gas. As I was in paying, a kid was walking away from the counter and, laughing, said to the guy at the register, "Drinking beer and chasing women--that's what I do!" He must've been fifteen years old.

I gotta get outta here. It's Monday. I'm hopped up on magnesium now. Results are inconclusive as of now. Still the baddest bruxer you ever knew. Don't forget it.

THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED...AND OTHER TRAGEDIES.

My lovely wife has told me that Saturdays are the day for sleeping in. Apparently everyone in the house believes this to be true except for me. I've slept really light this week. I've begun grinding my teeth again in my sleep. It's crazy. I'll wake up with sores in my mouth and have a faint memory of my wife talking to me in the middle of the night, massaging my jaw. It's a horrible thing (it's actually called bruxism). You go to sleep tired (because you didn't sleep the night before either) and you wake up four or five hours later wake up with your jaws, teeth and head hurting.


My lovely wife stayed up late trying to diagnose me, solve me. She's like that because, well, she's a clinical psychologist. They offered many solutions: take calcium before going to bed, lavender oil rubbed onto your neck and jaw, 2000 mg of magnesium before bed, hot bath before bed, counseling, drink less alcohol, where a mouth guard (yeah, like a running back), cognitive-behavioral therapy. All sound like good solutions, however, I'm not much for evening baths, rubbing oil on my beautiful exterior will only cause me to break out, I'm not drinking alcohol, I've worn the mouth guard and they suck and I've never been a good candidate for counseling. That'd leave magnesium and calcium. I'm not even good at taking pills because, well, I never do. It's not a stance I take, I just never need them. I guess I'll try it. Magnesium doesn't sound like something you should be taking, though. Whatever.


The causes of bruxism are even odder. Bruxers (there's a name for people like me...I guess "bruxer" is better than "insensitive prick"--like I normally get) could develop the grinding by changes in sleep patterns, aggressive personality type, early Huntington's or Parkinson's disease, stress (one that remains a top suspect) or, my personal favorite, internalized anger. My lovely wife, as sweet as she is, has suggested that I might not even realize that I have anger issues because I exert that energy in a subconcious state. It got me thinking: am I like a hulk-like character? Could this be an effect of the growth hormones I've been taking? Is this like roid rage? I just love the thought that I have internalized anger. It's like I'm carrying a little devil child or something. Or a possession of some sort. Kiddingly, I asked my lovely wife if she's scared to sleep with me--afraid that I might go off in the middle of night when my anger is externalized. She wasn't. Us bruxers are high-strung individuals. But to think, as high-energy as I am, that I could be internalizing something or anything is beyond me.

Random note: Dale and Sarah, it looks like SXSW ain't happening this year. Again. Sucks, but there's just too much snow in Colorado to spend a weekend trapped in a crowded bar watching a 30-minute set from 2Mex. Not that I don't want to see you all too and check out the new pad, but it'll have to be another time. I know you're disappointed. I can sense it internally.

THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED

So I found out a slight defect to Da Pocket Prophet the other day (Zune). I was just about to walk out for lunch and had set it in my lap while I typed an email. I stood up and Da Prophet fell about two to three feet to the ground. I look down and, would you believe, the LCD cracked. It still played, but now I couldn't negotiate my way around. It just looked like my Zune hit a bird going about 150 miles an hour. I present Exhibit A. This came only a few days after snapping the screen on my phone. It's probably the internalized anger. Found a replacement part (with tools) on Ebay for only $60. Small price to pay to enjoy 1989 all over again. Oh, and if I haven't mentioned, I am on 1989 now. I blew through 1988. I keep finding a few things from 1988 that I need, but I felt comfortable taking the step into 1989. I think I've mentioned this somewhere.

(listening to LL Cool J's "I'm the Type of Guy")

Last night, I had the opportunity to participate in a unique cultural exchange, if you will. Now, for my readers and those new to The Root Down. I'm white. Not pasty, but definably white. I come from a German heritage. I'm not confused about my ethnicity. No matter how much Sly Stone and EPMD I listen to, I will never get blacker. And nor would I want to. I am who I am. That being said, I have also realized that not all white people are created or educated equally. I discovered this last night at the Rodney Carrington show. For those not in the know, Rodney Carrington is one in a long line of country comedians (see also Ron White, Larry the Cable Guy, Jeff Foxworthy). He's been doing it for a long time and he's sold a lot of records. His biggest schtick is the songs he has written about, uh, anatomy. Yeah, I know it sounds juvenile, but when you find your niche, exploit it. So we have a country comedian that sings songs about his and others' anatomy. What sort of audience do you think an act like this attracts? Well, if you said "predominantly uneducated white trash that spent their entire mortgage on Busch and Carrington tickets," you'd be right. Look, I don't mean to bag on them, but when I was in line to use the restroom, I saw about twenty guys go in, piss and walk out with not one of them washing their hands. I, however, turned the faucet on for the first time of the evening. If that doesn't make your skin absolutely crawl, you must not wash your hands after finishing your business either. I don't mean to bag on them, but I don't think I've ever seen so many lethally intoxicated humans still able to march up about fifty stairs to retrieve two more Bud Lights for themself and their date. I don't mean to bag on them, but they laughed at, essentially, the same joke about infidelity for over two hours. When you live with acute mental retardation, I suppose it only takes one joke with fifty different deliveries. In that way, Rodney's a damn genius.

I knew I was in for a challenge when Rodney came out mockingly dancing to Will Smith's "Get Jiggy Wit It" and, as the music shuts off, Rodney's first words are, "I like that African music--makes me horny." Then, the place went up in a roar of laughter. During the course of his act, he knocked on rappers, blacks (not necessarily one in the same, in case you didn't know), gays, Muslims and, well, what kinda country comedian would you be if you didn't find creative ways to smear marriage and fidelity? He was really in his wheelhouse. I don't think he had one joke that didn't result in a riotous uproar of laughter.

I was asked afterwards if I enjoyed the show because, by someone's observations, I just sat there the whole time "with my arms crossed and didn't laugh once." I explained that I was typically "stoic" during comedy shows, but the truth is that I didn't really find him funny. Part was that I was offended, but moreso that I just didn't find him that funny. I wasn't trying to purposefully bum people out, in fact, I kinda turned my shoulders away from the people I was sitting with so I didn't have to share my displeasure with anyone. I was actually shocked when I was called out on it. The cat was out of the bag--I can't enjoy a comedian.

Afterwards, we were in line to meet the great Rodney Carrington and some dude came from backstage asking for Anderson Merchandisers first (that'd be Wal-Mart for those scoring at home). The irony is that, while we've sold probably close to 75,000 Rodney Carrington albums over the year, Wal-Mart has sold a whopping zero. That's because, well, they don't believe in the first amendment. They won't carry Rodney because he cusses and sings about his unit. But, despite protesting against comedians like Rodney by not carrying his product, Anderson gets to get in first into the meet-and-greet. How awesome. We heckled from around the wall yelling things like, "We support the first amendment," and, "We're pro-smut."

Whatever. Rodney was actually very polite. I was somewhat regretful for so quickly drawing direct attachments between him and his moron fans. We posed for a picture and I showed my gratitude. He was equally grateful.

Tux has finally gotten the hang of the potty training. It's about damn time. He got it right before being sent off to Obedience Class. We'll see how it turns out. I wish there was a session that covered "Resisting the Lure of Licking a Smelly Ass." That'd be really helpful. I'll make to write that in the "additional comments" field of our survey at the end of the eight-week run.

This dog's life is about to change.

THE j3 TEN ILLINEST JAZZ RECORDS (NOT ON THE COMPANY'S TIME)

I've had a few discussions over the last month or so with some heads about jazz and I was asked in each of those conversations about my favorite jazz records. I wouldn't really say I have any distinct favorites. I mean, it's like what's my favorite mexican dish...aren't they really all the same thing? But, you know, there probably are those records that I can look at like, "Yeah, that's the real shit." In high school, I hung out with cats like Allen, John and Jason. They were always listening to jazz and I was always clinging--wanting to be so much like them. I wanted to listen to jazz in the same way--just nodding your head endlessly, hanging onto every note of a solo like the free world depended on it, talking about Coltrane like he was a god of some sort. I guess, after acting like it for a while, it just stuck.

Lucky for me, my love for jazz is often awakened because, well, I'm blessed with such a dope family of musicians. My aunt and uncle are both accomplished jazz heads. My uncle somewhat reluctantly, at times--referring to his style of composition as "death jazz." Because musicians rarely walk alone, an already vast family musicians is always followed by friends of a family of musicians. Sometimes reunions, weddings or weekend jams can turn into entire symphonies of kazooists, bassists, saxaphonists, pianists, drummers and an accordion for good measure.

I guess Mingus was my first love. When I was a kid, my aunt gave me a copy of Mingus' Epitaph on double-cassette. It was a super-heady symphonic composition and noisy as hell. I couldn't make any sense of the recording. I was only ten years old. The music confused me, pissed me off. I was thinking, "Man, if this is jazz. I'll take my Run DMC." My aunt really never made much of it. It was one of her students, Edward, that said something that would stick for me for the rest of my life. One day, Edward noticed the Mingus double-cassette I owned and, giving me a way too much cool-credit, asked, "Man, you like Mingus?!"

"Nah, not really. My aunt gave it to me."

"Eh, you will one day."

At the time, I really didn't know what the hell he was talking about. I couldn't listen to it at all. Not only that, but no one my age listened to jazz.

I'd find that, whaddya know, Edward was right.

By high school, I had begun finding players that I liked. By college, I was full blown. Over time, I would be able to name players out of an ensemble of some ten or fifteen players. I started calling certain records "the Abbey Road of jazz." I despised Charlie Parker just to piss off the greying purists. I named percussionists like Tony Williams and Max Roach to raise eyebrows in conversations. I laughed at pretentious assholes who evoke that silly beatnik idiocy--talking about the genius of Cecil Taylor. I listened to jazz because I was different not because I aspired to be. There's a difference.

All that said and done, here are my top ten jazz records. They're probably not all considered the popular favorites although I know a couple certainly might meet the requirements. It's funny. I actually went and read reviews of the titles I selected for this post and found some rather scathing remarks by a few reputable critics regarding some of the recordings contained herein. That's many's frustrations with jazz--sometimes the most listenable recordings are absolute critical failures while other albums that can hardly qualify as music are reverred as "classic."

Whatever.

I just know that these ten records are my favorite. You don't like 'em, get your own damn blog and write about records that no one cares about.

John Coltrane's A Love Supreme (****) Everyone's always talking about Blue Train, but Love is the definitive Coltrane piece. Every Coltrane phrase is so remarkably verse, so passionately delivered. At times, he's somber and sensitive while other times he's stripping paint off the walls. Even more beautiful when you put the recording into context--it was recorded during a peak period of personal struggles for Coltrane as an offering to the Lord. It's a religious record. Reads the jazz guide about the title track, "Call it what you will, a radical suversion of American popular song, the quintessence of the scaler approach a new synthesis of Western and Eastern idioms, it is a remarkable, unsettling performance." So...do you like it?

Jimmy Smith's Root Down (***) What can I say, it's where I took my name. This incredible Jimmy Smith recording finds one the illest Hammond player in jazz/rhythm and blues history scorching the set with the slammin' title track as well as an insane version of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together." It captures Jimmy Smith as he's nears anominity until, of course, the Beasties would cleverly sample "Root Down" for their song by the same name off of Ill Communication. Says the jazz guide, "Unpromising as it might look, this is actually a terrific Smith date, and a rare example of Smith's idiom in successful transition." Dude's got an obsession with the word "idiom."

Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters (****) Head Hunters was my first in many regards. It was my first funk record. It was my first Hancock record. It was the first time I would learn about long-play funk tracks--three of the four songs topping almost ten minutes in duration. It would mark the first time I'd rewind a track because I heard a LL Cool J sample ("Watermelon Man"). Head Hunters is a paramount record. Anyone wanting to get into funk, I would start here. James Brown next. Says the jazz guide, "Miles legetimized a view of black musical history that made room for Sly Stone and James Brown, as well as Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. Head Hunters--and yes, it is two words at this stage (Editor's Note: "Man, whatta prick.") --was a direct result, an infectiously funky and thoroughly joyous record."

Thad Jones's Fabulous Thad Jones (***) Hailing from the Basie School of Jazz, Thad Jones is one of those cats that heads just don't acknowledge enough. He really hit stride at the same time that some dude named Miles started packing concert halls and playing the blues. Thad's natural abilities save many of his recordings from every sounding forced. He's like the Billy Gibbon's of jazz--just pick up that horn and do yo thing, homie. This recording features, among others, the great Mingus, Max Roach and brother Hank Jones. Says the jazz guide, "The sessions for Mingus's and Roach's Debut Label are very good indeed."

Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come (****) Only really cocky muddahs name an album The Shape of ________ to Come. I mean, you gotta have cohones the size of Dallas to name a record that. Luckily for us, Ornette did have cohones (musically) the size of Dallas and, coincidentally, he hailed from Fort Worth. I would never suggest that an Ornette Coleman record is for anyone looking to get into jazz because, let's face it, he falls closer to the pretentious end of the spectrum than tradition. What you have with The Shape, is a trailblazing record that, over the course of one listen, pushes and bends the boundaries of jazz probably more than they ever had been up to 1960 by one single recording. Says the jazz guide, "Difficult--perhaps impossible--to reconstruct the impact of these records had [Ornette's first eight records--the first of which is The Shape] when they first appeared or the frustration that some of the players understandably evinced in trying to get to grips with Coleman's ideas. Bassist Jimmy Garrison is said to have lost his temper on the stand one night, baffled by playing off-notes rather than chords, increasingly convinced that the whole thing was a scam."

Charles Mingus's Mingus at Carnegie Hall (***) One of my very favorite live jazz records, Mingus's Carnegie performance is not perfect, but it represents, to a certain extent, and older but still fiery Mingus passing the torch to a score of young players (including the prominently featured Gillespie student, Jon Faddis). Charles, as band leader, is much like a circus master--yelling at players or simply just hollering--sometimes singing joyfully as he grunts through basslines. Here, with a standard C blues and "Perdido" playing host to, essentially, a series of solos, Mingus and friends absolutely tear Carnegie down. Highlighted by the soloing of Rahsaan Roland Kirk who's solos are so bad they're just rude. They're just indignant. Says the jazz guide, "To be frank, there are better Mingus albums and even the more chaotic live appearances delivered more compelling music than anything here." Geez. Thanks, asshole.
Ron Carter's Blues Farm (***) As a bassist and hailing from a family filled with bass players, I was always surprised that bassist Ron Carter didn't come up more in conversations between players. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard my father, aunt or uncle speak of Ron Carter at all. Nonetheless, his craftsmanship as a piccolo bassist are strikingly tasty. Unlike many of his peers, he turns out the illest solo work on a bass--taking the instrument to much more conversational form--able to play solos with the movement and dexterity of a zoot trumpeter. As we hear on Blues Farm, when paired with the great Bob James, his talent is featured fully and uncensored. This session is just one cool recording--it's an incredibly easy listen that never pushes or urges. It just rolls. Says the jazz guide, "An attractive yet rather dated record." Prick.

Charles Mingus's Right Now: Live at the Jazz Workshop (***) While the Carnegie performance highlights Mingus as part of a larger ensemble, Right Now, illustrates his dynamic personality and musicianship as part of a quintet. The result is a delightfully raw performance which finds Charles audibly yelling at pianist Jane Getz when she falls off key. Regardless, his seering and scorching performance will leave listeners stunned. It's an intimate and furious session which serves a great representation of Mingus's most elemental contributions to the artform. Says the jazz guide, "Although not up to the passionate level of the Mingus-Dolphy Quintet, this underrrated unit holds it own."

Rahsaan Roland Kirk's Bright Moments (***) Rahsaan's forte was always experimentation and trickery. When you're a blind man who plays three saxaphones at once (often also playing a nose kazoo), "trickery" is a word that follows you. Here, on Bright Moments, Kirk is in prime form. As band leader, his humor and, sometimes, sarcasm takes center stage when he addresses the crowd both vocally or with instrument. The recording starts out with the band simulating a train leaving the station. Fitting because by the end of the record, this shit is interstellar. Says the jazz guide, "Bright Moments is a disconcertingly bland (and overlong, scarcely justifying two CDs-worth) and for the first time Kirk's multi-instrumentation began to seem a mere gimmick." Thanks, jerkoff.

Miles Davis's On the Corner (**) Miles, who spent most of his career in a state of musical transition, gave us this uber-funky session (which was just released in complete form--all six discs worth). Moving from more trumpet-led compositions to, here, rhythmically suffocating sessions, On the Corner is a headache for lovers of the balladeer Miles Davis. For the fans of Bitches Brew, Big Fun and The Jack Johnson Sessions, this is right up your alley. It's an often confused record and rightfully so. For a man who made his name by playing straight-forward blues numbers, On the Corner absolutely destroys such connotation. It's an explosion of wayward instrumentation and, for me, remains one of my very favorite Miles albums. Says the jazz guide, "The critics hated it. Mostly they were right. On the Corner is pretty unrelieved, chugging funk, and one has to dig a little bit for the experimental subtleties that lie Miles's most unpromising records. Where electronics gave him a sinister, underground sound at the apocalyptic Osaka concert documented on Agharta and Pangaea, here the sound is tinny and unfocused. The supporting cast is also questionable."

Jazz critics--whaddya gon' do? Oh, did I mention this Peterson cat's guilty as hell?

IT'S OFFICIALLY 1989...AND 15 DEGREES (OR ZERO WITH THE WIND)

Well, the Zune experiment continues to run ahead of schedule. I'm already loading 1989 onto it. Yeah, people like to catch me going back on my commitments, but the thing is that 1988 had some great records, however, simply not enough to keep me entertained for an entire year. I had to move onto the next year. Now, 1989 is when things get thick. These days in hip hop are just overflowing with good records so I would say my pace will slow down considerably. The second I loaded Paul's Boutique and 3 Feet High and Rising onto the Zune, I thought, "This is what I was waiting for. This is the Promised Land. This is 1989." Damn right it's the Golden Age.

Now kids are faking fights so they can post them on YouTube. Apparently, they're still eating Play-Doh as well. Kids, whaddya gon' do?

Speaking of kids, I think we finally had a breakthrough with Tucker and his potty training. It's about damn time. It's not like he can't hold it. The dude is the same size as Jackson yet he would want me to believe that his bladder is not even a comparment, but rather a tube--or a straw. Well, I've actually been a bit absent as his sensei. So what I do now is beat him within inches of his life when he pisses the floor and then do cartwheels out in the yard when he hits the lawn. It seems to be working. You have to show him that this is bad and this is good. Who would've thought? He'll be starting obedience training next week. It's the same training that Jackson went do which means he'll jump on furniture without an invite, dig holes throughout the backyard, empty entire trashcans of garbage across the kitchen floor and occassionally fart in your face. Ah, the wonders of beagle ownership.

Another gem from a Google search of my last name. This man's name is Robert and he failed to pay child support so they picked his cheap ass up.

Robert, don't have 'em if you can't pay for 'em. You're giving us a bad name, homie. I don't want to search my last name and then find a full page of mug shots. It just doesn't look good.

The wind chill has inched up to 1 degree. It's gonna be a cold walk to work.

TEN TASTY/NASTY REISSUES FOR MY REAL HEADS

You know, it's easy enough for me to sit here and complain about how no one's releasing any dope material anymore, how musicians suck, how the mainstream is so completely deaf to real music. It's easy to complain. But I've been asked to prepare a shortlist of some reissues and some definitive jazz recordings as a sort of "guide." I won't profess to know all as I list these, but these are simply recordings that have struck me in the past and I still listen to them daily because, well, they're dope as hell and the recordings themselves and those who have, out of pure love, brought these recordings back to market deserve the props. Look, you can listen to your stupid rock records, your Lil' Wayne records--I'll be listening to these ferocious reissues. I know not of the availability of these records--I simply just pulled them from my shelf. So, for those in the mood for a hunt, good luck. Records are in no specific order.

MICKEY AND THE SOUL GENERATION

IRON LEG: THE COMPLETE

Cali-Tex

2004

Reissued under the careful eye and ear of Josh Davis (DJ Shadow, who also wrote the liners), Mickey and the Soul Generation's Iron Leg marked the genesis, really, of the reissuing phenomenon. The Soul Generation's organs and wah-wahs absolutely drip from every recording heard hear. It's less funk and more groove, but make no mistake--it's ill as hell. San Antonio's finest! Tejas representin'. Bonus disc collects six live recordings.

BETTY DAVIS

THEY SAY I'M DIFFERENT

2007

Light in the Attic

I was floored when I got my grimies on this, one of two Betty Davis albums reissued by Light in the Attic last year. I ain't never heard any of her stuff and, by virtue of the sick heads at Light in the Attic, 2007 reintroduced Betty Davis to the world. Her abilities to use her vocals as an instrument are fantastically intriguing. She goes from cool, bluesy heartbreaker to absolutely explosive funkstress in the same song. Hell, sometimes she does it in the same lyric. They Say I'm Different reaches into a realm of funk largely unrecognized thanks to Betty's prowess. She's a beast.

TEXAS FUNK: BLACK GOLD FROM THE LONE STAR STATE

2005

Jazzman

The wonderful heads at Jazzman have been doing this for quite some time--there's Midwest funk, Florida funk, Carolina funk and, this, my personal favorite. When you drive across the largest state in the continental US multiple times like I have, it's hard to imagine a time when funk roamed those vast farmlands. Like in the case of the Vern Blair Debate (featured here) from my own Lubbock, Texas! If you've been to Lubbock, it's basically a university and 150,000 people sitting right in the middle of thousands of miles of dirt and wind. But Jazzman found Vern Blair. Find this recording. In fact, visit their site for unprecedented selection of funk:

http://www.jazzmanrecords.co.uk/

DIRTY LAUNDRY: THE SOUL OF BLACK COUNTRY

2006

Trikont

A Munich label that reissues rare black recordings in bizarre fashion (see also Hits and Misses: Muhammad Ali and the Ultimate Sound of Fistfighting), Trikont brings us this equally weird but uber-listenable compilation of country-inspired soul music--if that makes any sense at all. It's James Brown belting out "Your Cheatin' Heart" and Candi Staton singing "Stand By Your Man"--there's plenty to love on this collection. It might be a hard find, but seek it out. It's way ill.

CHARLES MINGUS

REVENGE!

1996

Jazz Workshop

The story goes like this: Charles Mingus made a historical trek through Europe in 1964 with Jaki Byard, Eric Dolphy and Clifford Brown. The tour would catch an inspired Eric Dolphy in the final months of his life and Charles Mingus as raw and mean as ever. The recordings had forever been bootlegged until Sue Mingus went on a tour of the region and walked into record stores and stealing the bootlegs citing, "I'm just taking back what you have taken from my husband." She took the recordings, remastered them, released them and called them Revenge! The sound is incredible and the recordings are as intimate as Charles Mingus live recordings get.

SCHOOLHOUSE FUNK

2000

Cali-Tex

Before Cali-Tex became a household name for its amazing findings of funk treasures, there was Schoolhouse Funk, one of the earliest recordings to carry the imprint. Compiled by "Motorcycle John" (believed to be DJ Shadow, again), Schoolhouse Funk collects just that--high school jazz bands blasting out the meanest, funkiest and nastiest sounds you'll ever hear. Every time I listen to it, I'm still blown away by how technically gifted these musicians were at such a young age. These recordings make the Coronado High School Jazz Band sound like a cat dying.

PETE JOLLY

SEASONS

2007

Dusty Groove America

Hard to do any better describing this recording than how Dusty Groove does it on the back of the CD: "Mad keyboards galore--electric piano, Hammond, and more all played in a unique all-improvised session from teh legendary Pete Jolly. The set's unlike anything else that Pete ever recorded--and is in a space somewhere between CTI funk of the early 70s and some of Herbie Hancock's more experimental electric jams. Paul Humphrey handles the drums, alongside percussion from Milt Holland and Emil Richards--and the albums filled with incredible funk tracks that have a completely original flavor!"

HOME SCHOOLED: THE ABCS OF KID SOUL

Numero Group

2007

In the increasingly competitive funk reissue market, Numero Group has managed to stay in front with their beautifully packaged and infinitely charming reissues. One of the most poignant compilations to come from the Numero Group is this--a compilation of soul tracks recorded by youngbloods of hungry parents looking to launch their kid to Michael Jackson status. The result is a adorable party of some of the sickest kids ever to take the bandstand.

THE FUNKY 16 CORNERS

Stones Throw

2001

Taken from the name of the Highlighters' tragically under-recognized classic track, The Funky 16 Corners was the paramount of funk reissues coming from traditionally hip hop labels. Stones Throw was among the earliest to channel old recordings through their label structure to their faithful fans. Because of their dedication, compilations like this, one of the finest to hit the market, have made funk aficianados out of hip hop heads and, in the process, have helped an entire generation rediscover the roots of hip hop. The Funky 16 Corners is just one of those compilations that never grows old.

WHEEDLE'S GROOVE

Light in the Attic

2004

You gotta love Light in the Attic. Not only are they the nicest guys on the planet, but they put out some of the baddest material you've ever heard. Wheedle's Groove introduces us to the nicest players from their hometown of Seattle. Taken from decade's span (1965-1975), Wheedle's Groove (with a few exceptions that honor Seattle's current funk scene) is a brilliantly compilation of clean remasters that introduce heads to the Black On White Affair (one of the baddest bands I've ever heard) and the Overton Berry Trio and their slick instrumental version of "Hey Jude." I wish I knew what "Attic" those dudes found their vinyl in.

And for that cat that's spent his last four years spreading lies about me and dragging my name through the dirt to my partners and co-workers, I'd advise keeping my name out of your mouth on your extended period of vacation. You're a coward, a fake and a child. The most sickening element of your game is that you hide your hatred behind this persona as a God-fearing family man. I won't call you out by name like you've done to me, but you know who you are. You're a front, but your deception has now been exposed. I look forward to our next conversation, punkass.

GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCHES OF MY LAST NAME

Unfortunately, we share the same last name. We are not related.

Sometimes I do image searches of my last name to see what it pulls back. I know it's weird, but I'm pretty sure others do it too. I'm not sure why I do it. It's just funny how sometimes there's a slew of mugshots. I have to apologize to my fine readers for being a bit distant of late. I've had some difficulty getting back on schedule since the beginning of the year.

We'll be getting the rhythm back in a few weeks. I got all kinds of treats for you on the other side of month-end.

Don't be so freakin' demanding. You ain't my boss, homie.

ANDY GLADIATOR

Meet Andy. Andy Konigsmark.

Andy is a good friend of my brother. They met while at seminary out in Pasadena, Cali. He's a minister, a stand-up comedian and, now, an American Gladiator. Tonight, my lovely wife and I were sitting down after dinner to watch a little television. She snagged the remote away from me to keep me from searching and she began searching herself--starting with the major networks. Tonight, on NBC, the new heavyweight American Gladiators, was airing. My brother had told me that Andy was going to be on. And whaddya know, there's Andy. Andy was a substitute for an injured kid named Adam.

Let's rewind this real quick. My lovely wife and I met Andy briefly while out in Pasadena visiting my brother (actually, for the devoted Root Down Reader--this was the hell trip that my brother and I almost died on in the cab of a Penske truck). Andy was in the same housing unit as my brother. In fact, we also had dinner with him--beer butt chicken. He was a pleasurable fella. And ripped. Dude was just col' ripped. His name was Andy.

Andy, in his many ventures, found himself on American Gladiators--in front of millions of gazing eyes. This was a little bigger than when my brother was spotted in the crowd of The Price is Right. Just a little. See deeper in The Root Down for that recap.

Replacing the injured Adam, Andy started in the hole. He fought ferociously to gain on his competitor. Also met the great Hulk Hogan. But Andy wasn't having too much success out of the gate. His first competition was against some dude named "Titan" who looked European on the platform joust. Andy gave a good fight, however, was knocked into the water.

Next event was the "run-across-the-slippery-bridge-while-dudes-named-'Mayhem'-and-'Wolf'-chunk-big-balls-at-you" competition (pause). Andy tied his opponent in this contest. Then he lasted longer than his opponent yet failed to sink the gladiator in the "throw-balls-at-the-gladiator-to-try-to-launch-him-into-the-water." So, in the end, Andy went up against his opponent in the "Eliminator" in which, by virtue of his point lead, his opponent received a four-second headstart. Winner goes on. Loser goes home.

Would you believe that Andy smoked this kid like a pig on a stick. It happened when Andy hit the water and swam under the fire (I know, this just sounds stupid). Andy swam like a freakin tadpole. In the end, he was done and doing his interview after finishing the Eliminator by the time his opponent crawled across the finish line. Andy even paused and gave props to his opponent as he finished. Andy's a pimp. I'm a fan.

Turns out that Andy's Eliminator time was the best this season. From a replacement to a champion? We'll see. But he's still alive. And he met Hulk Hogan. Atta boy, Andy. Atta boy.

THE DAY WE MET JOHNNY AND HIS RED HONDA CIVIC

As a Honda owner (and now my lovely wife with the purchase of her new CRV), we take pride in our vehicles. Sure I know it might not look like it all the time--I usually wash mine once every two years. But make no mistake: I love my car. I'm pretty sure my lovely wife loves her because she washes it weekly.

Yesterday, I'm playing Nintendo NES on the couch (wireless, baby) waiting on my lovely wife to arrive so we can go shop. Not my favorite pasttime, but 75% off at Old Navy was a little hard to pass up because I'm a cheapass and, normally, I can find something that fits my large frame at Old Navy and we needed to get my lovely wife a ski jacket because, yes, she's learning in March at Taos. Yada yada.

I see the front of my lovely wife's CRV pass my view through the window and then I hear it...




EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR...CRUNCH!!!!


I spring from the sofa and look out the window to see a red Civic pinned right into the side of my lovely wife's CRV--a CRV that's still about two weeks old. I fly out the front door and, under a pretty good assumption of what happened, I point at this kid hopping out of the Civic and say, "You were going to fast, bro." He stands there like someone smacked him with the dummy bat. I go over to check on my lovely wife. She's fine. Pretty low impact on her except for the shock of getting hit. She's a champ like that. When we were dating, I saw Danny wrestle her playfully to the ground and she hit her head hard--no, hawd. Girl col' walked it off. No, wait, I think she laid there for a few moments and then walked it off. Either way, my lovely wife's tough. She jumps out of planes.

My wife hops and immediately goes into business mode. I keep this kid (we'll call him "Johnny" because that's his name) talking because I'm afraid he's gonna try and book on us. Dude was just a little shifty. I check out the his Civic and the bumper's all broken and dented in. I check out the CRV and, what the hell, I look three times for the damage and then get down on my knees and look closely and see a small scuff and some paint scraped. This thing is a tank!

Okay so it wasn't that bad, but the Yellow Police Department needs record of the accident. I hop on the phone quickly and call the police. It's the right thing to do. Remember that: it's the right thing to do. Look, my lovely wife and I don't have anything to hide. I just don't want this kid to skate and then, two weeks down the road, he's trying to pin it on us.

I start talking to Johnny as we wait for Yellow's finest to show. I start with small talk:

What year is your Civic?
Are you in school?
Did you grow up around here?

All real questions that I don't really care of the answer. I'm just trying to keep him talking so he doesn't start going the "I-heard-if-no-one's-hurt-the-cops-don't-need-record-of-it" route. He kept talking, but I knew that I was going to have to find a new line of questions because Johnny wasn't really feeling my conversation (which is unusual). He asks, "How long do you think before the cops show up?" I tell him to hang tight.

I then start thinking my best course of action is to start dumbing the conversation down. Keep him engaged. Turns out, I gotta pretty good character sketch of our Johnny once I dumbed it down. Between my lovely wife and I, here are some of the facts about our boy Johnny.

Johnny's been in six wrecks in five years.
Johnny drove when he was 16 with an expired learner's permit as opposed to just going to get his license.
Johnny was involved in an accident in which he was hit and the other car fled.
Johnny chased this lady down and became irate and was written a ticket for disorderly conduct.
Johnny has family in Tyler and once he visited and his uncle was getting drunk shooting his shotgun.
Johnny's got a friend who has four DWI's and has been in five accidents.
Johnny's got a snake that he needed to get mice for.
Johnny's going to the community college and is majoring in "General Studies." Ha.
Johnny just turned 21.
Once, while in Tyler, Johnny hung out with some guys that would go on "Booze Cruises."
Johnny, as a youngblood, would hang out at the schoolground up the street and egg passing cars.
Johnny recently got in an argument with a "crazy black man" who was yelling at him from the side of the road. Johnny got out and confronted him.
Johnny just got his car out of the body shop. Among the repaired damages, a dent given to him by a friend who punched his car.
Johnny uses snuff now but he really wanted a cigarette while we conversed.
Johnny lives at home with his parents but he wants to buy a house with his best friend.
Johnny doesn't have a job.
Johnny once gave a ride to a "Mexican guy" who seemed nice and, two days later, appeared in the news because he stabbed a man to death. Johnny still insists that he "seemed cool."
Johnny thinks gas costs $2.00 a gallon. I corrected him.
Johnny is going to study "Western Hemisphere Literature" next semester. I should've told him that doesn't mean "western" as in "John Wayne." And the study of literature actually requires you to read.
Johnny has no respect for his father.
Johnny has spent time in the Youth Detention Center.
Johnny has also spent at least one night in jail.

At this point, given his quite colorful accounts, I thought we need to hold this kid here because he could have warrants, he might be a felon. My lovely wife, at this time, was inside mopping floors. Nice when the accident happens right in front of your house.

I keep making calls into the police department, politely requesting another officer be dispatched because, at this point, it's an hour and a half later. My lovely wife keeps coming out and non-verbally hinting that maybe we should just take the pictures, get all the info and be on our way. Her and I were starving. I non-verbally communicate back to her, "No way in hell." We continue to stand there on the sidewalk talking about stupid stuff. I'm losing all ability to speak, think, comprehend. Johnny's quite literally sucking the smart out of me. His conversation was a vacuum in which all my cool (what little I have left at 30 years old), my brains and my hipness were yanked from my being. I would challenge anyone to try and hold a conversation with a halfwit for an hour and a half. I call the police department again. They advise me to stay put because the "third-shifters" have just left and someone should arrive shortly.

Geez.

"So, Johnny, who would be your Republican presidential candidate?"

Finally, a cruiser rounds the corner--now an hour and forty-five minutes later. The police officer hops out and begins assessing the scene. He says that he's not going to write Johnny a ticket, but rather just write up an incident report and then let everyone go on their way. What the?! Somehow, I knew loose-lip Johnny was going to blow it. Sure enough, he did.

Johnny asked to borrow my phone again which he had been using to communicate with his father. He says, "Yeah, the cop is here now. I'll be home in a second."

See, officers are aloud to call themselves "cops" but regular citizens are not really encouraged to call them "cops." It's kinda like the horrid "n-word." I thought I had found another word to say besides the "n-word." I need to check previous posts.

Johnny left with ticket for failure to control speed. Probably didn't hurt that the woman he hit used to work at the prison and now works at the youth detention center.

No telling what happens to guys like Johnny. I mean, he came and left with a handshake and an apology: "I'm sorry I inconvenienced you two." It was a fair enough ending to what was a more painful experience than it should have ever been. Johnny sped off to go get those mice. Probably no better or worse off. He left me deeply impacted (and subtracted). A sweet kid with a good arm for throwing eggs at passing motorists. A darling spirit with a horrible driving record and a disorderly conduct charge. Chances are pretty good that, in about ten months, he's going to meet someone else standing at the front of his dented Civic bumper. I can only hope they get to know the Johnny I met yesterday.

On a completely unrelated note, I was listening to Fear of a Black Planet up at work on Friday on vinyl and while I was introducing the second half of the record to my new cubemate Sergio, I mentioned that the second half of the record is like a thirty-minute sprint that doesn't stop. I flip the record over and, sure as shit, when you look at the arrangement of grooves in the record there is not one solitary break in the grooves. It's a full-on half-hour assault of sound. Incredible.

STILL TRUE IN 2008

It's early in 2008, but despite only being a week in, I've arrived at a few truths that still hold, uh, true in the new year.

MEN HAVE TO INVESTIGATE ALL SOUNDS IN THE NIGHT

Last night, my lovely wife awoke to a loud crash and one Jax bark. It was my job to find out what the commotion was. I then proceed to walk through the house--going from a dead sleep to a frantic fists-up position--armed with absolutely nothing. Now, killing spiders is one thing, but searching the house for an intruder in your boxers is something completely different. I found nothing and determined that her crash, I determined, was only part of a dream. However, when I entered the dining room, Jax was standing there looking at the back door. Yikes.

TECHNO IS STILL NOT MUSIC

It doesn't mean you can't like it, but I'd hesitate before calling Techno music. Techno is a mathematical arrangement of blips, beats and boops. It lacks heart, soul and character. Again, I have some Techno in my collection, but that does not mean it's music. I'm not saying that Daft Punk isn't music--I'm saying it's not Techno.

THERE ARE NO "MIRACLE CURES"

There are "miracles" and there are "cures." But there are not "miracle cures."

SNICKERDOODLE COFFEE IS GOOD, BUT NOT COOL

If you want to lose your man badge, order a cup of Snickerdoodle in front of your bros. Here's the deal, it's a fantastic bean that blends together a number of flavors to achieve the cinnamon-sugar cookie taste. It's awesome with a dash of honey. But I'll tell you this, realize that real men drink black coffee from tin cups. By drinking Snickerdoodle, you forfeit at least 55% of your manhood. If you have to drink it (and trust me, sometimes I do--it's alright to admit it), do it in privacy. And if you're in line and are asked to order it, I would order it with a pencil and a Post-it note. Better to be discreet.

VINYL IS BETTER

If you don't support vinyl, you don't support music. In this digital day and age, music was the first victim. We've taken it from long-form media to a fast-forwardable media (the cassette) to a track-skip media (CD) to a only-purchase-the-songs-you-want media (MP3). Here's the deal, vinyl is the ultimate proving ground for musical content. It lacks that crisp quality and the ability to effectively fast-forward or skip tracks. If it sounds good in analog, it's a great record. If you don't get impatient, it's a good record.

NICHOLAS CAGE IS A DUMBASS WITH STREAKS OF GREATNESS

But he's still a dumbass. It helps explain Ghost Rider, Snake Eyes, Gone in 60 Seconds, Face/Off and Con Air. Look, I love Nicholas Cage. In fact, I'm a Cage apologist. Look at his work in The Weather Man, Leaving Las Vegas, Adaptation, Lord of War, Bringing Out the Dead, Matchstick Men and, never forget, Raising Arizona. But let's face it, instead of being the great actor with occassional mishaps, his career is a mishap littered with occassional greatness.

COPS IS STILL THE BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION

They can't touch us. It's real reality. It's unedited, unapologetic and void of a narrative. It's a give-to-me-straight-doc account of the rough streets and trailer parks of America. And still, for the entertainment-starved individual on the run, there's no beating the quickness of COPS--it goes from initial call to the chase to the tase to the arrest all in seven minutes. There is no better bargain on television. Especially when you consider that even great football games take three hours.

YOU CANNOT ROOT FOR A COLLEGE TEAM IF YOU ARE NOT FROM THE TOWN OR ATTENDED THE COLLEGE

It's just wrong. Collegiate teams should only be followed by those who attended them or grew up in the same town as them. For instance, I'm from Lubbock and attended Texas Tech. That only entitles me to root for Texas Tech. My neighbor was born in Amarillo and didn't go to college and he roots for UT. I'm sorry, you cannot root for UT. Look, we need to set some hard rules because, ever since Notre Dame football took over the airwaves in the late 80s, we've blurred the rules of collegiate allegiance. You can't follow a collegiate team in the same way you pro teams. Pro teams can be selected. Yeah, it sucks, but someone's gotta root for West Texas A&M.

It's Friday. Go listen to vinyl.

WAKING UP TO AN ASS-KICKING: OH GLORIOUS SATURDAY!

Saturdays are for sleeping in. "Sleeping in" by j3 definition is: "extending your normal sleeping period by at least 30 minutes." What can I say, I'm stingy with sleep hours.

This morning, my body was going on its second hour of overtime (could've been the problem) sleep which is pretty unusual being that I'm waking up now at 5:45 without an alarm. I was having a dream in which I was in line at some sort of stadium, some sporting event. It was a concession line and the crowd was pretty heavily packed at the edge of the counter. I ordered something--beer, food, a shirt--not sure. And while I was reaching in my back pocket, I look over to see the man next to me being, not only pick-pocketed, but cold mugged. This dude had his hands in his pockets taking everything he had while he stood there defenseless.


Wanting so desperately to be the "good samaritan" on an episode of Shocking Police Video, I step into action and shove this dude away and snagging the articles away from him and returning it to the victim--yeah, that's awesome. I managed to do all this without any real danger because it was a dream! That's the kinda heroic performance I like. Where it doesn't really take any bravery or physical strength at all. I'm thinking, "How nice to school someone like Pat Morita."


I go back to the counter and continue paying for my purchase. When, all of the sudden I look next to me and with his chest pressed against my shoulder and his chin in my ear, I see the mugger. He says to me in his booming voice, "Boy, I'm-a kick yo ass!" I stand there thinking, "Uh, no you're not." I look at him and tell him to get away from me.


"Nah, I'm gonna whoop you're ass, man."

The incredible feeling of Morita-like power had shrunk and I now was armed with the fighting skill and cohones of a three year-old boy. And like suddenly my "step off" attitude became a "please no!" attitude. I stand there thinking that if I ignore him, he'll walk away.


"I'm talking to you, homie. Look at me!"


I half-turn my head to look at him. I say, "Look, it wasn't right what you were doing to that man. I'm sorry. I made a bad decision. Let's just squash this here."


"Hell, nah. I'm gonna kick you're ass."


Silence.


Okay, the peacemaker approach did very little. That's usually my forte. Now I'm screwed. I decide that my best move is to simply point my shoes in the opposite direction and begin walking and see what happens. I figured there had to be security somewhere (please). I take what I estimate is about fifteen steps and then...

WHAP!

Dude rushed my ass and clocked me in the back of the head. Believe it or not, even in my dream, I was left with the sensation of actually getting sucka-punched in the back of the head. I fall to the ground and, in the dizzying spin, I look on the ground to see a pool of blood from my dripping chin which was dripping from the insane headwound opened by this dude. Suddenly, I feel this weight on my back and then the shots continued--he punched me in the right ear, the left abdomen, then in the back of my head, knee into my back. I struggle to get up, but I can't.

Then I wake up. How's that for starting your weekend?

I've flown like a raven high in the clouds in my dream. I've run at the speed of sound. I've scaled the Eiffel Tower with not even a shoestring to save me from death. But I could've escape a good ol' fashion beatdown. It's weird. My dreams are slipping hard. How am I going to allow me to get whooped?! I should at least be able to wake myself up before that first blow to the head. Whatever.

Celtics are 28-3 and, for the doubters, 10-0 against the Western Conference. It's pretty difficult for me to really comprehend a record of 28-3. And those three losses have come by an average of three points. That means that this team was nine points short of undefeated. 8th best offense in the league and the best defense in the league proving that defense wins games. And, if the former is true, then you gotta like the Eastern Conference chances once again in the Finals--whether it's Boston or Detroit--the only two teams allowing less than 90 points a game and, of late, the two teams beings deemed the very best in the league. Eastern Conference Finals might be the toughest ever this year. One could only help after the last few years.

Bought a washer and dryer this week. Should've listened to my lovely wife a long time ago. It started when we weren't getting cold water in the washer--this was about three months ago. So we'd fill it with hot water, let it cool and then add in soap and clothes. Meanwhile, the gas bill rises because of the increased hot water consumption (even though we weren't really using hot water) and anytime we were running the washer and I wanted to take a shower, you could trust you'd be taking a cool shower. Yet, we just never replaced it. Last weekend, I decided I was going to troubleshoot this thing and see if I could figure out what was wrong. I took off the hoses, checked the plumbing, swapped the hoses, took off the back of the washer--nothing. And that's why I'm not a maintenance man.

My lovely wife gets home the next day after work and, whaddya know, the washer is filled to the brim with water and its leaking all over the utility room. She calls me at work and I rush home. She mentions she tried to tried to drain it using the spin cycle to no avail, but she did smell smoke when she tried this. I tried it and it was the smell of spark smoke. Like there was something electrical that was generating the smoke. That was all the convincing I needed as I stood there in water with my head over a washer full of water. I quickly unplug the device and we go buy a new one, but my lovely wife, convinced me that we can't have mismatching washer and dryer so we buy the dryer too. Man, that's how they get you. That and the interest-free financing for a year for purchases over $599 yet we ain't wanting to spend 600 bones on a washer.

Yep, should've listened to my lovely wife back three months ago when she suggested we should just go ahead and buy new units.

Hope you all enjoyed the list from this year. I've already began collecting 1988 on the Zune and, let me tell you, at this pace, I'll be through 1990 by the end of the year. It's gonna be a dope year for Da Pocket Prophet.

I mentioned it before, but I'm going to again: please do not park in your yard. Use the driveway or get a bike. And, please take out an ad in paper if you want to sell something. Do not put it in your yard unless it is part of a yard sale. We have these morons down the street who have put a floor furnace out in front of their house with a sign on it that reads, "FLOOR FURNACE $350." It's been out there for about two months now so I doubt, after the weather it's had to endure, it's really worth anything, but it still sits out there. Don't be such a lazy cheap-ass and just take out an ad. And if that doesn't work, load it in your little pick-up truck and properly dispose of it. These are the same awesome neighbors who had a yard sale and instead of taking all their unsold articles to a donation spot, they left them scattered across their yard with no sign indicating that they were free for taking. So for two days, their yard looked like a closet exploded. I want to take a sign down there and put it above their front door that reads, "HOUSE FREE TO NON-WHITE TRASH OWNER."

Mike Huckabee plays bass. He was just on Fox News playing bass. Mitt Romney should not be president solely because he said he was a Red Sox fan yet, in the same conversation, referred to Fenway Park as "Red Sox Stadium." What the? I don't know where my vote is this round. Still waiting for the handshaking to take a backseat to the candidates' platforms. I like Charles Barkley.

Bought two new pair of New Balances last night. My lovely wife is right. My only vice is sneakers. Luckily, it's a binge-and-purge disorder and not solely binge.

Tucker goes to school in two weeks. Can't wait for him to embarrass me like Jax during the leash excercise by taking a huge dump in the middle of class. I'll tell you this: potty training a dog is the worst torture that a human can actually live through.

It's a Bob Dylan day.

ATMOSPHERE'S 2007: 100+ SHOWS, 3 EPs AND ONE FREE ALBUM

For being such a weak year in hip hop, Atmosphere probably had their strongest ever. They toured the states three times (once as the Murs-collab "Felt"), they released three super-nice EPs since summer and then, as a late-year gift to their fans, they released the full album Strictly Leakage on Christmas day free to anyone who wanted it. Now, when you see the word "leak" or "leakage," it typically means that new material is being "leaked" to the market to promote an upcoming release. So, yes, some of this material could show up on their upcoming release due out in April When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold. But even still, being 14 tracks deep, Strictly Leakage feels like a studio record because, well, it's so damn dope. Meanwhile, Atmosphere/Rhymesayers knowingly throws the old model out the window and, instead, do it their damned selves--putting the hustle back into hip hop. Where major label artists are sitting back in their borrowed hot tub on their rented estate waiting for their lackluster single to hit at radio, Atmosphere completed three sold out club tours where they'd sell t-shirts, thongs, vinyl, stickers, hoodies and CDs to merch-starved fans. Meanwhile, at retail, they'd sell modest numbers on the EPs keeping their name in the fixtures at the remaining brick-and-mortar accounts (except Minneapolis' own Best Buy--what the?!). The result is the continued development of the Rhymesayers brand leading to Brother Ali's 40,000+ units sold on The Undisputed Truth and 25,000+ sold on the re-release of MF Doom's MM Food.

While the major labels are still trying to figure out how to sell more records, Atmosphere's giving away 14 tracks for free. They're not even suggesting you pay for it like Radiohead--it's just free. That's because they're gonna more than make up for it by hitting towns like Lawrence, Lubbock, Missoula and Tulsa and ensuring that, at any given time, there's ten itchy wallets standing at the merch table readying a purchase (myself included). And because they're still largely i-n-d-e-p-e-n-d-e-n-t, Atmosphere and their labelmates might be taking home more than your favorite radio rapper.

When I asked Slug in Lubbock how he stays so busy, he simply replied, "I'm just not lazy." Yeah, I guess so.

Go pick up the EPs at your friendly neighborhood Hastings and download Leakage at Rhymesayers.com. You will not be disappointed.

THE YEAR-END RAP...LET'S TAKE IT BACK...WAAAAY BACK

THE YEAR IT WASN'T...

How can you not be frustrated as a fan of hip hop after 2007? In what I would consider as a historically light year of quality hip hop records was only further hurt by somewhat-typical controversies--those that always arise out of a conservative, deliberately-naive media base always out to steer attention away from real issues (like, I don't know, a war?).

It's the politicizing of music just so politics can happen. If 2 Live Crew made Nasty As They Wanna Be and there wasn't a Tipper Gore around to hear it, was it really offensive?

First to take the dive was Don Imus who could've simply made a mistake, but then he throws it back at hip hop, not blaming it necessarily, but stating that rappers call women "worse names than I ever did." The media then first calls Exhibit A and B in Mims and Unk. Yep, Mims and Unk. Two days later it's almost directly Mims and Unk's fault that Imus slipped. Let's not lose sight of the truth: Imus is a bigot. It's just that more people know that now.

And what I think is the most frustrating part of all of this is that it again stirred up this dialogue that had been fairly absent (thankfully) for the last few years. You know, old white men talking about rap like they care when they're 1) not the target audience, 2) not even buying the records anyway and 3) using a blame of the rap industry merely as easy moral fodder that, hopefully, will help lasso a larger television and/or radio audience. I'll admit, it's easy to blame the industry. I agree, some of the language is offensive. I'll also agree that children probably shouldn't listen to rap. But let's not blame rap for bad parenting. O'Reilly's just pissed because when it's not the rap industry, he's trapped into blaming Kool Aid for the world's moral problems.

Well, also that Ludacris can say whatever he wants and make millions, but the second that Bill opens his mouth to a female employee about his fantasies and what he would do with a loofah if he was alone with her, he gets hit with a lawsuit.

Then you got Glenn Beck who, almost perfectly in all ways, personifies the bored cable television whistle-blower who, depending on how much segment time he has left over will take stray and reckless shots at the rap industry. This dude's a sucka who is just looking for someone to take a swing at. In an interview with Al Sharpton, Glenn states:

"According to the Associated Press, after 30 years of growing popularity, rap music is now struggling with an alarming sales decline and growing criticism from within about the culture's negative effect on society. Rap sales slid a whopping 21 % the past year, and for the first time in 12 years, no rap album was among the top 10 sellers of the year. A recent study by the Black Youth Project showed a majority of youth think rap has too many violent images. In a poll of black Americans by The Associated Press and AOL-Black Voices last year, 50% of respondents said hip-hop was a negative force in American society. I don’t think all rap/hip-hop music is bad. But there are definitely some cancerous elements within it. The good news is that our society is now addressing it. And wouldn’t it be ironic that the violent strain in rap is headed for a slow death itself? Let’s hope so."

Yeah, rap might have been down 21%, but the industry was down anywhere between 15% and 20% so those numbers are not that significant. Country music was down 30% as of October. Personally, I find that an encouraging number. There are actually two rap records in the top 10 year to date. That might be a timing issue, though. And if only 50% of respondents said that hip hop was a negative force in American society, I'd be surprised. I would've thought it be more around 70%. Not bad. I'd see that as an improvement on our favorability. Glenn, I think you're hopeful that "society is now addressing it." But I don't think they are. Besides, if society is actually has the capacity to investigate and solve their own issues, what in the hell do we need you for?

In another segment, Glenn says, "Rap music is enslaving our kids." He continues after airing a clip of Cam'ron, hip hop's spokesman, speaking about "stop-snitching" sensation that somehow blew up this year:

"Now, it may be harsh, but when a few privileged people--white and black--are making money off the backs of others--white and black, by spreading the glorification of crime, sex and death throughout our community, that sounds like exploitation that borders on slavery to me. The chains of drugs, and violence and ignorance are just as real as the ones forged in steel. And we've got to stop it. Rappers and record executives are encouraging a culture where it's all about money and fame. If you want to put the Virginia Tech tragedy into some sort of context, this is it. Money and fame. It's everywhere in our culture...When rap stars start to preach this message to our communities, they--and the companies that promote them, and the parents that do nothing to stop this poison from entering their kids' system--are enslaving an entire generation of kids to a life of poverty, crime and death. The executives at the companies that release this garbage are modern day slave traders. You know, what Imus said, what Imus said is like Dr. Seuss compared to some of the poison that's being poured out into our neighborhoods, right directly into our kids' ears, all across the nation."






(snores)






Glenn's sensational language is nothing new and the "slave trader" comment is a common tactic employed by Glenn to startle his easily-startled audience. You can almost hear the gasps from millions of living rooms across America. Well, maybe not millions. Reality is there's more kids seeing it on broadcast television, hearing it at schools from their peers, seeing it on the large screens of movie theaters across the nation than that are hearing it off of rap records. Reality is that rap music has so very little to do with it anymore. Oh yeah, and the Virginia Tech shooter's favorite band was reportedly U2 but was also observed downloading heavy metal music. Just want to clear rap from any blame for that tragedy. Might want to be careful when you talk of "putting into context" because some might think that you're actually blaming rap for school shootings.

Look, the world is a bizarre and scary place sometimes. Tragedies happen for, sometimes, no visible reason or without any evident influence. Glenn and the media (left or right) just need an object, person or industry to point a finger at because it makes, for at least a period of time, us feel like we found the man behind the curtain, the hand on the strings. Because, let's face it, "I don't have a clue why people do stuff like this" kills your credibility with your audience.

So, to the music. The Wu Tang album sucked and Ghostface outdid himself with Fishscale and More Fish last year. Jay's American Gangster wasn't that great and Kanye put out his most incomplete and loosely assorted album of his career. Chamillionaire decided to clean up his act to prove a point and ended his career. Will.I.Am from the Black Eyed Peas apparently can do wrong. This year sucked. Of course, there were some bright points. I would say that the El-P record was very satisfying. Include the Aesop Rock None Shall Pass record in with the Definitive Jux discussion. Super Chron Flight Brothers was the dopest thing I've heard in ages. Percee P, Lupe Fiasco, Marco Polo, Brother Ali. How about those three Atmosphere EPs and the absolutely free Strictly Leakage? There were some good records. But some of them just good.

To me, this was the year of the throwback. I'm mean, f'real. That Zune is like the freaking fountain of youth for me. It's like I'm swimming in that pool from Cocoon. I feel like I'm at least ten years younger. I don't think, "Why in the hell am I wasting time listening to all these old records?" I think, "Why would I waste my time on any recording from 2007?"

I was listening to Public Enemy's "Revolutionary Generation" tonight as I drove home from dinner with my lovely wife and I just started nodding my head uncontrollably. I just kept thinking to myself, "They just don't make it this way anymore." The drums, the layers and layers of fuzz, noise, keyboards, screams, Flav's "Yeah, boy!" The politics, the anger, the movement, the momentum, the passion--shit, this is what those radio stations wanted to keep from me when I was 13?! Man, this is what I needed when I was 13.

Back in Lubbock as a kid, I remember stations saying, "All the hits and no rap." You know, like rap was some sort of disease that America's heartland was trying to stamp out one station at a time. Funny how they didn't have any problem playing Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer. Yet, Public Enemy was somehow potentially harmful. Whatever. Seriously, though. Pick up Fear of a Black Planet and play it from front to back. 17 years later helps one realize how far ahead of its time it actually was. I mean, the production and the verse on all of Fear is unrivaled in modern music of any genre. I'm listening to the title track right now. You'sa fool if you think you can trump Fear of a Black Planet. Last week, 79 people in America purchased Fear of a Black Planet. God bless 'em. Seriously.

Maybe Glenn Beck is right--maybe the rap game is a "slavetrade" of sorts, but maybe it's the rappers that are slaves and the label's are the slaveowners. I don't know. Maybe it's more pimp/prostitute sort of relationship. Maybe that's why 2007 was the year of the quick-burn single by a debut artist because established artists don't fall for the labels' bullshit anymore. Like the prostitute has become the pimp and dude's like Jay, Nas, Fiddy, Em and them are telling the labels what to do while kids like Hurricane Chris, Unk, Playaz Circle, Plies, Soulja Boy, Mims, Rich Boy and Kia Shine are the only suckas that will fall for their tactics. I don't know--maybe it's just perception.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I heard Sonnie Cheeba from Camp Lo on some kid's record named "Pittsburgh Slim" and I couldn't help but think, "Will anyone even know who in the hell Camp Lo is in ten years? Does anyone even know now?" They might be like the Strawberry Alarm Clock of the hip hop generation. Does that make Das Efx the Dexy's Midnight Runners? I don't give a good damn anyway. I'd rather listen to Das Efx than Akon any day of the week, month or year because Dead Serious was just ill as hell. When I was in Dallas over Christmas, I saw this dude buying Das Efx's Dead Serious and Black Moon's Enta Da Stage and I said to him in disbelief, "I know you ain't buying Dead Serious." He whipped around and we immediately began a fueled and furious dialogue about 1992-93 era hip hop. It lasted for only about two or three minutes as we waited in line, but at the end, there was a unspoken understanding and respect. He ended by saying in frustration, "I don't listen to the new shit because the new shit sucks. It ain't even hip hop no more." I hear ya. It was almost like I needed someone else to say it so that I felt like it just wasn't me that was losing my mind or losing my taste.

You know Traffic Entertainment held it down again this year. Besides reissuing Biz Markie's Diabolical and Goin' Off, Kool G. Rap's Dead or Alive and Masta Ace's Take a Look Around, they repressed 12"'s by everyone from Pharcyde to MC Shan. Traffic's holdin' it down, I'm tellin' you.

And if it wasn't old hip hop I was listening to, it was all those funk reissues coming down from Light in the Attic (Betty Davis, f'real, recognize), Numero Group (dope, dope, dope), Now Again/Stones Throw (as always)--with all this old music getting refreshed, remastered and released, there's no shortage of ill shit out there. Demand your local record store stock it. People need to hear these records. Maybe I'll just do a list of essential reissues.

I don't even know these kids anymore. It's just a bunch of no-namers who scan between 9,000 and 15,000 a week. I don't know where people are hearing it. How do they even know when these albums are coming out with street date pushes being so rampant? We're probably lucky that the rap industry can sell anything with so much media hate and, add to it, a host of industry-related issues with getting product out. Hell, rap interest might actually be flat when you consider that it's really no further down in physical sales than the rest of the industry and those numbers don't include the rampant downloading which has plagued rap/hip hop much more than other genres and it doesn't include, obviously, those stout mixtape sales that go unaccounted for at Soundscan.

Maybe my sulking is a result of my inability to find value in today's hip hop. It could be that I've just lost my ear for it and, instead of just admitting I'm "out of touch," I blame everyone else for putting out bad product. Could be, the product's getting better and better, I'm just getting older and older. It's tough to admit because I always liked being the source for the ill material, but man, when you ain't got it, you ain't got it.

I kinda like my new robe anyway. I don't, so much, mind being the old head listening to funk records and MC Shan. Someone said to me the other day, "I wouldn't take you for a hip hop guy just looking at you. You just don't look hip hop." Well, truth is, I don't feel very hip hop either.

So here it is: my Top 30 Recordings from 1979-1987. I'm doing so as a protest to how much hip hop sucks in 2007. Well, I say that, but maybe the truth is that it's less a protest and more a simple proclamation. I don't care if you read it. I don't care if you read it and you hate it. I don't care if you read it, hate it and never visit again. I can't write anything compelling about 2007, so I'm gonna turn it back 20 years and see what I can find. Here it is. Bored with 2007 hip hop? Yeah, me too. Check out these instead and recognize.

30
Disco3
"Human Beat Box
1984
Soon to be known as the Fat Boys, Disco3 blew the doors open like the Big Bad Wolf behind the dynamic beat-boxing of Buffy the Human Beatbox. This beatbox anthem, while primitive and a bit juvenile, is a perfect account of a young hip hop beginning to feel out its boundaries and then flying through them as it moved from the dance floors to the headphones. Someone find a towel to wipe off the mic with.

29
Audio Two
"Top Billin'"
1987
To any real head, it's probably one of the most recognizable drum patterns in hip hop history. Driven by a chopped-up beat from the Honeydrippers' "Impeach the President" (classic material), "Top Billin'", in its construction, is a simple headnodder from the beat to the rhyme pattern. But what it represents in the hip hop's history is the shift, like the Disco3, to less danceable compositions--in this case, dominated largely by a whiney vocal and a broken beat. While Audio Two would never quite match their impact left from "Top Billin'", Milk Dee would get his cash after producing Eamon's "F*ck It" which would go on to sell close to 600,000 copies. Top billin', ya'll.

28
Just-Ice
"Cold Getting Dumb"
1986
Just-Ice's legacy, unfortunately, might go relatively unrealized in the grand scheme of things, but dude was dope. For me, the difficulty at this juncture in Just-Ice's career (with three records under his belt) is not answering the question, "Was he dope?" but rather, "What was his dopest recording and where does it stand on this list?" I selected "Cold Getting Dumb" which, I'm sure, could be disputed, but this 1986 jam is a slick party-starter that brings together both that LL mic-tenacity and a slew of cowbells and chimes over a wall of bass-laden drums. It's a sometimes clumsy song that's left without a fitting ending, but it still stands strong as one of Just-Ice's greater contributions. Plus, the use of "cold" as an adverb is so nice.

27
Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde
"Genius Rap"
1981
"Genius Rap" is a bit of a misleading title only because what was "genius" in 1981 is not necessarily so in 2007. What's "genius" about this, however, is it would be the first of many recordings using the Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love"--later to be sampled by everyone from Funkdoobiest to Mariah Carey. Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde, too, through the recording push the "back-and-forth" style where two rappers converse within, not only the same verse, but in the same line. Respect to "Genius Rap."

26
M.A.R.R.S.
"Pump Up the Volume"
1987
Yeah, I might catch a little flack for throwing M.A.R.R.S. up here because, well, they're from the UK and "Pump Up the Volume", in most corners, would be considered more "house" than "hip hop." But what M.A.R.R.S. accomplished with "Pump Up the Volume" is an trans-Atlantic echoing of U.S. hip hop culture through a wall of samples--many of which are considered cornerstone in early days of hip hop. It's like hip hop's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. M.A.R.R.S. samples the Bar-Kays, Kool and the Gang, the J.B.'s, the Jimmy Castor Bunch, the Last Poets, Graham Central Station, Trouble Funk, Bobby Byrd and, of course, the great Rakim all in one song and the result is probably the most listenable blending of standard UK-house and US hip hop in history. And if you front, I'll kick you in the teeth.

25
Biz Markie
Goin' Off
1987
Long before "Just a Friend" and Celebrity Fit Club, Biz was drenching mics with his saliva on the 1987 album Goin' Off. His goofy antics and unconventional and often sloppy beatboxing ("convention" being Doug E. Fresh) made him an instant personality and, on record, the dude perfectly blends comedy and uber-dopeness. Goin' Off is probably the most comprehensive collections of Biz's talents as he intricately melds together beatbox and lyric into the same phrasing. From the classic "Nobody Beats the Biz" to "Pickin' Boogers," Biz's clowning style and personality on Goin' Off would serve as a blueprint for hip hop's more lighthearted recordings.

24
Fearless Four
"Rockin' It"
1982
Ah, yes, the Fearless Four and their endless use of Kraftwerk's "The Man-Machine." I've always been gravitated to "Rockin' It" and I still can't explain why. It's a rare example of how early hip hop blurs the line separating "fantastic" and "annoying as hell." Depending on what day of the week it is, it's either #24 on this list or nowhere to be found. Obviously, today is one of those days. "Rockin' it, rockin' it, yes, he is rockin' it. Tito! Rockin' it, yes, he is rockin' it. Mike C! Rockin' it, yes, he is rockin' it. Peso! Rockin' it, yes, he is rockin' it. We're all rockin' it, you should be rockin' it. Rockin' it. Rockin' it!" Yeah, it's like that. Cuz' that's the way it is.

23
Grandmaster Flash
"White Lines"
1983
One of hip hop's greatest cautionary tales, "White Lines" is a 7-minute dance-listen-and-learn party jam which rather clumsily mixes hard dancefloor/disco rhythms with shocking drugged narratives courtesy of Melle Mel. "Higher, baby. Get higher, baby. Get higher, baby. And don't ever come down! Freebase!" Yeah, I know it's corny, but back in 1983 when your projects are being rotted out by crack cocaine, a danceable, message-heavy drug-detering hip hop song could have saved the world. Unfortunately, it didn't. While it failed stateside, it did manage to make quite a run up the UK chart probably more because of its danceability--tragically proving that, in the end, message doesn't really matter. Heads just really like the beat.

22
Sugarhill Gang
"Apache (Jump on It)"
1981
As easy as it is to appreciate the song "Apache (Jump on It)" and Sugarhill Gang for bringing probably one of the greatest dance tracks to record, let's come clean here. Sugarhill Gang really didn't do much except sample the shit out of Incredible Bongo Band's "Apache." Of course, many would say that Sugarhill didn't do much in their whole career except pimp a culture--the Choco Taco of hip hop. We'll say for the sake of this entry that Sugarhill was dope and "Apache" was a remarkable achievement in hip hop. But really, Sugarhill sucked and "Apache (Jump on It)" was a remarkable achievement in sampling--especially back in 1981. Sure, they weren't the only ones to sample that lucious break in the middle, but Sugarhill used it most prominently. Go find the Incredible Bongo Band's version and blast it everywhere you go. I hope those dude's got paid like mad.



21
LL Cool J
"The Do Wop"
1987
It would've been easier to defend "I'm Bad" as my favorite track from Bigger and Deffer, but I gotta be real--"The Do Wop" is up there in my top three Cool J tracks ever. It's a lesser-known song, but the greatness of the beat and LL's typical "hard-as-hell" delivery showcases his ferocious rhyme ability at only 18 years old. It's like the Ice Cube "It was a Good Day" of 1987 with LL waking up "at 9:30 on a Saturday morn" and then rolling through a sort-of Wonderland flexing and yapping about how bad-ass he is. "Some smile, try to call LL a hoodlum at times / But he don't know my autograph's on his wife's behind / LL has iced all the washed-up slobs / Vigilante of rap, so to hell with the mob / Don't run from the cops, makin suckers jock / And I'm only 18 makin more than your pops." Say it with me: Damn.



20
N.W.A.
"Dope Man"
1987
This, N.W.A.'s earliest recording, is an explicit (even by today's standards) account of the dicey and dangerous crack game in the mid-80's. It's difficult at times to identify whether N.W.A.'s account is one of celebration or damnation--at times it seems like both. But one thing is true, the greatness of this track is Ice Cube's insane two verses in which he describes, with his signature assault of one-liners, a day in the life of the Dope Man over one of the hardest beats to be brought to record by 1987. Soon to be later, remixed and re-released on N.W.A.'s classic Straight Outta Compton, the original is less the gloss, twice the grit and just as dope.



19
Beastie Boys
"Cooky Puss"
1983
As most know, before the Beastie's were the saving countries and monks from ruin and even before they were "rhymin' and stealin'", they were were a punk outfit that used to prank call Carvel asking to speak to ice cream cakes named "Cookie Puss." Such is the case here, in their first single, in which the Beasties are in transition from punk to hip hop--the beat is laced with handclaps and a grinding bass line and is delightfully headnodding. It might serve more as novelty now, but "Cooky Puss" is still fresh.



18
Cutmaster DC
"Brooklyn Rocks the Best"
1986
I'm going deep for "Brooklyn Rocks the Best" by Cutmaster DC. But as the earliest usage of ESG's "UFO" for a sample (so far as I can tell), it certainly deserves a mention on the list. "UFO" has to be the nicest sample in history of hip hop. You probably won't find anything else worth nothing off of "Brooklyn Rocks the Best," but what more do you want--it was the first to sample "UFO." Man, ya'll are hard to please.



17
Doug E. Fresh featuring Slick Rick
"La Di Da Di"
1985
Speaking of oft-sampled recordings, I present one of the finest truly acapella recordings from hip hop's history--"La Di Da Di." Featuring a young and green Slick Rick over Doug E. Fresh's fully-able beatboxing, Slick Rick essentially spits a verse of a million soundbytes. I'll play it and just list the artists that I know off the top of my head that have sampled this single verse by Slick Rick: Naughty By Nature, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince, Black Sheep, Snoop Dogg (of course), De La Soul, Notorious B.I.G., Common and, eh, Color Me Badd. Yeah, it's a rare recording in that sense--it's like the samples just oozed from Slick Rick's verbals. It amazes me how people had to have listened to the song's four and a half minutes and thought, "Man, we should sample those two words right there." And those two words are "like this" and "hit it." When you think of it, this has to be Slick's highest profiting recording (certainly Doug E. Fresh's) because of the royalties it's collected for relatively no investment.



16
Double Dee & Steinski
"Play That Beat (Lesson 1) b/w Lesson 2 (The James Brown Mix)"
1983
In one of the earliest manifestations of the super-DJ recordings where the focus of the record is DJ with serious mixing/matching abilities, "Play that Beat (Lesson 1)" and the B-side "Lesson 2 (The James Brown Mix)" is a schooling of early DJ trickery and the marvelous world of sampling and remixing. The songs are actually two separate remixes of G.L.O.B.E. and Whiz Kid's "Play That Beat, Mr. DJ." The collaborative effort was the result of a solicitation from Tommy Boy to the DJ community as a promotion to remix the hit record. The result of the remixes are two dynamically different recordings--"Lesson 1" being very close to the original with clever inclusions of some popular breaks that, more or less, just add to G.L.O.B.E. and Whiz Kid's version where as "Lesson 2" dilutes the original into a sea of samples and breaks and even borrows the B-Boys' "Rock the House." In the end, "Lesson 2" just completely re-writes the song. The influence these two "lessons" would have over the next twenty years is evident--most prominently honored through the work of DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist who would later record their own "lessons"--4 and 6, respectively. You've just be schooled.



15
Kool G. Rap & DJ Polo
"It's a Demo"
1986
I don't care what you say, back in 1986, there were only three rappers: LL Cool J, Rev Run and Kool G. Rap. Kool G. Rap was sick. He was Rakim before there was Rakim. He was Big Daddy Kane before there was Big Daddy Kane. While "It's a Demo" was his earliest recording, it still smokes the best by your favorite rapper. Kool G. Rap, homie. Recognize.



14
Original Concept
"Can U Feel It?"
1985
Short-lived but often included on compilations of the "old school" nature with this track, Original Concept made their impact originally back in 1985 with this, the B-side to the bizarre, "Knowledge Me." It was later released on Def Jam and members Doctor Dre and T-Money would find themselves vaulted onto TV courtesy of Yo! MTV Raps. "Can U Feel It?" is a blasting DJ track which finds the Jackson 5's "It's Great to Be Here" as the central driving force behind some of the earlier appearances of the trunk-rattling bass patterns. Another group that is completely invisible in the abridged history of hip hop, but certainly important with their limited contributions. And while, "Can U Feel It?" lacks that over-the-top WOW effect that most DJ tracks of 1985-87, it still holds its own and deservedly takes the #14 slot on this list.

13
Boogie Down Productions
"The Bridge is Over"
1987
In one and a half verses, KRS-One done squashed MC Shan and Marley Marl. Taking objection to the claim that hip hop came from Queensbridge (as MC Shan proudly proclaims on the "The Bridge"), KRS col' blasts back with "The Bridge is Over" with some of the most scathing (and, in some cases--the most juvenile) lines that would ever come from the Blastmaster. But, in the end, we had one of the first record-based battle. Sure, we had Dana Dane and Roxanne Shante, but here we have KRS vs. MC Shan in a classic battle of both turf and pride. Like KRS ain't holdin' no punches. Dude, calls them out by name twice in the first five lines. Dude's these days are too scared to put names into diss records just so when a crew shows up at their pad ready to whoop some ass, they can bust the "Who said I was talking about yo boy?!" routine. KRS don't give a good damn. Dude's like, "I'm talking about Marley Marl and MC Shan. That's who."

12
Dismasters
"Small Time Hustler"
1987
Staying on the subject of beef in 1987, we come to the Dismasters and their headbanger, "Small Time Hustler." Here, the relatively unknown Dismasters make clear distinction between the "small time" and the Peter Gabriel "big time." Until I actually began compiling the recordings which I have emassed over the past two months, I came across the gem just by chance, really. Driven by the uber-ill Chuck Chillout beat and the off kilter, spitfire delivery of the group's Mike Ski and Raven-T, "Small Time Hustler" is a rare achievement when you listen to other recordings from the same era--especially coming from, otherwise, a relatively unknown crew. Seems that it would be a dose of irony for Dismasters because, well, their career would be "small time"--only recording one album and then disappearing for good. I gotta feeling it had something to do with the fact they were always seen posing in loin cloths, peep it: http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?what=R&obid=438549 .

11
Public Enemy
Yo! Bum Rush the Show
1987
What can I say, I love Public Enemy, but really do not enjoy this record. That being said, it still is better than all but ten recordings from 1979-1987. It's an accomplishment in the sense that it would be the first time we'd get to hear Chuck's booming poise and the Shocklee's production prowess, however, it's not a perfect product until It Takes a Nation of Millions drops. There are some definite highlights ("Public Enemy #1," "Miuzi Weighs a Ton"), but the rest is pretty forgettable. Just remember, a lackluster debut record from Public Enemy is still better than that new 50 Cent Curtis album.

10
LL Cool J
Radio
1985
Another album that I had no appreciation for until I began listening again (in the case of Radio, for the first time in completion). This thing is a freakin' metal record! And, at the center of it, is a mean-mugging 17 year-old LL Cool J flexing his little junior-high-weight-room biceps. His aggressive delivery, his chest-beatin' persona and his cocky rough-side-of-town swagger helps make this album one of the doper albums from hip hop's first ten years. And the 7-minute "Rock the Bells," without a doubt is a definite highlight that cemented LL's place in hip hop even after just one record as a punk-ass teenager.

09
Eric B and Rakim
"As the Rhyme Goes On (Pumpin' in Turbo Mix)"
1987
Eric B had some mad drums. I'm talking maaaaaaaaaaaaad drums. This remix of what was already a solid deep album cut on a already a classic album (Paid in Full) was fantastically improved with Eric B bringing in bonus beats, a few more breaks, a beatbox, more Beastie Boys and then just drenches it in cuts and scratches making it one of the very definitive remixes of all hip hop. Yep, I said it. It just begs the question: if the remix is better than the original, why does the original make it on the final record while the remix gets the B-side?

08
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
"The Message"
1982
I wouldn't put anything on here because it's simply reverred as "classic," however, one would accuse me of such for putting "The Message" at #8. Look, Old j3 would've said, "Yeah, I hear ya, 'The Message.' It's aight, but nothing I'd listen to twice in the same year." New j3 says, "It's like a jungle, sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under." Altogether, "The Message" is in the same vein as "White Lines" in the sometimes cheeky blend of message and danceability. Again, we find Grandmaster Flash et al going to the costume party less as McGruff the Crime Dog and more as Travis Bickle on the verge of goin' off on some mohawking hail-of-bullets insanity. It's depiction of inner-city dissension and frustration is an exaggerated, but epic five-verse account. It's importance in the young infantile stages of hip hop of moving away from simply dancing your ass off and rather using the vocalist as a vehicle for "content" instead of just shot-calling is unmeasurable but nonetheless evident. What's funny to hear are the blantant insensitivities towards homosexuals with two uses of the word "fag." Some message, Melle Mel.

07
Run DMC
"Peter Piper"
1986
In what was originally the B-side to "My Adidas," "Peter Piper" would eventually leap from the backside of "My Adidas" to lead off the classic Raising Hell. I gotta tell you, as a kid, hearing those first words: "Now Peter Piper picked peppers and Run rocked rhymes!" acapella was like the first time you chugged a glass of wine as a young tike. And when those Bob James chimes come roaring in, you're almost short of breath. It's that excitement like you know your life is probably not going to be the same by the end of the song. "Peter Piper," probably more than any other hip hop song, has remained its listenability year after year, decade after decade. It's almost the perfect hip hop song. At the end, you're looking for your first pair of white shell-toed Adidas and a black leather jacket.

06
Eric B and Rakim
Paid in Full
1987
Popularly held among the greatest hip hop recordings ever, Paid in Full is well-deserving of this top spot and, depending on what day it is, it could be closer to #3. It's a lucious, thick and moving recording that shadowed every other duo at the time. Rakim's furious delivery and flexing behind Eric B's incredible abilities as a producer/DJ. And when I say "behind Eric B," I'm serious. Only on Paid in Full is Rakim actually taking backseat to Eric B. The tracklisting alone almost comprises a definitive hip hop collection--"I Know You Got Soul," "I Ain't No Joke," "Paid in Full," "As the Rhyme Goes On," "Eric B is President"--they just don't make 'em like they used to.

05
Boogie Down Productions
Criminal Minded
1987

Boogie Down Productions' Criminal Minded is a beast. In fact, BDP would set the mark so high with Criminal, that not only a hardcore KRS-One could exceed it with his illustrious and durable solo career. Criminal Minded is just one of those records where the talent is natural and poignant as KRS and Scott La Rock are just one of those kindred duos where it's a perfect musical, spiritual and political match--La Rock's boom bap and KRS's knowledge on the mic. And, as lo-pro as the album can sometimes sound, it's primitive construction leaves everything in the right place and not drowned out by the other.

04
MC Shan
"The Bridge"
1986
Probably the very first records to "represent"--the proverbial territorial pissing. "I'm from here and this is what we do here." But MC Shan takes that structure one further saying that hip hop, essentially, the birthplace of hip hop. No matter KRS's accusations or insults in "The Bridge is Over," "The Bridge" as a proclamation rather than a battle-cry is the ultimate in claiming your own. I imagine when that record was pressed back in 1986 that Queensbridge took Shan on their shoulders like Stallone in Rocky V after he busted up Tommy Morrison. Even if it didn't happen that way and he was later clowned by KRS, MC Shan got his shine on "The Bridge."

03
Beastie Boys
Licensed to Ill
1986
Licensed to Ill is one of those records tragically dismissed as being a novelty record that, beyond the ability to bring back memories of junior high and, perhaps, serve as good material for a party mix. The truth is (yes, the truth) that Licensed to Ill is probably one of the most sound and cohesive hip hop records from 1979-1987. The Beasties were unlikely heros--white/Jewish punks from Brooklyn who, to this point were as little hip hop as Barry Manilow. But, with the help of Rick Rubin and a few gimmick tracks ("Girls," "Fight For Your Right to Party," and "Brass Monkey"), Licensed to Ill would prove that if they packaging, the performance and the production were sound, history could be made. I'm not saying the Beasties are great lyricists, in fact, I don't know if this record's greatness really has anything to do with the Beasties themselves, but it works. It works really well. "Paul Revere," "Slow and Low," "Time to Get Ill" and "Hold It Now, Hit It"--if you put those on top of "Brass Monkey" and you got yourself a classic record. Don't ask me about Paul's Boutique, I ain't there yet.

02
Eric B and Rakim
"Paid in Full (Seven Minutes of Madness Mix)"
1987
Way I see it, there is no original edit of "Paid in Full." There is only the seven-minute version. I mean, put the seven-minute version against the album version and just try to tell me it doesn't matter. It does matter because the seven-minute version trumps everytime. Interesting fact about the remix (in case you didn't know), it wasn't remixed by Eric B, but rather by UK electronic duo Coldcut. Nonetheless, it's a phenomenal remix that proves that, sometimes, seven minutes just isn't enough.

01
Run DMC
Raising Hell
1986
From the first eight years of hip hop, there is simply no greater record than Run DMC's Raising Hell. From front to back, beginning to end, Raising Hell is a tyrant of a record. In fact, like LL's Radio, it's as much a metal record as it is hip hop--due in large part with the prominent use of rock samples, rock drums and the loud and deafening rhyming of Rev Run and DMC. Both in the popular realm and critical circuit, Raising Hell left an impact that would be long lasting. It pioneered the producer-oriented album versus the typical DJ-rapper model. It perfectly blended rock and rap--a blurring that would later be recognized in the late 90's with the introduction of Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock. And after two records already, it marked the true arrival of Run DMC as a crew you just ain't wantin' to mess with. Raising Hell is one mean record and the best from 1979-1987.

Next year, we'll tackle the Golden Era: 1988-1990. Holla. Happy New Year's. Call a designated driver and request they play Raising Hell for the ride home.