Tuesday, February 18, 2014

My Mom's Basement Is A Museum Of 90s Hip Hop

I moved out of my mom's house a looooonnnngggg time ago and risked my freedom a few times to assure that stayed the same while I was buying Jordans and Polo all the time. I had a car note and rent to pay but damn, I had to stay fresh. I'm digging through my YouTube subscriptions and listening to Def Squad classics (Erick Sermon, Redman & Keith Murray among others). I used to come home from school, eat Pop Tarts, watch Rap City then go play basketball. This music for me shaped my taste in fashion and music. My friends used to tell me I listened to too much East Coast music. I wasn't the only one in school that did but I was wearing Timberlands and rugby shirts because that's what I saw in the video. I listened to Boot Camp Click, Lords Of The Underground, UGK, MC Breed (RIP) and obviously Pac and Biggie. People still get in debates in about who was better between Pac and Biggie. I never do because I can break down the fact that  Pac is an underrated lyricist. Listen to "No More Pain" and tell me he wasn't spitting. Also, Pac did the majority of his songs in one recording take. He did a lot of vocals and ad-libs but all in one take. Biggie as documented didn't write the majority of his lyrics down. He painted pictures without writing them down and influenced how I come up with my own rhymes. There was a time when Jay-Z wasn't the most popular rapper in the world. I remember that time. I also remember the first time I heard "Juicy" on the radio. I was in Chicago ironically buying a Source Magazine with Pac on the cover. I didn't like "Juicy" at first but it was on the radio every twenty minutes. I got home from Chicago and everyone was jamming Bone Thugs N Harmony "Thuggish Ruggish Bone" tough. Up and down West Florissant, people were playing Bone out of cars but Biggie not so much. I remember the first time I heard Illmatic. My homeboy actually caught somebody slipping on a bus and gave me Illmatic because he didn't like it. A few years later he asked me if I still have it. I told him I do. Then he asked if he could borrow it. I told him like on House Party with the CD commercial, "No, my brother you have got to get your own". Then he reminded me that he gave it to me and I told him you don't give away Illmatic, Reasonable Doubt, The Chronic, All Eyez On Me and Enter The Wu Tang expecting to get them back. I also gotta add Juvenile's 400 Degreez. I have all the above CDs except All Eyez On Me. Other CDs like my Das Efx, Redman, Mary J. Blige My Life are in my mom's basement at her house in many of my Air Jordan shoe boxes. See, I didn't just listen to East Coast Hip-Hop. Every classic 90's Hip Hop CD I've either had or had disappear out of thin air. My 400 Degreez is still in my CD case at home with my Reasonable Doubt. I also had No Limit CDs and I don't care what anyone says about Master P. He belongs in the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame for taking what Eazy E (RIP) did with Ruthless Records and taking it to another level for an independent record label. Death Row was dope but Suge Knight's bad business killed them. Puffy had Bad Boy and carried the roster after Biggie's demise. Cash Money doesn't get enough credit for not only breaking ground in The South but for making history with their $30,000,000 distribution. Also "Bling Bling" is a part of lexicon that will never die. There are so many other CDs I have like Gang Starr, Dogg Pound etc. Watching old videos brings back memories of what I loved about Hip Hop. I'm not going to bash what is called rap now but I know why I fell in love with the culture in the first place. Peep my blogs at http://www.citydivision.com Peace