A look back at 2000: The Good Ol' Days

When I think of 2000, besides my afore mentioned love of Eminem, I think of the one and only OutKast and my favorite rap song ever, "B.O.B"

What's your favorite rap song kids?

A look back at 2005: Oh the Horror

2005. The song Grillz was popular. I'm not sure what more I really need to say other than "Let's all do our best to forget this sad sad time in our lives." That being said, I met Nelly once at a Mike and Ike's promotional event in NYC and he was a super nice guy, though he told the whole crowd that his daughter went to "Columbia" and totally tried to pass it off as New York's Ivy League Institution. It later came out he was talking about Columbia College Chicago. Not cool, Nelly. Not cool.

What other songs from 2002-08 where utter garbage? Share here!

Don't Call It A Comeback

Here is a decidedly more successful song I made for my beloved Indiana Hoosiers. Here's to hoping the disaster that has been the last month of this season can come to an end with some great wins in Chicago for the Big Ten Tourney this weekend!!!!

Go Hoosiers!!!! And hey, if we can't win - how about getting me to 90k views haha!

Strange Clouds

Well, as promised here is a song made by yours truly. While I am still happy with the flow, some of the lyrics seem disingenuous to say the least. For example, I greatly exaggerate the size of my penis.

Cheers!

Logic: "Nikki"

Logic is one of my favorite new rappers. I heard him for the first time about two years ago and I'll never forget what I thought that night. It went a little something like, "Damn this kid raps like I do but he is soooo much better. I better quit now and go to law school." I'll put up some of my own work in a bit but for now, let's enjoy this tremendous song called "Nikki."

See if you can figure out what it's about before the big reveal...

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDH9RIqazjA

Eminem: The Conundrum of our Aging Relationship

The first moment I realized I loved Rap, I was possibly doing the whitest thing ever. It was the summer of 2000, I was 10 years old - about to enter 4th grade, and I was at sleep away camp. Some kid, who clearly had less strict parents than mine, had somehow procured the holy grail: Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP. Immediately I was hooked. Was it the beat, the rhyming, the fucked up shit Em was saying about killing his wife? I don't know. What I do know is that I came back from camp that summer singing the same vulgar line on repeat: "If you don't like my shit then you can suck my dick, cus I was high when I wrote this, so suck my dick."

As you may imagine this did't go over so well with my father who, face turning crimson, almost choked on his own neck in exasperation. And to think my parents thought camp would be a good influence on me. Two short years later, I duped my mom into buying me the uncensored version of The Eminem Show by covering the Parental Advisory sticker with a strategically placed right thumb. Alas, hubris got the best of me and I decided to play the CD, in the car, with my dad. Two hours later he had snapped it over his knee and put it in the garbage.

It seemed so cruel and unfair. Couldn't they see this was art?! And yet the other day, in the wake of my 24th birthday I started thinking: what will I do when I have kids? How will I share my love of Eminem with them? Will I be forced to play them the (gasp) Censored version?! (cue Bach's funeral fugue)...

But really, the problem extends beyond Eminem and it will affect all of us. So many of my friends love Hip Hip, and like all the things we love, whether it be baseball or hot melty swiss cheese (don't even ask - stream of consciousness) we will want to share those glorious things with our kids. The question is how and when? My father had the convenience of teaching me to sing the songs of his favorite band from Liverpool without even a second thought. In fact, I was singing Beatles songs before I learned how to speak properly. But while I was singing "I want to hold your hand" my kids would be singing "Bitches Aint Shit."

Luckily as I said, I'm only 24 and there is a ways to go until this is even an issue. Still though, what do you guys think? Have you any advice for a much beleaguered and soon to be uber adult white suburban male? Thanks in advance.

White Man Raps: The Origins

In this, the inaugural posting on my fledgling blog, I shout from the internet's mountaintop, or perhaps its lowest lying valley to tell you: "RAP. IT IS GOOD." Now, I must confess - like most worldly things of human making, Rap is far from perfect. At it's lowest form it is recycled garbage, and as most first graders could tell you: garbage just doesn't go into recycling. At it's highest though, Rap is a genre that elevates music to poetry, and ever since Bob Dylan stopped being well, Bob Dylan, there has been a vacancy that only truly lyrical music could fill. Rap has filled this void and then some. Because with Rap, and really Hip Hop in general, it isn't just the words, but the rhythmic, inspired way they dance around the hard hitting snare and powerful booming bass drops. It is the only music I know that can move you while simultaneously creating a dialogue.

And that is why I'm here. To have a dialogue with Y-O-U. So, should you care to humor me, this is what the blog should set out to do:

1. Share awesome music. I don't care if it's a throwback, famous or forgotten. I don't care if it's the new hit single or an underground banger from Australia. Post it. Talk about it. Embrace it.

2. Talk about anything you want to regarding Hip Hop, its current state, its history, how it affects your life. My second post will show you the way my friends.

3. Have fun. I'm not sure I can force you to do this, but hey it was worth a try!

Until next time, Peace out homies