Youth is wasted on the YOUNG!
This weekend I was on okayplayer com checking out ?uestlove's blog. ( I LOVE HIM and THE ROOTS- I know Keith can tell us about that real illadelphia life!) anyways...
The blog I was reading was inspired by a snippet of a Stevie Wonder throw away track. ?uest was lamenting over the state of music etc. Look it really would help if you would just tool over there and read his blog. Go ahead....Go on... I promise I'll wait for you. Yep right here, not moving one foot.
Wasn't that a great blog (look if you didn't read it YOUR BAD cause you may need to use it get my points. Man all you had to do is go over there in read) Thatblog got me to thinking when I was 18 in 1991. I was in the beginning of one of the GREATEST eras of hip hop ever. I'd say the 90's was both the pinnacle of hip hop and it was also the beginning of the morphing of hip hop into popular music, "pop". When I was in college I witnessed LL tell us not to call it a comeback, I was introduced to a Tribe Called Quest while they were looking for their wallets in El Segunda, I witness the beginning of real raunchy rap Too Short style gain speed...I recall a certain rapper named Bust Down, I was introduced to a Ice Cube without NWA, I was told there wasn't NO FUTURE IN MY FRONTIN, and DJ Quick was telling me that tonight was the night. We learned how to Jump Around and Who was a black sheep, Moni was always in the Middle and La told is ladies first. Salt N Pepa came back harder each time. We were letting boys be boys and SLAM. We found how CREAM (Cash Rules Everything Around Me) really is the rule, I SWEAR that is W theme song.
Look, I could go on like how everyone in my click had that De La Soul Track on their answer machine. Hey how ya doing sorry you can't get through... I remember doing the Jubilee all the original song that inspired the songs that inspired Beyonce's extended version of Get Me Bodied. I met Naughty by Nature. I realized I was cool like that on my own digable planet. I was all up and through New Jack Swing. All I ever wanted to do was zoom zoom, the boom boom not so much (hey I was good girl! *lol*).I aerobic danced in the club, Oaktown 3-5-9 style.
My first recollection of ever hearing Biggie Smalls came from the fact that I went to a step show and my DJ friend Kip was excited that Biggie Smalls was performing he had just heard his stuff and Juicy had not yet dropped on the airwaves. It turns out this Biggie Smalls was some white kid with the lamest flow and that because this kid already had the name word was from Kip Biggie had to go with another name. Not sure how true the last is, but I do know there was a white kid names Biggie Smalls and I think that single went triple lent, FOR REAL! Or the fact that at this time Pac was doing the humpty dance.
Anyway, I just got to thinking how that experience was totally wasted on the young me. I keep thinking how that part of history is not the best memory I could have made for me if I had just appreciated it a little more. Now fast forward to now. If you people haven't noticed we are living in one of the most historical times of our young nation. Think about it we are in an unjust war, we will probably be in a serious depression, we saw the towers fall, we saw a woman run for presidential nominee and really, we will see a the first self-identified black man become the nominee of a major party, we may see the first self-identified black POTUS, we may also see the first older than the actual country POTUS.
We are living in important and pivotal times. And I don't know about you, but unlike when I missed the moment that hip hop may have jumped the shark, I don't plan on missing any of this. I urge you to stay awake and take in the world as it unfolds around you, this is going to be the kind of stuff you want to share with your grand kids, great grand kids and great great grand kids
Be EZ,
OG
The blog I was reading was inspired by a snippet of a Stevie Wonder throw away track. ?uest was lamenting over the state of music etc. Look it really would help if you would just tool over there and read his blog. Go ahead....Go on... I promise I'll wait for you. Yep right here, not moving one foot.
Wasn't that a great blog (look if you didn't read it YOUR BAD cause you may need to use it get my points. Man all you had to do is go over there in read) Thatblog got me to thinking when I was 18 in 1991. I was in the beginning of one of the GREATEST eras of hip hop ever. I'd say the 90's was both the pinnacle of hip hop and it was also the beginning of the morphing of hip hop into popular music, "pop". When I was in college I witnessed LL tell us not to call it a comeback, I was introduced to a Tribe Called Quest while they were looking for their wallets in El Segunda, I witness the beginning of real raunchy rap Too Short style gain speed...I recall a certain rapper named Bust Down, I was introduced to a Ice Cube without NWA, I was told there wasn't NO FUTURE IN MY FRONTIN, and DJ Quick was telling me that tonight was the night. We learned how to Jump Around and Who was a black sheep, Moni was always in the Middle and La told is ladies first. Salt N Pepa came back harder each time. We were letting boys be boys and SLAM. We found how CREAM (Cash Rules Everything Around Me) really is the rule, I SWEAR that is W theme song.
Look, I could go on like how everyone in my click had that De La Soul Track on their answer machine. Hey how ya doing sorry you can't get through... I remember doing the Jubilee all the original song that inspired the songs that inspired Beyonce's extended version of Get Me Bodied. I met Naughty by Nature. I realized I was cool like that on my own digable planet. I was all up and through New Jack Swing. All I ever wanted to do was zoom zoom, the boom boom not so much (hey I was good girl! *lol*).I aerobic danced in the club, Oaktown 3-5-9 style.
My first recollection of ever hearing Biggie Smalls came from the fact that I went to a step show and my DJ friend Kip was excited that Biggie Smalls was performing he had just heard his stuff and Juicy had not yet dropped on the airwaves. It turns out this Biggie Smalls was some white kid with the lamest flow and that because this kid already had the name word was from Kip Biggie had to go with another name. Not sure how true the last is, but I do know there was a white kid names Biggie Smalls and I think that single went triple lent, FOR REAL! Or the fact that at this time Pac was doing the humpty dance.
Anyway, I just got to thinking how that experience was totally wasted on the young me. I keep thinking how that part of history is not the best memory I could have made for me if I had just appreciated it a little more. Now fast forward to now. If you people haven't noticed we are living in one of the most historical times of our young nation. Think about it we are in an unjust war, we will probably be in a serious depression, we saw the towers fall, we saw a woman run for presidential nominee and really, we will see a the first self-identified black man become the nominee of a major party, we may see the first self-identified black POTUS, we may also see the first older than the actual country POTUS.
We are living in important and pivotal times. And I don't know about you, but unlike when I missed the moment that hip hop may have jumped the shark, I don't plan on missing any of this. I urge you to stay awake and take in the world as it unfolds around you, this is going to be the kind of stuff you want to share with your grand kids, great grand kids and great great grand kids
Be EZ,
OG
Comments
Some classic stuff came out of that
era.
We used to have a great club here called The Five Spot where you could go and hear great hip-hop and
neo-soul..That's where I first saw
The Roots live and a then unknown
young singer named Jill Scott ("Jilly from Philly) perform.
Loved your post and loved Questlove's Blog too..Thanks!
I saw the Roots and Floetry together a few years ago at a club in the H called Hush the concerts LIFE CHANGING!! Well as far as my musical life goes.
It was a really awesome time for hip hop and R&B.
I don't think any of us seriously knew what would happen. How could we? I just enjoyed the creativity of some of my fave groups. Kane, Stetsasonic, Eric B & Rakim, De La, Tribe and the list goes on and on.
what i do know is that i loved this post
ure dope, dude.
"toooonite is thaaa nite."
u took me back even though i missed it the 1st go round (in the early '90's when it was poppin')
but i guess that's kinda your whole point.
youth's wasted...
-1-
Good post! I painfully struggled through ?uestlove's scrambled thoughts and managed to enjoy myself the whole time. I like his music. His drumming on "Rising Up" gives me "goosebumps" to say the least. (This is why The Roots and Chrisette Michele are featured on my site banner)
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And an FYI for people who don't know what "jumped the shark" means. It refers to anything- usually an entertainment medium- that loses its relevance. It comes from the episode of Happy Days in which the Fonz jumped over some sharks and his leather jacket didn't get wet.