More Inspiration
I found this website called http://www.hiphopinspires.us which specializes in dishing out bite-sized inspirational lyrics from songs ranging from 2Pac, to T.I., to The Roots. One of the reasons why I love hip-hop so much is that the lyrics can really tell a story or convey emotion in ways that other genres of music cannot, because of its lyrical density. Here are some of my favorites:
Sometimes before you smile you got to cry
You need a heart that’s filled with music
If you use it you can fly
The Roots - Sacrifice
I refuse to be concerned with condescending advice
‘Cause I’m the only motherfucker that can change my life
Immortal Technique - Leaving the Past
To everyone out there, who’s a little different
I say damn a magazine, these are God’s fingerprints
You can call me ugly but cant take nothing from me
I am what I am doctor you ain’t gotta love me
Brother Ali - Forest Whitiker
Any inspirational lyrics that hit you in the right spot?
Hidden gems found, thanks to online radio
I was sprinting to my car in the morning.
I know what the wrong side of the universe looks like - all alien beings must be late and hurried there. I was forced to skip breakfast and was already feeling the effects of my low blood sugar with each roar of my car's engine. As I was power-walking in the parking lot, I felt that my pocket was unusually light this morning.
My iPod is at home.
Luckily, with the trend of Web 2.0 everything, a delivered breakfast burrito and some interesting online radio choices fixed my morning right up.
Old school radio: demise forthcoming. Picture by Ian.
I will be frank and say that I believe 99% of the radio station out there sucks. I don't even think my car radio quite works correctly (one of the downsides of installing your own car audio system) - this is of little loss to me because the annoying commercials, low sound quality, and the fact that radio playlists never seem to play exactly what I want irritates me to no end. Don't even get me started on the songs they choose to play either.
My first taste of online radio was surprisingly great, and refreshing. I stumbled upon a radio station on Live365 that played extremely listenable and varied music, ranging from old school to Afrocentric to forgotten favorites. It felt like someone who knew what he was doing was playing the songs, as opposed to a media pawn or a statistics driven robot. Here is an example playlist:
A Tribe Called Quest - Like It Like That (great Afrocentric old school)
Fatlip - What's Up Fatlip (Fatlip, from the Pharcyde, released a solo album in 2005 that I had no idea about. )
Afu-Ra - God of Rap (very overlooked old school artist)
Grand Puba - Two Thousand, Amazing (see above)
Canibus - Second Round K.O. (one of the first, best battle rappers in the game)
Outkast - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (one of the Foundations of southern rap, for you Wayne/T.I. junkies out there)
The Fugees - Vocab (A marriage of reggae, hip-hop, and soul earning unadulterated mainstream and critical praise? Never before done!)
Kanye West - Get 'em High (a lost gem among Kanye's more popular songs, features Kanye, Common, and Talib Kweli going at it hard)
Rakim - Been a Long Time (old school legend)
DJ Honda - Straight Talk from NY (surprising find on a radio station)
Has anybody else had a good experience with online radio? Any suggestions?
Uplifting and Inspirational Rap Songs
There are always some times in life that shit gets you down, ranging from family issues, arguments with your girl, or when that last Butterfingers bar gets stuck in the vending machine and you are out $1.25. In times like these, I find that the best medicine (besides copious amounts of drinking) is usually music.
While it is easy to find drug slanging anthems, songs about banging, or ballads about keeping ladies of the night in line, it may take a little bit of digging to find songs that everyone can relate to. The ballad of the vending machine malfunction, if you will. Here are some that immediately come to mind:
DMX - Slippin' from Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood (1998)
Slippin' is a rare song in the fact that it sounds better when it is censored. DMX laments about his broken childhood, the struggles that he had to go through in the street, and recalls his recovery from his dark place. Broken into general terms, the lyrics of Slippin' speak volumes to those who are forced to be independent a bit too early, and to witness the realities of life a bit too much.
See to live is to suffer but to survive
Well, that's to find meaning in the suffering.
2Pac - Keep Ya Head Up from Strictly For My N.I.G.G.A.Z. (1993)
Before 2Pac became a T.H.U.G life puppet of Suge Knight's now defunct Death Row record label, he was a socially and politically conscious rapper with raw emotion in each and every verse. He is mentioned among the greatest rappers of all time not because of his incredible mastery of the mic, but for this ability to reach everyone with his music. Keep Ya Head Up is an ode to the broken woman, a common tragedy in African-American culture. His lyrics serve not only to highlight this tragedy, but to uplift any shattered spirits.
Cause I think we can make it, in fact, I'm sure
And if you fall, stand tall and comeback for more
Atmosphere - Dreamer from When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold (2008)
Atmosphere has been traditionally known for fiercely introspective and dark lyrics, but took a radical departure in their latest album with symbolic stories about a variety of other people, including the daughter of a drug dealer, an alcoholic, and a homeless man who sees his daughter at a diner. Dreamer contains the classic American theme of "pull yourself up from your bootstrap" and visits the life of a gutsy young woman as she navigates through countless obstacles, bad male influences, and raising two children while succeeding. When you listen to this song, you think to yourself "if she can succeed, so can I. And my shit isn't half as bad."
Those are just three examples - do any of you have any songs that hit the spot during a bad time?
Yo, Excuse Me Miss, Sorry for Hitting You
Chris Brown recently publicly apologized for rearranging (then girlfriend) Rihanna's face. Another act of senseless violence that certainly doesn't do any stereotypes or misconceptions about hip-hop culture any good.
A lot of the topics and themes around this traumatic event has been discussed heavily already, and I would feel like I would be beating a dead horse (no pun intended) if I discussed the implications of violence on women and such. But one thing that I would like to wonder is: how does a very public R&B singer ever recover from this, at the tender age of 19? Do you suddenly become the face of anti-abuse agencies, and educate others about your mistakes? Will writing a heartfelt apology song and releasing it as a single make a difference, ala T.I? Or do you vanish into the background, only to return with a reality TV show?
I am very interested to see how this saga will continue and to see how he chooses to recover from this. Maybe if he is successful he can go back to drinking milk and chewing gum again.
Eight Rules: Proper Sound System Etiquette
As an audiophile, one of the first things I did when I got a new car was to perform open heart surgery, strap some wires to the battery, and install my own sound system in it. The 500 watt amps power two 10 inch subs and four component speakers and shot a booming arrow into my heart - everything from swing music, jazz, and hip-hop sounded fifty times better. I was hearing nuances, making out instruments, and clearly hearing every word and breath in every lyric like never before. But with all this sexy sonic power, comes responsibility!
Enjoy responsibly. Photo by IceBone
Here are eight rules and tips to follow to be a safe car audio enthusiast and avoid being an Audio Asshole:
1) Rolling through residental neighborhoods with your system on blast won't help you pick up chicks or more street - it wakes up babies and takes off a couple of minutes off an elderly person's life every time you do it. So don't.
2) There is nothing wrong with bumping the hell out of a song you love. But if you must, try to keep your windows rolled up if a lot of other cars are around.
3) Booming bass is cool, but a trunk rattling like a tin can during a major earthquake definitely isn't. Put some sound dampening material in your trunk so your bass will kick better and your rattle won't scare little kids on the street.
4) For God's sake, I've seen booming sound systems with mothers in the car. Please have respect for her ears and everybody else in your vehicle.
5) As a male, any kind of contest is fair game. I've fond memories of how far I can throw licked gummy bears onto ceilings, for example, but sound system battles on the street tend to hurt the competitor's ears in what equates to a pissing contest - and bothers everyone around you.
6) If you are driving through a rather seedy looking neighborhood, it's best to keep the volume on your system to a minimum - stolen audio equipment are hot commodities on the street.
7) Police or emergency vehicle sirens should never have to compete with your system.
8) If you notice a big group of children (such as a school or a playground), it might be best not to play the Geto Boy's "Still" at full blast.
Let us reverse the trend of car audio "thuggery" and be recognized as serious car audio enthusiasts instead!
How do you feel about car audio systems?
Hip Hop Beats – favorites from the early 90s
Upon listening to my iPod today (what a great leap from the tape deck, isn't it?), I hit a string of songs in a row that all had a fantastic beat, and I couldn't help but start nodding my head like I was constantly agreeing with myself. This had a two-pronged effect: I got a few puzzled looks from my coworkers who probably don't need any help in thinking I'm weird, and it got me thinking about how important the beat is to a song. In a lot of ways, the beat is both overrated and underrated.
Beatmaking: the hidden science. Picture by ryan.valle.
It is overrated because some rappers can have whack songs on a hot beat, and they'll shoot straight up the charts - people often refer to these rappers as "ringtone rappers." I can't think of an honor more dubious than selling ten times more ringtones than albums. Nearly always, the casual listener will listen to and consider the beat first before anything else.
Beats are also underrated because, well, it IS in the background. Great producers are overlooked in favor of the artist rapping over the beats, and little is known about the art of production. Producers are often masters of several traditional instruments and can be considered geniuses who use a huge variety of sources to paint a melody on a musical canvas. It takes an enormous amount of knowledge about music to craft beats well, and only until Kanye West exploded onto the scene did producers start to get noticed.
Good beats beg you to hit the rewind (or replay, in this age) button just one more time. It implores you to reach for the volume knob because your poor ears have gotten used to where you turned it up before. And, it makes you snap your neck in your car, looking like a fool and not caring, because the bass hits so hard.
Here are three of my favorite beats - from the early 1990s.
Rapper: Nas
Album: Illmatic (1994)
Song: N.Y. State of Mind
Producer: DJ Premier
Listen to this song - the beat hits you as hard as a speeding train. DJ Premier's fledging career was defined by this song, and his artistic traits were on full display - a haunting piano loop from obscure jazz samples, a pounding bassline, and cutting spoken lyrics from other songs to form a chorus. The overall result? A gritty, dark beat fitting for the Big Apple. Executive producer MC Serch noted "Primo [DJ Premier] and Nas, they could have been separated at birth. It wasn't a situation where his beats fit their rhymes, they fit each other."
Rapper: The Pharcyde
Album: Labcabincalifornia (1995)
Song: Runnin'
Producer: J. Dilla (RIP)
One of the defining songs of The Pharcyde's popular run in the early 90s, Runnin' was one of J. Dilla's early masterpieces. J. Dilla always had a habit of having his curious style imparted onto every one of his beats, yet every beat he created was somehow drastically unique. Noteworthy aspects of the beat are the disjointed, almost dream-like guitar samples, mastery of turntable scratching, choice saxophone and maraca cuts, and the way J. Dilla artistically wove this haphazard tapestry together. Also, who could forget the ridiculous verse drop at 3:00 when the beat stops, for just a heartbeat?
Rapper: Notorious B.I.G.
Album: Ready to Die (1994)
Song: Things Done Changed
Producer: Dominic Owens, Kevin Scott
I love music that stirs the soul, like a movie soundtrack starring Denzel Washington. Those who listen carefully can hear a stirring, tinkling piano loop, a sinister bassline, and a steadily rising and falling cresendo rising throughout the song, culumating in muted trumpet blasts. Ironically, the iconic (and amazingly addictive) vocal sample comes from none other than Dr. Dre, a giant on the rival West Coast.
What are your favorite beats from the early 90s?
Introducing the Octopus Continued
In middle school, 2Pac and the Notorious B.I.G. were the rage. Big didn't describe them (well, it described B.I.G., who looked like he ate a little too many flapjacks). I didn't hear much about them besides the fact that all my friends kept reciting rap lyrics and arguing about who was supreme (2Pac won nearly all the time since I lived on the West Coast). When 2Pac was shot and killed, I vividly remember that day in the playground - the subdued buzz, the surprised exclamations of "did you hear what happened?" and the feeling that a great loss has taken place. This event, coupled with the general disdain of soft rock in the playground, piqued my interest.
2Pac, the oldest of souls. Photo by Art-KO of Flickr fame.
As high school approached, I fully threw myself into hip hop with 2Pac as my guide. The more I found out about him, the more I thought he could do no wrong as I navigated the urban waters. Everything about him was magnetic - his life story, his dedication to the arts and to telling the story of the weak and ignored, and his lifelong dream to spark a revolution in the streets. Surprisingly, even his poetry turned out to be remarkably well polished. 2Pac was an easy to digest gateway to the rap world.
Rap music turned out to be an acquired taste, much like wine, coffee, or beer - at first listen, it seemed shallow, overly focused on "gangsterisms," and full of bad messages and language. Only after repeated listens, often late at night and while looking up the written lyrics, can one start to see the poetry, strong positive messages, and emotional attachment the artist had to their songs (and that is just scratching the surface). 2Pac remains one of the best examples of someone whom you can feel emotion in every bar. Relating my very ordinary and mundane life to these strong, powerful lyrics became surprisingly easy.
College, like it is supposed to, opened my eyes even further. To be continued in a future post.
To my dear readers: does anybody else out there have an artist that they felt introduced them (or catapulted, violently) to a new genre of music?
Introducing the Octopus
What a strange title for a new blog. The Hip Hop Octopus. What is this guy all about anyway?
At first, I hated rap music.
I grew up in the late 1980s in a small town in North East LA, called Highland Park. It was a community of Asian immigrants, African Americans, and Latinos, and my only experiences with hip hop was from the street. Sometimes, it seemed to leaking out of the concrete – car systems booming like King Kong was locked in the trunk, graffiti on chipped brick walls, and the wails of police sirens as they chased speeding Fords down the freeway. What fueled my music preferences at that time was chronic childhood insomnia - I scoured the radio for anything that would prevent me from depressingly wandering around in the dark. It was so bad at times that I began to get a sinking feeling when the sun went down because it meant that I would spend the night feeling alone.
Picture of a lonely car courtesy of agira929.
The perfect beast to combat this was incidentally... KOST 103.5. If you are in LA, you know that this is a radio station that specializes in contemporary adult love songs and "soft rock" at night - a sure recipe for disaster on the elementary school playground. At first, I only listened to Elton John and Céline Dion just because they were a soothing way to fall asleep, but I would be lying if I said I didn't begin to appreciate their music on some subconscious level.
Sleep was bliss. If Candle in the Wind can grant me that bliss, than I can dig it.
Part II to follow.