Above is the unofficial Mt. Rushmore of new school hip hop circa 1993 and if you can name just ten of the rappers above we can be friends. Just the cover art alone could get Midnight Marauders into the Scooter Hall of Fame but the seminal A Tribe Called Quest album is more than worthy on the music as one of the greatest hip-hop album of all time.
The group’s first two albums were great in their own rights, but were still rough around the edges as the group, still teenagers at the time, were still finding themselves. Midnight Marauders is when the group came into their own and grew musically and emotionally. They have always been jazz based, but they took the beats to a new level on the disk with Award Tour, Midnight, and Electric Relaxation still ranking as three of the groups best.
As for the emotional point, here is where A Tribe Called Quest became more socially conscience dedicating a song to apartheid activist with Steve Biko (Stir it Up), called out a Sucka Nigga, and the Tour Guide for the album pointed out the increase of AIDS in the Black and Latino communities and letting you know, “You’re not any less of a man if you don’t pull the trigger; you’re not necessarily a man if you do.” But there are plenty of songs to get your groove on with Award Tour, We Can Get Down, and Oh My God to this day can start any house party.
Yeah the previously mentioned Tour Guide can get a little annoying after multiple listens and it really hurt right around the time Phife Dawg uttered the line, Your styles are incomplete same as Vinny Testaverde” he got traded to the Brown and replaced Bernie Kosar (another brilliant move by Bill Belichicken) as QB prompting the team to be so bad it moved. Even with all that, this outing from Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad not only is one of the greatest rap albums of all time but one of the greatest albums across all genres.
This has almost inadvertently become A Tribe Called Quest month with a couple of posts dedicated to the seminal rap group (and another on the way), but if any group deserves a month in their honor it would be Q-Tip, Phife Dawg and crew. And if you only have room for one A Tribe Called Quest song on your iPod, Award Tour should be that song.
The song is the one that really got me into A Tribe Called Quest. I had appreciation for their first two albums, but for the most part when they came out I was your token annoying suburbanite kid that listened to mostly hardcore gangsta rap. But Midnight Marauders came out right around the time I was widening my musical spectrum and Award Tour had this refreshing jazzy vibe compared to all the P-Funk and James Brown samples coming from the gangsta.
The song, which feature fellow Native Tongues members De La Soul on the track and in the video, also taught me an important lesson that, “You can be white and blue but don’t crap the roll.” So give the song a listen and if it isn’t already there consider feeding your iPod.
Feed Your iPod is meant to highlight songs that may not have been big hits but should be on everyone’s mp3 player. Shoot me an e-mail if there is a song you think should be included along with a short paragraph why and maybe it will be featured in a future segment.
Even though I mentioned the time during the latest 57 Channels, but it didn’t really don on me just how late this year’s Hip Hop Honors started until I switched over from Heroes (seriously, when is Kristen Bell showing up, the show is really getting painful to watch). A ten o’clock start time is just way too late for a two hour special. VH1 should know I like to get to bed promptly at ten-thirty so I can get my twelve hours of beauty sleep in. The late start time is most likely because of the absolutely horrible I Love New York, although if Midget Mac sticks around I may watch. Does anyone know if he did? (Be warned if you know the answer I will think less of you as a person). But anyways. You can (re)watch the performances and more over at hiphop.vh1.com. Here are some thoughts of this year’s festivities:
- Tracy Morgan is you host this year and fails to garner a laugh. And this is why I always have to scratch my head whenever someone tries to convince me that 30 Rock is funny because he is part of the show. Not to mention how overrated Tina Fey is. People always seem to forget she was the head writer for what is considered the least funny Saturday Night Live era ever (although the current era is trying to take that title). Yeah she was funny during Weekend Update, but that segment is idiot proof, even Jimmy Fallon was able to be funny during it. See, rants like this happen when I only get ten hours of sleep. Okay, back on track.
- They get the token female honoree out of the way earlier with Missy Elliot, the first misstep the show has had. If you insist on having a female, why not Queen Latifah, Roxanne Shanté or Mary J. Blige. I would even take the chick that sang Pump Up the Jam over her. Elliot is completely overvalued as a rapper just because of her eye-popping videos, but all her songs are mediocre at best. Her tribute was skippable with Eve, Nelly Furtado (don’t ask me what she was wearing), Ciara, and Tweet out of obscurity and yet no trash bag dresses in sight. Yawn.
- What, is the producer born Sean Combs going back to P. Diddy? I thought he was going as Diddy these days. Why bring back the “P”? Inquiring corny white dude minds need to know.
- He is out to honor New Jack Swing. I could name a dozen hip-hop artists more deserving, but I’ll let it go because long before the 9th Green existed I still made my best songs of the year lists for my own amusement and the very first list I made back in 1996 had No Diggity at number one. And to this day whenever I find myself in front of a microphone I find myself going through the whole, “Check, baby, check baby 1, 2, 3, 4” routine and sometimes bust out an entire verse depending on the audience. Fun Fact: Rump Shaker was actually written by an unknown Pharrell Williams who showed up twice last night yet for some reason was not involved in the Teddy Riley segment. But if you are going to pay tribute to New Jack Swing do you really need a Michael Jackson song? But we did find out why T-Pain uses that voice box thing because dude has a horrible singing voice.
- Wild Style is honored next. Never seen it, let’s move on.
- Whodini is a little before my time, but Freaks Come Out at Night is still a classic. I do feel bad for the group that they were resigned to having Nick Cannon, Nelly and Jermaine Dupri as part of their tribute. They really deserve better than that.
- Harvey Keitel fills this year’s token white dude quota to honor Snoop Dogg. Dr. Dre, who has been conspicuously absent for all the Hip Hop Honors, again isn’t present this year even though half the songs performed are technically his song. Maybe he will make an appearance once he finally finishes Detox because he really need to be honored himself or with N.W.A. as a group.
- And now what I have been waiting for four years, Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Jarobi: A Tribe Called Quest. Common does a decent job with Bonita Applebum, one of the few great rap love songs, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up when the beat for Scenrio started up. You know you are a great performer when you can just spout jibberish like Busta Rhymes did, I think he only rapped four actual words from the orginal verse, and still get everyone excited, yet Lupe Fiasco flubs a line and gets universally panned. Of cource how do you mess up the BBD line? But that all paled in compairison when Tribe themslves hit the stage for thilling renditions of Check the Rhyme and my presonal favorite Award Tour.
Now that A Tribe Called Quest is no longer the most deserving to be honored next, it is time to pick someone to replace them and I think I’ll go with Slick Rick to fill that void. In fact, here are the rappers who would be honored if I were running the show (who you got?):
In a story I broke yesterday, A Tribe Called Quest is being honored tonight at VH1’s Hip Hop Honors after calling for them to be done so since the inception of the show. There are very few artists that have put out five or more albums of which I own all of them and A Tribe Called Quest is one of them. So in honor of them getting their just due, here is a list of the group’s best songs that can fit on a single CD (running time 78:02). All songs are credited to A Tribe Called Quest unless noted otherwise:
1. I Left My Wallet In El Segundo - Peoples’ Instinctive Travels & the Paths of Rhythm (1990)
2. Can I Kick It? - Peoples’ Instinctive Travels & the Paths of Rhythm (1990)
3. Bonita Applebum - Peoples’ Instinctive Travels & the Paths of Rhythm (1990)
4. Check the Rhime - Low End Theory (1991)
5. Jazz (We've Got) - Low End Theory (1991)
6. Scenario (featuring Leaders of a New School) - Low End Theory (1991)
7. Award Tour (featuring Trugoy The Dove) - Midnight Marauders (1993)
8. The Chase, Part II - Midnight Marauders (1993)
9. Steve Biko (Stir It Up) - Midnight Marauders (1993)
10. Electric Relaxation - Midnight Marauders (1993)
11. 8 Million Stories - Midnight Marauders (1993)
12. Get It Together - Beastie Boys featuring Q-Tip - Ill Communication (1994)
13. 1nce Again - Beats, Rhymes and Life (1996)
14. Rumble in the Jungle - The Fugees, Busta Rhymes and A Tribe Called Quest - Rumble in the Jungle Soundtrack (1997)
15. Steppin' It Up (featuring Busta Rhymes and Redman) - The Love Movement (1998)
16. Find a Way - The ove Movement (1998)
17. Money Maker - The Love Movement (1998)
18. Start It Up - The Love Movement (1998)
19. Vivrant Thing - Q-Tip - Violator: The Album (1999)
20. Breathe and Stop - Q-Tip - Amplified (2000)
If you think I left something out feel free to tell me what you would have put on and what song it would replace in the comment section.
It seems like anyone who sells over a million records these days gets their own record company. Seriously, do we really need to hear music hand picked by the dude from Fall Out Boy? Despite some high profile failures, the Beastie Boy’s Grand Royal comes to mind, record companies still hand out imprints to young artists but every once in a while an artist led label can be a success, most recently Kanye West whose G.O.O.D. Music (Getting Out Our Dreams) label going three for three with two releases by John Legend and Common, whose breakout album Be was released on the label.
The latest Kanye endorsed artist is Consequence who was featured on both of West’s album. But long before hooking up with the current carrier of the backpack rapper torch, Consequence hung out with the originators of that scene, A Tribe Called Quest (Q-Tip and Consequence are cousins), showing up on over half of the tracks of Beats, Rhymes, and Life. What he did in the eight years during the interim? I’m not entirely sure, but if his debut album is any indication he was struggling with getting a day job and following his dream of becoming a rapper.
In fact Don’t Quit Your Day Job sounds like Spaceship from The College Dropout expanded into a concept album. The album starts out with a jobless Consequence and his nagging mother, who was voiced by a horrible voice actress and really takes away from a skit whenever she appears, not that I’m a fan of rap skits in the first place. In the middle, Consequence deviates from struggling rapper theme to a trio of songs about girls, including the unfortunate first single Callin’ Me, that just fall flat.
Near the end of the album is the completely out of place Grammy Family, a failed single from last summer that was originally featured on the DJ Khaled mixtape and with Kanye West and John Legend, Consequence is ironically the only one on the track sans Grammy. Those two show up elsewhere on the album, West on The Good, the Bad, the Ugly which could have been the best song on the album if it weren’t for the weak hook. While Legend shows up Feel This Way and features the pianist so much they might have gave him top billing on the song. But with such a high pedigree and some help from some heavy hitters, the album just doesn’t live up to its potential.
For years, I had to hang for by the water cooler listening to all the girls talk obsessively about crappy shows like The Bachelor(ette), American Karaoke, and Oprah, there hadn't been something from the TV that guys could talk about the day after since the heydays of Jerry Spinger (sadly this Sorority Girls doesn't count because apparently myself and a co-worker were the only ones that watched then dissected each episode the next day). Then came Chappelle's Show. It wasn't an instant cultural phenomenon. I didn't catch it until the middle of the first season with the reparations bit, "I'm rich, (expletive deleted)!" The first season also featured such instant classic as Black KKK, The Mad Real World, Wu Tang Financial, The Player Haters Ball, and the latest R. Kelly video (who doesn't have (Expletive Deleted) on You on their iPod?). But the best was yet to come as in the second season Chappelle's Show became the show guys could talk about the next day.
It would be silly to review the episodes, so instead I will countdown the top five sketches from season two.
5. Wayne Brady - When Brady said, "Is Wayne Brady gonna have to slap a (expletive deleted)?" it had me on the floor for days.
4. When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong - Keep it real is a phrase that has annoyed me for a while so these skits were always good for a laugh especially the one with the girl.
3. Black Bush - A rare political statement from Chappelle with great takes from Mos Def as Black Ashcroft, Charlie Murphy as Black Rumsfeld and Jamie Foxx as Black Tony Blair. Check out the deleted scenes for Black Jeb Bush explaining the Florida recounts.
2. Kneehigh Park - How can you go wrong with Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, Snoop Dogg as a puppet and a bunch of little VD puppets? I just hope that they overdubbed the lines so the kids there didn't actually hear any of it.
1. Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories - This one is a no brainer with the duel blast of Rick James and Prince. I remember reading Prince said he's constantly getting challenged to play basketball, although he never mentioned whether it actually happened or not. And it is very hard to go a day without hearing someone say, "I'm Rick James..."
This DVD does have most of the musical performances unlike the first season so we get great performances from the likes of Anthony Hamilton, Common, Kanye West (three times), Mos Def, Wyclef Jean, Snoop Dogg, and a special performance from John Mayer and ?uestlove doing a few 80's TV theme songs. I'm a huge John Mayer and The Roots fan so the skit was great to see them perform together (a side note, ?uestlove played drums on Mayer's Clarity).
As for extras on the DVD, we get the standard audio commentary by Chappelle and co-creator, Neal Brennan for five episodes. We also get about an hour and a half of deleted scenes and blooper, including twenty-three takes of Charlie Murphy laughing at Prince's challenge. But the highlights of the extra a two unaired storied by Charlie Murphy. One of which I can't believe they didn't turn into a sketch because it could have been as funny as Rick James or Prince. Then there is the extended interview of Rick James that they used for that episode. His imitation of Charlie Murphy had me on the floor. This interview would be great for any Health teacher starting the drug unit, because as Rick said just six months before his death, "Cocaine's one hell of a drug."
I wrote a little extra to the Dave Matthews Band, Stand Up review (scroll down for that) but I left it out because I thought that my rant would take away from the music. So I saved that rant for today. First of all, I'd like to point out that the title was lifted from A Tribe Called Quest song and I found no bigger example than when I got the DMB CD. So when I got my copy in the mail, the first thing I noticed when I opened the package was a sticker on the CD stating
This CD is protected against unauthorized duplication. It is designed to play on standard playback devices and an appropriately configured computer (see system requirements on back), If you have questions or concerns visit www.sunncomm.com/support/bmg.
And when you flip the CD case over, I literally had to grab a magnifying glass to read the extremely small type. Great, thank for sharing that information with me before I actually bought it.
Eventually I pop the CD into my computer, because I do have the system requirement stated on the back, because I want to put some of the songs on my iPod. First the BMG Digital Content End User License Agreement comes up (and this comes up EVERY time you put the CD into your computer). It tells me "This CD contains digital music files and related content (Digital Content) as a bonus for you, the End User (End User or you)." And after the usual "We will sue you and all known (and some unknown) relatives if you let anyone else even listen to this CD" I clicked the "I accept the terms of this agreement" button. This only led to a caution that read, "Your computer may have problems reading this CD. Please eject and re-insert the CD." After trying this about ten times. Then finally my valuable license was transferred from my CD to my computer (and this happens EVERY time). So now after about of a half an hour, I can finally copy the songs I want. Then I go to transfer the songs into iTunes but it told me that it doesn't read Windows Media Files, do you want to convert them to mp3. Well, duh. Aww, but you can't convert WMF's that are protected.
So it's time to check out to the pre-for mentioned web address that I'm supposed to go to for questions or concerns. And low and behold the page features this:
Wait why should I have to write Apple to change their stuff? You should have remedied the problem BEFORE you released any of the CD's with this embedded into it. But they go on:
Even though there is no direct support on the disc for iTunes or iPod, SONY BMG has worked out a way for consumers to move content into these environments, despite the challenges noted above. If you'd like more information on how to move content to iTunes please CLICK HERE.
So I clicked there and sent a question about how I can get the album onto my iPod. But since I didn't get a response within 30 seconds, I thought I'd do a little research. So I took a look into my favorite former illegal music-transferring program. And wouldn’t you guess, you can easily download the whole album with little fuss. So thanks a lot BMG, you royally pissed off all of your music buying customers to keep people from stealing the music, but you failed miserably. I also have a feeling that it is not a coincidence that this new technology coincides with the first time a Dave Matthews Band album was availably on iTunes. So they want you to buy the album twice, the CD and digitally.
So in closing I'd like to sayscrew you BMG, I will no longer buy any more of your CD's.
Rules: What follows is a list of different occupations. You must select at least five of them. You may add more if you like to your list before you pass it on (after you select five of the items as it was passed to you). Of the five you selected, you are to finish each phrase with what you would do as a member of that profession. Then pass it on to three other bloggers.
Here’s that list: If I could be a scientist… If I could be a farmer… If I could be a musician… If I could be a doctor… If I could be a painter… If I could be a gardener… If I could be a missionary… If I could be a chef… If I could be an architect… If I could be a linguist… If I could be a psychologist… If I could be a librarian… If I could be an athlete… If I could be a lawyer… If I could be an innkeeper… If I could be a professor… If I could be a writer… If I could be a backup dancer… If I could be a goonie… If I could be a spy… If I could be a llama-rider… If I could be a bonnie pirate… If I could be a midget stripper… If I could be a proctologist… If I could be a TV-Chat Show host… If I could be an actor… If I could be a judge… If I could be a Jedi… If I could be a mob boss…If I could be a backup singer… If I could be a CEO…If I could be a hobbit… If I could be a movie reviewer… If I could be a monkey’s uncle… If I could be a gangster… If I could be Miss America…
Here are my choices:
If I could be a musician... I would be a backpack rapper. For reference, check out albums by A Tribe Called Quest or Kanye West. These are rappers that concentrate more on lyrics than the beats and don't need to rap about how hard they are or how much bling they have, which has sadly dominated the rap scene lately.
If I could be a backup dancer… I would backup Mandy Moore hoping to be her own personal Kevin Spears. Hopefully unlike Brittney, Mandy doesn't turn into white trash after we start to hook up. A side note, I once met, and hit on Mandy Moore not knowing who she was. Had I only asked for her number back then.
If I could be a writer… I would write the greatest musical ever written. That shouldn't be too hard considering 99% of musicals are absolutely horrible. And yes, I do have the idea of what it will be about and no, I won't tell you. All I need to help me is a chance meeting with Lionel Ritchie so he can be the Rogers to my Hammerstein. Or Hammerstein to my Rodger, I can remember which one did what. I wonder if they will ever do a Project Greenlight type show for musicals.
If I could be an actor… I would want to be Dr, Venkman in a remake of Ghostbusters. He gets slimed, covered in marshmallow, and he gets the girl (Kate Bosworth would play the Sigourney Weaver part.) I may have to write a role for myself in my musical too.
If I could be a painter… I would be Bob Ross. A white man's afro. Happy little trees. No mistakes, just happy accidents. How great would that be? Except for that whole being dead part.
The NY Times reported the other day about the songs that George W. Bush has on his iPod. Since the article, White House Letter: President Bush's iPod (free sign up required), said he still has a lot of space left, I thought I would be nice enough to give him some suggestions he might want to add taken from my own personal iPod:
For my first true entry I thought I would pass along some opinions on the upcoming Super Bowl. So here it goes.
T.O.
Obviously the best place to start is the most talked about player (maybe) in the Super Bowl. Should he play? The answer is up to him. If he feels if he can play, he should. It's the Super Bowl, something that even the best players don't reach. If I were in his shoes, if I could walk I would be on the field. I've played with broken toes, bum knees and other painful predicaments for games that a lot less meaning than the Super Bowl.
Bill Belichick
As a guy who is lodged in my top 10 most hated people alive list, I cannot root for this guy. And to add insult to injury all the sports guys continually call this guy a genius or best coach ever. Whenever anyone says this, I want to show them tapes of his old Brown's (my team bye the way) days. This guy was so bad it gave Modell (who ranks #2 on my most hated list) a reason to move the team out of town. He even benched then traded one of Cleveland most beloved sports star ever only to replace him with... Vinny Testaverde who inspired one of the best sports-inspired rap lyric of all time, "Your rhymes are incomplete like Vinny Testaverde." (A Tribe Called Quest)
Romeo Crennel
Let me take you back to last August when I bought Madden 2005. When I started up franchise mode, here were my first three moves. 1. Traded Jeff Garcia for draft picks, started Luke McCown (luckily cyber McCown's player rating doesn't drop 20 points in cold weather) 2. Traded William Green for draft picks, started Lee Suggs (luckily cyber Suggs isn't as injury proned as the real person) 3. Dropped Butch Davis and signed... you guessed it Romeo Crennel. Seriously, why was I not considered for the Browns' GM job. Look what happened when the Red Sox hired Theo Epstein. Back in the real world the Browns better schedule a press conference on Monday to announce Crennel the new head coach, barring Philly dropping 50 against his defense.
Prediction
Eagles17, Patriots 12 (Of course I always bet against Belichick, and I always lose, so don't take my prediction seriously) Wait I just thought of something: Eagles17, Patriots 12 Patriots 33, Eagles 6
(seriously, when is Kristen Bell showing up, the show is really getting painful to watch). A ten o’clock start time is just way too late for a two hour special. VH1 should know I like to get to bed promptly at ten-thirty so I can get my twelve hours of beauty sleep in. The late start time is most likely because of the absolutely horrible 
is funny because he is part of the show. Not to mention how overrated Tina Fey is. People always seem to forget she was the head writer for what is considered the least funny Saturday Night Live era ever (although the current era is trying to take that title). Yeah she was funny during Weekend Update, but that segment is idiot proof, even Jimmy Fallon was able to be funny during it. See, rants like this happen when I only get ten hours of sleep. Okay, back on track.
is honored next. Never seen it, let’s move on.
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