Tuesday Lite

It’s getting to be that time of the year again. This coming weekend is Memorial Day Weekend, and for most of us, that’s the official kick off to summer. Sun, fun, brews, babes, all those equal up to good times. I’ve already got my first sunburn of the season two weekends ago, with my pasty white ass. We sat up in the in the third deck of a Rockies game, getting drunk and watching Fred Lewis of the San Fran Giants hit for the cycle against them. Keep losing Rocks, at least we get cheap tickets whenever we want.

With summer coming, it means we are in that season where some song will become our summer anthem and will have the possibility to become immortalized in our memories for the rest of our lives. Sometimes, it’s some classic song, other times, it might even be a song we don’t even like, but it made it’s mark in our memories and becomes associated with a particular summer. It happened to me in ’03, I was unemployed after the company I worked for decided to head south of the border after quarter after quarter of seeing red after the whole 9/11 debacle. The company employed around 1,000 people at it’s height and a group of us became pretty tight knit, partying together, playing Madden together, playing softball and the fact we went through a company shut down, it made us even tighter. Since it was a fairly large company getting shut down and the fact the economy wasn’t very good in the first place, we all automatically received a year’s unemployment. You still had to do all the things you had to do on unemployment (it was my first time), like look for a job, but trust me, we didn’t look to hard. Even if we did look, we got a “no thank you” and a door in our face most of the time. We ended up getting NAFTA (North American Free Trade Act) which is how I ended up in Denver, but that’s another story. The summer of ’03, me and all my “Jabil” (the place I worked at) buddies, drank, floated the Boise River and played co-ed and men’s softball all summer long. It was the last truly “great” summer I’ve had and probably will ever have. There are so many songs from that summer that come to mind when I think of it, but the one that sticks out the most is “Magic Stick” by Fifty and Lil’ Kim. I’m not a big fan of 50 for the most part, but I’ll admit, during the height of his popularity he made some of the better mainstream stuff. Most of my friends liked hip hop, but of the radio/mainstream stuff so I was forced to listen to this type of stuff a lot when I was around them. It was also our “theme” song for our softball team, which wasn’t all that bad, for being 4-5 beers into it by the time our games would start. Trying for a rally? Magic Stick. Swingin’ like the Bronx Bombers? Magic Stick? Throwing government money at strippers? Magic Stick. The last great summer I’ve had, music always provides the soundtrack to our memories.

You would think this would be a good lead off into a summer song mix or songs of summers past for the “lite” side of things, but I’m saving that for another time and for another blog. I could be turning into the Busta Rhymes of blogging, if I ever get my ass in gear and finish the posts for the three guest appearances I have been asked to do. Regardless, be looking for my summer time post coming to you a blog near you. Just don’t think this rules out a summer theme WYDU Classics in the future.

Muuuuuuusic!

No real connecting theme this time, just some stuff I found while going through some of my old disks of music I had laying around.

Sticky Fingaz – Jackin’ For Beats ’99

Before my addiction to the Black Album remixes, I had an addiction to the “Jackin’ For Beats” tracks that were coming out at a weekly clip at one time. I loved the original from Cube, I’m not sure what it was, but it just got me amped. In ’99, Sticky Fingaz released his version of “Jackin’ For Beats” complete with a 50 cent dis and some GREAT lines. You can’t help wanting to get up and punch someone while listening to this version. This is right when Sticky went solo and it was a great way to throw his hat in the ring. He jacked bigged name stars such as Jay, Nas, and Busta, and in some cases, sounded better on the beats than the original artist. That was the reason Cubes original version became so wildly popular in the first place. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I quickly became cured of the “Jackin’ For Beats” obsession when I realized that most of these songs sucked. The only other one I’d suggest is Slug’s “Jackin’ For Freaks”.

Princess Superstar feat J-Zone – I Love You, Or At Least I Like You

Now you know I’m not including this because of Princess Superstar, who is some techno/trip hop DJ, I think. I'd throw it in her, but she’s doesn't really do my type of music. The real reason for this is J-Zone. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know my fondness for Zone’s music. The dude is hilarious with his lyrics and just brings fun back to hip hop and this joint is no different. This is the ultimate pimp song with Zone spitting lines like “…if you want to give me the ass, first give me the cash..” or “young ladies wanna swallow mine, not until I see dollar signs”, yeah your basic locker room humor, but the way Zone and Princess Superstar go back and forth at each other, it’s just good plain fun ignorance. This song would make Jarred from Subway ready to go mack on some females. Zone didn’t do the beat, but that doesn’t take away from the song. All true Zone fans need to check this out. Don’t bother if you are easily offended.

Three Times Dope – No Words (Mental Mutations Mix)

I think this was the one someone asked for last week. Someone else posted the track up last year and I forgot I had it. I found it while digging through some files on my computer. I've always been a big 3xD fan, but the second album this came from was no where as good as the first, in my humble opinion, and that's where this track came from. The remix of this is produced by member Chuck Nice, who also did the original as well.

Double XX Posse – Headcracker (Remix)

While we are on the subject of remixes, I’ll throw this track in there as well. The original is one of my favorite tracks of the ‘90’s, it was just raw as fuck. The remix isn’t as good as the orginal, but doesn’t take away from the greatness of the original either. There is dope ass bassline and a killer horn loop on the hook that just keeps as raw as a hooker that’s on her 50^th customer of the day. If I remember right, Stretch Armstrong had something to do with the remix

Limp Bizkit feat DMX, Method Man & Redman – Keep Rollin’ (Remix)

Yeah, it’s Limp Bizkit, I know what you are thinking and you are right, Limp Bizkit is horrible and doesn’t belong on this blog. Just ignore Fred Durst’s whiny ass for the first minute or so and this track isn’t all that bad with Meth and Red stealing the show. I should know who produced this track, it sounds familiar, but I can’t. It sounds like some Asian sample interloped into a drum track. Red and Meth are typical Red and Meth and come with tight verses. DMX is DMX, I’ve never cared for him all that much as far as quality hip hop, but he is okay in the clubs. The main reason I put this up is someone last week said they were collecting Redman verses, well not too many hip hop heads are going to have this, and with good reason. Think of this as step below of “All In Together Now” that was, ahem, pretty good.

Trav’s Top Spins For The Week

I think last week was the first week in I don’t know how long I didn’t download a full album of any kind. Most of the reason was because I had to give up my computer at work that had a way to transfer music files from my hard drive to an external source. With no school over the summer, I took my broke ass and got a second job on the weekends slanging drinks for a catering company. This means, I’m getting high speed internet, once and for all. While there isn’t a whole lot I wanted to download this past week, all bets are, there will be….hopefully. Regardless, here’s what was bumping through the headphones this past week.
1. Marco Polo – Port Authority

There is some really good stuff on this and some really “ho-hum” stuff on this, which I guess is about the par for albums these days. The best song is still “Nostalgia”, but some other decent joints on here.

2. DJ Jazzy Jeff – The Magnificent
I still stand by description of it last week, lots of fast-forwarding going on, but some real gems on here. I’m amazed at the variety of artists he has on it though, everything from Wordsworth to JoJo Pellagrino. It was bound to make for an uneven effort just on that detail, but I admire the chance he took and you can’t really nail down a “sound” for Marco Polo, which could be good or bad, depending on how you look at it.

3. Jay-Z – The Black Album (And Remixes)

I guess that internet list from last week got the best of me. I busted out the original effort and some of the remixes. I actually think I like some of the remixes better than the original, which makes the fact that the original is in the top 25 even more hard to swallow, but so bet it. I might still bust out a collection of the best remix efforts.

4. De La Soul – Buhloone Mind State

Another one of those albums I just get in the mood for every now and then. I slept on this album so hard when it came out. In all honesty, before “Stakes Is High” came out, the only other De La album I liked was “De La Soul Is Dead”. I know, how the fuck can I be writing about this shit. It just wasn’t “my thing” at the time. It honestly wasn’t until I saw them live right before “Stakes..” came out that I got into them heavily. I’d call them my favorite hip hop group of all-time now.
5. Cunninlynguists – A Piece of Strange

This is a relapse of sorts, although this is one of those albums I could play over and over again and never get sick of. It’s nice to listen to at work or when taking an afternoon nap after waking up at a god awful hour to go to work like I’ve been doing lately.

Why????

Why are the Pirates doomed to be shitty forever? Is there really a curse of Barry Bonds going on there? By the way, FUCK Barry Bonds

Why can’t I wait for football season, even though I have a baaaad feeling about the Steelers?

Why is it the coolest fucking thing since…..well since Boise State beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl that “Z”, Jared Zebransky is on the cover of EA Sports NCAA Football 2008?

Why is getting drunk at Coors field a whole lot more fun than actually watching the game, especially when said game is 15-2?

Why can’t I find a softball team to roll with this summer? Although I haven’t looked that hard after the Meteorology dept softball team from school fell through from the lack of women.

Why does Rawkus deem it necessary to start a hip-hop version of myspace? I haven’t looked at it yet, but I’ve seen numerous myspace bulletins from groups asking people to join them in some race between 50 groups to get the most friends. When I looked I knew 18 groups and only about 8 of those did I really like. It was nice to see the Jacksonville, Florida’s the “Smile Rays” get lumped in. Them and one of the Justus League members were the two best artists I saw on there.

Why did I go see Paul Wall a week ago? Well, because they were free tickets. I won’t even say who was on the rest of the bill. But I do want to thank the person who hooked me up with the tickets (you know who you are), despite it not being my kind of music, enough beers and anything is fun and I did have a good time.

Why do I not believe the rumors about a Grand Puba album produced entirely by Lord Finesse?

Why did I nearly shit my pants when I saw the $52.00 price tag on that Buckwild Rare 2 disc Studio sessions that I saw in the store last week? I like Buck, but not for 52 bucks.

Why I haven’t heard that Marley & KRS One collabo yet?

Why are they re-releasing (or finally releasing) all these great albums like the Ill Biskits and the deluxe version of Masta Ace’s “Take A Look Around”. Not that I’m bitching.

Why does Amy Winehouse look like a cheap, over-used hooker, when she used to look fairly do-able

Why haven’t they re-released Nine’s albums yet? Dammit!

Why do I have more trips planned this summer than money? My best friend has won $15,000 at online poker this past month and he is trying for a seat at the World Series of Poker. I told him if he made it, I’d be his entourage in Vegas during the event. Shit, the way he is winning, he can pay my entourage fee that I charge.

Why am I more excited about seeing Al Green and Etta James more than anything else this summer on the concert circuit.

Why am I hesitant to go see that tour with Felt, Living Legends and others? I guess besides Felt, I really could care less for anybody else on the bill, but as mentioned before, beer and an outside concert almost makes a crying hillbilly country singer listenable.

Why have I only been storm chasing three times this year when it’s been a great spring for it (from a storm chasers point of view). I was in the county that the Greensberg, Kansas tornado was in the week before it hit. The combination of $3.30 a gallon gas, one of my storm chasing partners getting shipped off to Little Rock, Arkansas and the other partner’s wife expecting a baby any day and frowns whenever he mentions heading off to Kansas to chase storms (not that I blame her).

When did making cute little pictures out of keyboard symbols become gully? That’s GANGSTA!

Why did I make it on the mailing list of every upcoming producer, website, and wannabe MC that I can’t even read my email anymore? Some of it’s cool, but it’s becoming too much.

Why do I want to have a threesome with Vanessa Carlton & Nelly Furtado and become their boy toy?

Why do I feel embarrassed to say I’m a closet Timbaland fan?

Why after saying that, do I feel compelled to say his solo album sucked for the most part.

Why am I going to be yelling for the Jazz against the cheap shot artist pro's the Spurs?

Why am I the only one that think Lebron has less personality than the wall I'm sitting next to?

Why do I feel threatened that my man Eric is pumping out a better blog than me, pink background and all....hahaha, keep killin' it man!