An example of hands off parenting is letting your son purchase 'The Source' (: http://www.thesource.com/), a 'rap/hip-hop lifestyle magazine' at age 9. However my parents were not acting out of pattern. I rarely was censored in my literary/cultural endeavors. I watched whichever movies and read whichever books my curious eyes landed on as a child.While gravitating towards books with literary 'currency' as I grew older (leaving the airport authors Crichton, Grisham, Clancy, King behind around 7th grade), my musical development was comparatively stunted.
From about 4th grade, through a few weeks ago, I was unabashedly biased towards rap/hip-hop (I leave the genre splicing to the Pitchforks). Starting with Bad-Boy: Puff Daddy, BIG, through Wu-tang Clan and quickly expanding into as much of the rap universe I could access. I was, as my 7th grade social studies teacher named me, a JWA (Jew with Attitude).
My cousin Philip once gave me semi-wise advice, 'spend all your money on music'. I heeded those words starting at about age 11 through 15. During those years, I amassed about 150 CDs, mostly purchased used at Amazon.com. Since then, I have rode the mostly gorgeous waves of music piracy (Napster in 4th grade, Kazaa/Morpheo/LimeWire in middle school, Torrenting since high school) now hoarding upwards of 150GB of music across harddrives internal and external, laptops, desktops, Rochester, Chicago, etc.
Not to say I didn't dabble in other genres. Being the child of my parents, I was fluent in classic rock, folk, 'prog-rock' as well as mainstream pop, reggae, jam bands, and some electronica (again leaving the genrification to the Pitchforks).
A few weeks ago though, I really was frustrated with my musical maturity. Amidst friends who followed music as a whole like I followed the NBA (!!!!!), my single-mindedness led to musical insecurity.
I avowed to make a concerted (Sans Max) effort to find music in different genres I liked (generally). I wanted to acquire breadth over all music which I already boast in rap.
I'm happy to return to blogging (from a short-lay-off) triumphantly, with music diversification galore (maybe not galore, but relatively galorious!).
Together with my favorite piece of electronics, my 4GB Sansa Clip:
I have gone Somali and disregarded cultural morays regarding piracy.As I have attempted on my blog, as well as my Facebook profile, I've enumerated my favorite books, movies and TV show (please watch The Wire in full, or contact me for book recommendations!).
Why then do I exclude my favorite music and albums? Generally, I've always felt that music is too vast and ample a source for me too pick and choose from. I simply can't par down favorite CDs into a finite and accesible list. Situations call for different musics, hence my call for diversification of my music portfolio. Lil' Wayne (of course he gets mentioned) would be as un-appreciated with adults as Holst' 'Planets' (try it!) would be with my cousin Sarah (no offense Sarah!).
As a taste, here's my current 4GB of music loaded onto my clip, in alphabetical order by Album, followed by Album artist:
Armchair Apocrypha - Andrew Bird
Awfully Deep - Roots Manuva
Back on My Shit! - Busta Rhymes
Black Magic - Swollen Members
Caltroit - Black Milk
City of God's Son Part 1 - Kenzo Digital
Converting Vegetarians Discs 1 and 2 - Infected Mushroom
Da Drought 3 Discs 1 and 2 - Lil' Wayne
Dedication - Lil' Wayne
Dedication 2 - Lil' Wayne
Doctor's Advocate - The Game
Feed the Animals - Girl Talk
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
For Emma, Forever Ago - Bon Iver
Gang Mentality - Clinton Sparks and The Re-up Gang
Get Familiar - Clinton Sparks and Kardinal Offishal
Gulag Orkestar - Beirut
Hannah Med H Soundtrack - The Knife
Heavy - Swollen Members
Heroes in the City of Dope - Zion I and the Grouch
Ink is My Drink - Panacea
The Knife - The Knife
Lord Willin' - The Clipse
Mantis - Umphrey's McGee
Mar Dulce - Bajofondo
A Matter of Time - Mike Posner
Monsters in The Closet - Swollen Members
Mystery Repeats - Pete Philly & Perquisite
Nerd-Hop Vol. 1 - Jordan Looney
Notorious Soundtrack - Jay-Z, et. al
Remind Me in 3 Days - The Knux
Road to Till the Casket Drops - The Clipse
The Segovia Collection - Andres Segovia
Sky High: The Kanye Remix Project- Kanye West & DJ Benzi
Slime and Reason Discs 1 and 2 - Roots Manuva
Starship Utopia - Cyne
Soundtracks - DJ Deckstream
The Take Over - Zion I
'Til Shiloh - Buju Banton
Vicious Delicious - Infected Mushroom
Visitor - The Dodos.
And there it is, an instant of my MP3 in time. A certain advantage of a smaller MP3 is that the user is forced to constantly cycle through his/her collection or obtain (Somali style) new music as often as his/her (musical) attention span dictates.
Music is as local as one of your friends putting a mixtape together (Nerd-Hop) to one of my favorites, Infected Mushroom, an Israeli Psy-Trance group I try and keep a finger on. Anyone can find something they like provided they are willing to employ the Internet.
APF
you should check out natural progression-sweatshop union
ReplyDeletealso, since you have the grouch, you probably have living legends, but if not, check em out. classic and the gathering are both good albums.
almost famous by living legends is tight. forces of nature, rabbit hole (an update of the jefferson airplane song), the one featuring slug, are just off the top of my head the standout tracks.
ReplyDeletebut hey man, that list, still a bunch of rap! im exacltly the same way, my musical development centered around rap and that's where my breadth and depth of knowledge is most extensive, and I too have recently been trying to expand my tastes. ive looked into rock? white people music? of various types, classic rock and hipster electronica shit, to some degree, but in my explorations I find myself most falling in love with soul and funk, like Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, etc. You know my newfound love for Alicia Keys. I'm also a bit into various musics from Africa, and latin shit like Manu Chao and Gipsy Kings and Buena Vista Social Club. I feel you man.
also jazz is sweet, miles davis, herbie hancock are some i like.
ReplyDeletethis is Phil by the way. I now realize I'm commenting under as owner of this half assed blog me and my friend made when we were high last summer.
ReplyDelete