top 3 downloads 2012

 Skratch Bastid & The Gaff - Soul Sisters, Stand Up!



Soul, soul. Soul, and more soul. Most of which you will recognize, but ya probably didn’t know.

 Me & Mr Jones: Terry Urban 
 
Honestly I don’t really know the back story on this, but it’s lovely. Nas at his grown ass manest and Ms. Winehouse is the dream even she couldn’t fulfill.

Save.Our.Souls.: Add-2
 
Add-2 steps his game up here. He noted that before this, he knows that he could always be clever, but he wanted to say something too. His video for “CottonFields” best expresses this sentiment.

 

RIP Cousin Yauch

It was the mid eighties and rap was still being heavily debated on its ability to be music. Run DMC, LL Cool, even DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, had all made debuts, along with Biz Markie, 2 Live Crew, Slick Rick, and a grand host of others, but it wasn’t till The Beastie Boys that I finally got my hands on an actually rap album, or rather tape. Derek Tyl had the rest, and my moms wouldn’t allow them in the house, definitely on the side of rap as noise. By grace of god, my uncle’s girlfriend gave me License to Ill, because my uncle also didn’t like rap.

The raw party punk attitude and masculine boasting lyrics gave my young ears a language to explain what life was like, how the world had unfolded, but we weren’t allowed to say in polite circles. And they were white boys saying it in a predominantly black male musical genre.

Years later I had another gracious encounter, this time with knowledge. In attempts to have a family reunion, it was discovered that Adam Yauch, MCA, was a distant cousin. I believe his great-grandmother and my great-great-grandmother were sisters, or something like that. Either way, I feel blessed and honored to be able to say cousin Yauch. I also find it interesting that he is Jewish, and as far as I know, there is no Jewish identity in the family that I have met.

One final note, I am moved by how the Beasties, but especially cousin Yauch, became a peace loving, Buddhist hippie that helped the world grow

Stevie's Gonna See Me

it had to be 1983, parents were still together. we were in the Detroit airport not going anywhere meeting someone I suppose. those terminals haven't changed much since except the Brian Eno walkway has been down graded to silence. I can picture the gate and pass it often that I met Stevie Wonder in his floor length fur coat. as the story goes, I shouted 'he's on my album.' photo; family portrait plus Stevie in the DTW is early memory number 2.5.