Of the Favorite 15s I’ve done so far, this is definitely gonna be one of the most difficult. With most groups, there are several tiers of songs: the pretty good ones, the solid ones, and the great ones. With fifteen, I can normally get all of the greats, most if not all of the goods, and hopefully just one pretty good. No such thing with Tribe. Q-Tip, Phife, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad are right at the top in terms of artistic consistency, with two albums, The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders being near the zenith of hip-hop artistry. I could easily do a Favorite Fifteen between those two albums alone, but I’ma try to include some of those other records, as well. I don’t think I can do this in any sort of an order, though.
-Find A Way – The Love Movement gave us the quintessential unrequited love record. If I remember, the video was pretty interesting too.
- Ham ‘n Eggs – This song is not on the list so much because it’s one of their best, but because I identify with it so strongly. And not their verses, so much. Well, there is that line, “Chicken for lunch, chicken for dinner/ chicken, chicken, chicken I’m a finger-lickin winner” that I quote a lot. But really, it’s the Nappy Dug Out sample that got me at first, then at the very end, when they’re doing the chorus to close out the song, “I don’t eat no ham ‘n eggs, cuz they’re high in cholesterol…yo Phife, do you eat em? Yo, Tip do you eat em? Nope. Not at all.” But they kick to Posdnuos, who breaks it up with, “YUP! All the time!”
- 1ce Again – Beats, Rhymes, and Life wasn’t a bad album, but coming after TLET and MM, it seemed like a more precipitous fall than it really was. I forget if 1ce Again was the first single (it seems quite logical), but at that point, having heard that song and the title of the album, I thought they were going to surpass everything they had done up to that point.
- Buggin Out – One of the songs that added a line to my self-definition soundtrack: “Not the best, not the worst and occasionally I curse…”
- Steppin’ It Up – Tribe with Redman and Busta. Prima facie fire. On second look? (And third and fourth and fifth?) FIYAH! Red closed it out quite well with the top-notch dismount, “me, Kamal, Bus-a-bus, Phife Dawg/ Shitted. Pussy niggas get Lysoled.”
- God Lives Through – To quote myself:
Phife won. In the history of A Tribe Called Quest, this is the only song I ever heard where I thought had the better verse. But this one right here? Phife brought it exceptionally well and Tip didn’t. With the exception of Butter, this might be Phife’s all-time best verse. Seriously, to this day, I don’t even know if I can quote Q-Tip’s verse because I kept rewinding Phife. That’s never happened. Even onea my homeboys who can’t stand Phife had to give it up that Phife owns this song.
- What? – This song probably gets a lotta run from me simply because of the song it precedes, but it’s a good one on its own. I definitely like the fact that it runs a string of questions, ranging from the obvious to the philosophical.
- Midnight – This is an absolutely great song. The first verse, detailings the night time activities of a random dude, is executed with great detail and precision. Not a traditional story in the sense of there being a plot, it’s more of a slice of life, and exactly the type of thing you would expect to hear on a Tribe record.
- Can I Kick It (Spirit Mix) – This was the first Tribe song that got me open. “I Left My Wallet In El Segundo” was interesting, but it wasn’t really killin me. But Can I Kick It? Absolutely. I think one of my bigger disappointments up to that point in my life was getting the tape and hearing that the album version wasn’t the same one that was on the video. The Spirit Mix is the video version, with the little scratching sound.
- Keep It Rollin’ The star of this joint is the Large Professor’s track, based on “Feel Like Making Love,” as recorded by the great Bob James. It’s an absolutely gorgeous track, perfect for cleaning the house on a cloudy, cool day.
- Butter – Phife came off. He had a solo on most of their albums, but this was by far his best work in the group. He killed this joint. And that track? The track is good business.
- Check The Rhime – What! This joint here? This joint right here, homey? Ugh. This was one of the joints that made Tribe move up the rankings with the quickness. Phife put in a solid performance, Tip repped as usual, and of course, the track with the Average White Band sample is crazy.
And these next three are why I can’t rate Tribe records. You can’t have three number ones, but you tell me which is > the others… So we’ll just do it chronological order.
- Bonita Applebaum – One of the first hip-hop love records that didn’t come off as being overly sentimental or corny. This joint is uncommonly good. Cold-blooded, even. The track? Perfect.
- Scenario – There are songs I listen to more at a given time, but there’s just not a better song. There are some that are as good, but I can’t think of any that are better. Every. Single. Thing. about this song is just right. Lyrically, for me, it’s all about Dinco D and Busta. Busta’s whole career comes back to this song.
- Electric Relaxation They blacked out on this. The lyrics are fine, but combining them with the track? There is no escaping it. Hearing it for the first time was like crossing an event horizon. As I said with Bonita Applebaum, there are some songs that are its peer, but none is its superior.
It’s hard for me to properly place Michael Jackson in my personal pantheon. On the one hand, I fully believe that Mike is the biggest star I will ever see in my lifetime, and may very well be bigger than any star that will ever be, given the manner in which media is fragmented these days. At the same time, when it comes to me personally, I liked Mike and all, but he was never on that Stevie-James stratum. Like I told somebody the other day, if I didn’t cry when James died, it ain’t gonna happen for nobody. I liked Mike a lot, and I’ve sho nuff had my days where I played Mike all day — and this is before tragedy struck. At the same time, I can’t really pretend that I was all crushed like some people are. Mike has been in continuous rotation around here, so in that respect, nothing has changed. Nor will it.
Mike was due for a Favorite 15, and his will probably be the next one I do, but the contrarian in me just doesn’t wanna do it now. Mike’s popular right now, and honestly Mike got so many hits, it’s really hard for me to find songs I really, really like that aren’t already major, which is part of the point of me even doing a Favorite 15.
Ultimately, it breaks down to this: I think Michael Jackson, while not necessarily my favorite at any of the things that he did (singer, songwriter, dancer, etc., etc), put all of those things together in such a fantastic package that I can only call him the greatest entertainer in my lifetime. Possibly ever.
Hot Pants – Hank Carbo Searchin for Soul – Jack Wade & The Soul Searchers Packed Up – Bill Conti Ode to Billy Joe – Lou Donaldson Shake A Tail Feather – Ike & Tina Turner Contact The Three Degrees Willow Weep For Me – Johnny Lewis Quartet Do You Really Want To Hurt Me – Culture Club Soul Vaccination – Tower of Power Sweet Thing – Rufus and Chaka Khan Fat Boys – Fat Boys Love Having You Around – Stevie Wonder Some Soul – Bud Powell
For it to be the semi-embarrassing moment that it was, Allen Iverson’s “Practice? We talkin bout practice?!” press conference is one of my favorite times with him as a Sixer. I remember listening to it live as I drove up Haverford Avenue. And now it has a remix, along with some other classic moments from other press conferences.
Inspired by a post by Esquire, this weeks playlist is simply gonna be my most-played songs (as of just now) since I first signed up for last.fm. It’s not a completely accurate count, since my non-ipod mp3 players don’t sync up the play count the way the ipod did, and I’m not always connected to the internet with my laptop, so it can’t scrobble, but this gives a pretty good idea.
1 Stevie Wonder – Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You) 552
2 Janet Jackson – The Body That Loves You 400
3 Parliament – I’ve Been Watching You (Move Your Sexy Body)
333
4 Tonex – The Trust Theory 328
5 Little Brother – Lovin’ It (feat. Joe Scudda) 327
6 Kirk Franklin – Help Me Believe full track 314
7 Parliament – (You’re a Fish and I’m a) Water Sign full track 280
8 Heatwave – The Star Of A Story 257
9 Jill Scott – Crown Royal 253
10 The Jacksons – Blame It on the Boogie 246
11 James Brown – Blind Man Can See It 245
12 Marvin Gaye – You Are the Way You Are (instrumental) 234
13 Oscar Peterson – Body and soul 233
14 Cal Tjader – Aquarius 232
15 Donny Hathaway – Lord Help Me 217
16 Monty Alexander – Love And Happiness 216
17 Fred Wesley & The Horny Horns – Four Play 214
18 A Tribe Called Quest – Electric Relaxation (Instrumental) 208
19 Stevie Wonder – Summer Soft 202
20 Public Enemy – Rebel Without a Pause 190
I can tell you with no question, I’m gonna be hittin up the Funky Flea Market, and probably Som Records on 14th street. If you’re in the urrea, there’s a 90% chance I’ll be rockin some grey sweats and the notorious EPMD shirt– but prolly not the track jacket in 76 beautiful degrees.
Soaring (At Dawn) – Les McCann You Are The Way You Are (Instrumental) – Marvin Gaye Lookin’ For Another Pure Love – Stevie Wonder Sensations – Sweetback Softly Softly – Sweetback A Song For You – Donny Hathaway You’ve Got It Bad Girl – Stevie Wonder Summer In The City – Quincy Jones When My Words R Few – Tonex Blairtree Road – Tonex Song #3 (Instrumental) – Marvin Gaye Mermaid – Sade Early Sunday Morning – Isaac Hayes
I was ridin in the car, listening to one of the songs on this list when it all of a sudden dawned on me that I’d never really focused on any Public Enemy tracks, with the exception of Rebel Without A Pause – and that one specifically because of it’s singular place in my musical canon. So let me say it like this: without having any of the braggadocio that marks classic emceeing, Chuck D was nice with his. Real nice. Was he on that Rakim/Kane/G-Rap/Jheri Curl Ice Cube level? Probably not. But he was far more than functional. When most people talk about Chuck, they focus on the message behind the lyrics and not the lyrics themselves, so much. That’s only natural, because Chuck wrote with a purpose. But that’s not to say that he didn’t have dope rhymes, because he did. In fact, I’d venture to say that if Chuck wasn’t as dope as he was, PE would have never ascended the way they did, and people would never have gotten intoxicated with the idea of hip-hop as an explicitly political vehicle. Or the idea wouldn’t have caught on to the extent that it did.
Having said all that, my PE favorite 10. In no particular order, except #1. Of course.
10. Crayola – The last PE album I bought was There’s A Poison Goin On. Crayola, a screed against commercial radio and its close relationship with the recording industry, was one of my favorites.
9. You’re Gonna Get Yours – I like to point to this song as being a throwback to when hip-hop was literally real because even though the materialistic aspect is there — it is a song about a car, after all — it’s an affordable car. It was an Oldsmobile 98. In fact, if you look on the cover of the 12-inch, you can see that it wasn’t even a new car. Even when Chuck talked about replacing the 98, it was with something else affordable – a Bronco.
8. Burn Hollywood Burn – Chuck. Cube. Kane. Nuff said. What’s funny is that of the three verses on this song, Cube, who may have been at his lyrical apex at the time, was clearly the least of the three. I’m tryina tell you : Chuck was nicer than you realize.
7. Can’t Truss It – The middle verse here is killin it. There were a few songs where Chuck completely blacked out, and this was one of them. Mathematics error notwithstanding, the way he recounts the story of the middle passage first-person but managed to make a dope verse of it? Nah, man. You can’t front on Chuck.
6. Revolutionary Generation – This was the first song I’d ever heard where somebody recanted one of his old songs. In this ode to Black women, Chuck actually admits his culpability in recording “Sophisticated Bitch,” from Yo! Bun Rush The Show. The Baby Huey sample in there was what completely sold me on the song in the first place, though.
5. Timebomb – One verse over the Meters’ “Just Kissed My Baby.” This was the first song that really made me think about Chuck as a lyricist, partially because it’s closer to the classic emcee mold. But when I actually started to break it down one day, I realized Chuck could actually rhyme.
4. Fight The Power – This is probably PE’s signature song, and for good reason. I was singin along the other day when I realized that 1989 was 20 years ago. You talkin about feeling old? Pssshh!
3. War at 33 1/3 – That first verse? Chuck. Blacked. Out. Like, if I were gonna do a lineup of all my favorite verses, I’m tryin to tell you that that would stand up against any of them. I guess this song’s just as good as any to mention the importance of Chuck’s voice. Not so much his figurative voice, but his literal voice. I don’t think too many artists could have performed over Bomb Squad tracks. And that’s not a slight on them, like they couldn’t have tailored their tracks to suit the performer, but these tracks right here? As noisy and busy as they were? Chuck’s just about the only person who could’ve handled them.
2. Welcome To The Terrordome – Again with the noisy track. And again with Chuck blacking out on a verse. My favorite Terrordome memory has to be seeing them in concert and Flav riding a bike onto the stage.
1. Rebel Without A Pause – This is just my personal ultimate record. Nothing more, nothing less. Since I started this blog, I’ve probably talked about it 6 or 7 times. No need to do it again, but suffice it to say that it changed everything.
Is this my favorite Biggie verse? Could be. It’s debatable. But this is definitely top 3.
Warning.
Who the fuck is this? Pagin me at 5:46
in the mornin, crack of dawn an’ {*dialing phone*}
now I’m yawnin – wipe the cold out my eye {*ring*}
See who’s this pagin me – and why
It’s my nigga Pop from the barbershop
Told me he was in the gamblin spot, and heard the intricate plot
of niggaz wanna stick me like flypaper neighbor
Slow down love, please chill, drop the caper
Remember them niggaz from the hill up in Brownsville?
That you rolled dice wit, smoked the blunts and got nice wit
Yeah my nigga Fame up in Prospect
Nah they’re my niggaz nah love wouldn’t disrespect
I didn’t say them, they schooled me to some niggaz
that you knew from back when, when you was clockin minor figures
Now they heard you blowin up like nitro
And they wanna stick the knife through your windpipe slow
So – thank Fame for warnin me cause now I’m warnin you
I got the mac nigga tell me what you gonna do
Damn! Niggaz wanna stick me for my paper
Damn! Niggaz wanna stick me for my paper
Damn! Niggaz wanna stick me for my paper
Damn! Niggaz wanna stick me for my paper
They heard about the Rolex’s and the Lexus
with the Texas license plates outta state
They heard about the pounds you got down in Georgetown
And they heard you got half of Virginia locked down
They even heard about the crib you bought your moms out in Florida
The fifth corridor –
– call the coroner!
There’s gonna be a lot of slow singin, and flower bringin
if my burgular alarm starts ringin
Whatcha think all the guns is for?
All purpose war, got the Rottweilers by the door
And I feed ‘em gunpowder, so they can devour
the criminals, tryin to drop my decimals
Damn! Niggaz wanna stick my for my cream
And it ain’t a dream, things ain’t always what it seem
It’s the ones that smoke blunts witcha, see your picture
Now they wanna grab the guns and come and getcha
Betcha Biggie won’t slip
I got the calico with the black talons loaded in the clip
So I can rip through the ligaments
Put the fuckers in a bad prediciment, where all the foul niggaz went
Touch my cheddar, feel my Beretta
Fuck what I’ma hit you with you motherfuckers betta duck
I bring pain, bloodstains on what remains
of his jacket – he had a gun he shoulda packed it
Cocked it, extra clips in my pocket
So I can reload and EXPLODE on ya rasshole
I fuck around and get hardcore
C-4 to ya door no beef no more nigga
Feel the rough, scandalous
The more weed smoke I puff, the more dangerous
I don’t give a fuck about you or your weak crew
What you gonna do when Big Poppa comes for you?
I’m not gunnin, nigga I bust my gun an’
hold on, I hear somebody comin…
I was listening to a CD of my favorite albums and No One Can Do It Better by the D.O.C. came on. Sometimes I forget how complete an album that was. Being that most of my hip-hop sensibilities are shaped by the fact that I came of age on the East Coast, that Compton-by-way-of-Dallas classic isn’t always the first album in my mind when I think classic hip-hop, but whenever I hear it, I always wonder why it doesn’t get more credit.
It’s Funky Enough – The opening track was the first single. Right from the get-go, I had one of my themes for 9th/10th grade. “I am not illiterate/no not even a little bit/ nothing like an idiot/ get it?”
Mind Blowin’ – Again, DOC opens the track by speaking. “This is serious bidness.” In a lotta ways, this song kinda typifies the album in that it’s not one that I would go out of my way to listen to, but when I do sit down and listen to it, I’m always thinkin, this joint is cold. Let alone the fact that it’s structured on that Synthetic Substitution sample.
Lend Me An Ear – Fast tracks weren’t really my forte, but DOC had the skill to make em work.
Comm. Blues – I don’t know how I forgot this joint on my all-time favorite skits. Ice Cube as Granddaddy Caddy on this joint is outta control.
Let The Bass Go – This joint was just flat-out tremendous. The Isaac Hayes sample, the pace, and most of all, the 808 drops. I used to try to kill stereos with the bass at the end of the first verse.
Beautiful But Deadly – It seems that the money-hungry woman has a place on most rap albums. No One Can Do It Better was no different in that respect. It wasn’t quite as disrespectful as some of the others, but I’m sure that I could’ve written a couple pages about it when I was in that Women’s Studies class. Which is not to say that I couldn’t identify with it.
On the interlude between the two, DOC, kinda drunk, says he likes side two better. I agree.
D.O.C. and the Doctor – Come on, son. That Funkadelic sample alone would keep me hype about this song. But naw. DOC had to rhyme over it. Coming, as he did, in 89, when hip-hop writ large may have been at its lyrical apex, DOC didn’t stand out as much as he might have in other years. Or as much as he would have had it not been for the accident.
No One Can Do It Better – Interestingly, for an album that I absolutely love, the title track is one of my least-favorite records. It’s not a bad song, but given its peers, it’s definitely the low-water mark.
Whirlwind Pyramid – The way DOC flowed on the fast tracks, it makes me wonder what a collabo between and G-Rap would have been like.
Comm. 2 – Mostly forgettable except for the Sly Stone/ Mohawks mix.
Formula – Probably the second-best track on the whole album. That dude was cold. Only thing badder than the album version of this song is the radio remix with the vibes. Utterly absurd. That second verse? (First on the remix) Ridiculous.
Portrait of a Masterpiece – The DOC’s last flirtation with that high-speed rap. The interruption in the track always got on my nerves because there was so little rhyming left after he stopped. But I could understand why he lost his breath.
The Grand Finale – Absolutely right. The more I think about it, the more I think The Grand Finale was the West Coast equivalent of The Symphony. It’s just that good. Ice Cube’s verse on Grand Finale probably ranks among his best ever. He worked everything on that joint. And even though Ren gets all the attention for second-billing on this joint, DOC is actually challenging Cube for the best verse. Not to mention that the track is a reworking of Chocolate City. Not to mention Ren’s I make the punk motherfuckers buckle up for safety. That was so close to being my yearbook quote, I can’t even tell you.
All-around, this is just a great album. Song-for-song, it’s probably better than other albums that have more notoriety.
I was ridin in the car, listening to one of the songs on this list when it all of a sudden dawned on me that I’d never really focused on any Public Enemy tracks, with the exception of Rebel Without A Pause – and that one specifically because of it’s singular place in my musical canon. So let me say it like this: without having any of the braggadocio that marks classic emceeing, Chuck D was nice with his. Real nice. Was he on that Rakim/Kane/G-Rap/Jheri Curl Ice Cube level? Probably not. But he was far more than functional. When most people talk about Chuck, they focus on the message behind the lyrics and not the lyrics themselves, so much. That’s only natural, because Chuck wrote with a purpose. But that’s not to say that he didn’t have dope rhymes, because he did. In fact, I’d venture to say that if Chuck wasn’t as dope as he was, PE would have never ascended the way they did, and people would never have gotten intoxicated with the idea of hip-hop as an explicitly political vehicle. Or the idea wouldn’t have caught on to the extent that it did.
I was listening to a CD of my favorite albums and No One Can Do It Better by the D.O.C. came on. Sometimes I forget how complete an album that was. Being that most of my hip-hop sensibilities are shaped by the fact that I came of age on the East Coast, that Compton-by-way-of-Dallas classic isn’t always the first album in my mind when I think classic hip-hop, but whenever I hear it, I always wonder why it doesn’t get more credit.
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