What Made ME.....

I am back with another posting after another night of no sleep. Yep, you guessed, boring!! Who really cares about it? No one, especially me, so we are gonna ride out on a topic that has been running around my brain and reinforced by my man Big Slim! Thanks Mike, you help keep me flowing!
In the midst of my 50+ hour range of no sleep, I had a great time watching Def Jam get honored on the VH1 Hip Hop Honors. It is a honor well deserved. Def Jam, as a label, has done more for hip hop than any other label out there! There have been some good labels, but Def Jam didn't bring hip hop to the mainstream, it made the mainstream come to it and play by its rules. I can remember my very 1st hip hop album was Raising Hell by Run DMC, followed by the Beastie Boys and then I was on my way. The great thing about this show, was how as each artist came out and performed, it was like reliving great moments in my past. I was tripping the whole time and just when I thought it couldn't get any better, it did!(well with the exception of Ja Rule and Ashanti....they suck!!IMHO) I hadn't been that moved or hyped since THE GOAT, Big Daddy Kane was honored a couple of years ago. That show was packed with powerhouses from start to finish, but Kane, Set It Off and just took over the whole show. That's the BIg Daddy I always remembered and I still get goose bumbs when I think of the performance, it was fucking insane!!! That was how this show was from start to finish. Seeing DJ Scratch perform again was sick!
Quick Side Note: I saw EPMD perform live at Philly Convention Center in like 1992 with my boys Jack, E-Double and Bubble Gum. EPMD was touring with Chubb Rock and opening for Big Daddy Kane. Well, at one point during the EPMD set, they let DJ Scratch go off and just start cutting for like 5 minutes.....he cut, not missing a beat while taking his shirt off; he cut, without missing a beat, while putting his shirt back on; he cut, without missing a beat while walking up the wall behind until he was almost upside down and still did not miss a beat!!!! I remember me and Jack and Doug and Bubble Gum all looking at each other and saying no fucking way was this real, this has to be dubbed....then it happened: as he walked back down the wall, he slipped and missed a cut, all we heard was FUCK! and then he picked it right back up!!! Then we knew we were watching greatness and it was almost too much to handle. 

 It was sickness beyond sick and we were blessed to be there that night. So, hip-hop, along with punk and metal and jazz and blues and classical music have all had impacts on my life and can change my mood and transport me back to a particular time in my life. Play me some Gangstarr or Eric B and Rakim and I am either back in KC hanging with my boy Jon or back in PA in DJ Butterfinga's basement chilling, drinking and making beats or just watching him practice his skills. That's when hip-hop was real and you had lyricists out there actually saying something over some phat beats instead of 99% of the crap that followed. You could sit back and nod your head and chill and at some point, you would have a moment where you all said "Damn, he did not just say that! or Damn he did not just rhyme those words!" I miss that. Motherfuckers boasted as they always have, but these cats had the game to back it up. This is getting long so I am gonna cut it now, I have much more to talk about when it comes to music, but we will tackle that soon enough. I will leave you with a list of artists that if you don't know them, you are missing out on some good music. These are the people who shaped my love for Hip Hop: Run-DMC, Beastie Boys, Eric B. and Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, EPMD, ICE-T, Easy-E, NWA, Slick Rick, De La Soul, Stetsasonic, Gangstarr, Audio Two, Public Enemy, KRS-ONE, Boogie Down Productions, Brand Nubian, Grand Puba, Main Source, Jungle Brothers, Tribe Called Quest....that's just the start! Peace