Certain Songs

It was 1990, I think I was a freshman in high school, when I heard A Tribe Called Quest for the first time. It opened my ears up to a brand new genre of music. In predominantly white suburban Columbus,Ohio N.W.A. had finally trickled in from the west coast and hip hop in general was exploding all around me. Since most of the rock that I had access to at this time was Aerosmith and a bunch of bad hair bands that worshiped Aerosmith, hip hop was a welcome new sort of sound.

Artists like De La Soul, Public Enemy, and EPMD all became fast favorites of mine. My favorite thought was easily the laid back delivery featuring the intelligent rhymes of Q Tip and the Phife of ATCQ. I listen to modern mainstream hip hop, and maybe it's me, I realize I am getting OLD, but I just don't hear this sort of inventiveness...it all jus sort of bleeds together.

Now enjoy one of the my all time favorite hip hop songs...as voted on be me, a white guy from middle America.

'I Left My Wallet In El Segundo' MP3

Growing up in Columbus,Ohio I was awash in a sea of bad hair metal, overproduced pop, and hip hop. While bands like the Replacements and the Pixies were making incredible records, I had no idea they existed and kept on thinking Def Leperd were playing cutting edge rock music. So slowly I started to gravitate over towards the hip hop side of the musical party. It was in hip hop that i heard my first real hints of what good music should sound like.

A Tribe Called Quest became a fast favorite. Q-Tip's intelligent lyrics dropped over killer drum beats and jazz samples, I was all in. Even as my musical tastes have shifted gears as i have gotten older and not so much wiser, I keep coming back to 'The Low End Theory'...it never fails to raise my spirits and put a bounce in my step...my God, I can't believe this record is 17yrs old. Rumors of a Quest show at Coachella are all over the web, and I have my fingers crossed.

.ibeCalledQuest-ChecktheRhime.mp3

4-ATribeCalledQuest-Scenario.mp3