Life has its own soundtrack

As I sit and attempt to remember everything that has gone into these blogs so far, I also remember the other things (not college related) that went along with them. I actually have a great memory, one that my friends depend on at time because although my short-term will forget a convo from 15 seconds ago, my long-term will remember what clothes we all were wearing 8 years ago when whatever happened.

My most nostalgic year in music would have to be 1997 (plus/minus a year due to radio play)... this is generally known as the post-Pac/Biggie era. I lived in Clarksville, Tennessee, my mother was stationed at Ft. Campbell, KY. We had recently moved there, although we'd be heading to Texas in the fall. I didn't have many friends because of the move, so music is what usually kept me going.

This was a great year/era for hip-hop in general to spike your memory, let me list a few albums you may remember:

• Missy Elliot - Supa Dupa Fly
• Aaliyah - One In A Million
• Erykah Badu - Baduizm
• Puff Daddy & The Family - No Way Out
• Busta Rhymes - When Disaster Strikes
• Notorious B.I.G. - Life After Death
• Mase - Harlem World
• Scarface - The Untouchable
• Usher - My Way
• Mary J. Blige - Share My World
• Mariah Carey - Butterfly
• Janet Jackson - The Velvet Rope
• Wu-Tang Clan - Wu-Tang Forever
• Wyclef Jean - The Carnival
• Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
• Destiny's Child - Destiny's Child
• OutKast - Aquemini
• LL Cool J - Phenomenon
• DMX - It's Dark & Hell Is Hot
• Master P - Ghetto D
• Juvenile - 400 Degreez
• Twista - Adrenaline Rush
• Tupac - R U Still Down? [Remember Me]

Those albums alone are enough to make an undeniably tight playlist. Music from this era was characterized by increased bass levels, more complex sampling, a surplus of collaborations, and raw lyrical styles. What I mean by raw was that people weren't as tainted by commercial status yet. This is the same era in which Jay-Z released "In My Lifetime, Vol. 1". His STANS will attribute his style change thereafter to him "perfecting his craft", when in all honesty he just became smarter about marketing himself (i.e. "Can I Get A..."s appearance on the Rush Hour Soundtrack). He was also pushing Roc-A-Fella as a label much harder at this point (the label is mentioned much more on this LP than on Reasonable Doubt). Everybody in music had a "crew" so to speak (Cash Money, No Limit, Ruff Ryders, "The Bassment", Dungeon Family). This used to mean to us that we could expect to see one of our favorite artists on a feature, thus ensuring that we could like almost anybody's music once released. This also meant we had to buy these really ugly colored plastic CD cases for all No Limit albums.

The song and beat selection was diverse, every album had what we refer to as "variety" and "depth". This was due to hip-hops recent spike in success due to the untimely deaths of the legends mentioned before. Had they been alive, rap wouldn't have seen the commercial spike that led to Puffy being able to afford his $2.7 Million "Victory" music video (Listed as the 5th most expensive music video only behind "Scream" by Janet and MJ and 3 songs by Madonna).

I DARE YOU TO LISTEN TO THE MUSIC FROM THIS ERA AND SAY YOU COULDN'T FIND SOMETHING YOU ENJOY...

This era is particularly notable because it was the beginnings of true success for 3 distinct musical talents: Jay-Z, Lil' Wayne (via Cash Money), and Beyonce (via DC). For all that I don't like them for now, I do appreciate their music still and WOULD LIKE to be a fan... but for now I'm stuck with the nostalgia of their music when I didn't feel the need to refer to it as "hip-pop" nor did I question how much I enjoyed it.

just my thoughts...