Happy 25th birthday to Nevermind, Blood Sugar Sex Magik and Low End Theory

25 years ago today, three albums dropped that became game-changers. It wasn't planned. Nobody knew what they'd do. It was pure organic history and pure organic shifts in music with Nirvana's Nevermind, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magic and A Tribe Called Quest's Low End Theory.

All of them built up in their own way. Nirvana was blowing up in Seattle but Alice in Chains and Soundgarden were starting to make impacts on radio as well. The Chilis were Los Angeles legends just taking mainstream success with Mother's Milk but were known for punk-funk and rowdy shows around the country. Tribe? An incredible debut that had New York and others anxious to see what they'd do next adding to the Native Tongues landscape.

There's more than enough words on Nevermind today. The album that made most of us know who Nirvana was. The classic cover, the classic songs still getting play on radio so that when I was in high school (98-02), I knew them like they just came out. As much as Smells like Teen Spirit is overplayed, there's still a rush when you hear those opening chords and that chorus that brought in a new generation.

Now I've learned more about music to know Teen Spirit was heavily influenced by Boston's More Than a Feeling and The Pixies soft-loud dynamic (quiet on the verses, loud on the chorus - something you can really hear on "In Bloom").  "Come As You Are" stole the riff from Killing Joke's "Eighties" but it still sounds so murky and beautiful that you can't help but enjoy. It doesn't rob Nirvana of their power or how that album ushered in grunge in 1992.

Oh and "Breed" is one of my favorites because it hints at Nirvana's punk roots. To me, this song is all about Krist Novoselic's heavy bass and Dave Grohl's heavy drumming. Kurt Cobain has a nasty guitar solo that just fires me up but this was all about the total band just going all out, probably why I've had it on my running playlist a few times.

Contrast that with "On a Plain" which always moves me on the Unplugged version. Something about that record makes me feel the pain in Kurt's voice and it's perfect near the end.

Then we have Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Rick Rubin on board to help mature the Chili Peppers sound. But you know something funny? I waver on this album being my favorite sometimes with Mother's Milk.

Don't get me wrong. BSSM has my favorite Chilis songs. "Suck My Kiss" is just so raw and fun every time I hear it. The Power of Equality is one of the more underrated intros in their catalog. The title track has some heavy funk in there and "Sir Psycho Sexy" is hilarious and wild. And of course, "Under the Bridge" is a great love letter to L.A. and so uplifting to me even though it's a depressing revisit into drug abuse.

But something about it lacks the raw punk sound and wild energy of Mother's Milk. Part of that is Rick Rubin robbing that in folks he produces (and I wondered if my burned CD robbed some of that sound in college) but it's missing from BSSM. So I guess there's different things I love about BSSM than Mother's Milk but what I love is great.

You hear Anthony Kiedis show that he's a solid songwriter. You hear John Frusicante show why he's a musical genius even if the fame drove him away during the tour. His guitar work on "I Could Have Lied" is incredibly soulful and hints at the goodness he'd show on later albums. So the album has some wonderful highs I love all the time and it blew them up from the L.A. alternative scene they shared with Fishbone, Jane's Addiction and more to be rock legends.

I just have a weird relationship with it as a super duper Chilis fan. Oh and if you don't like "Give It Away" you don't have a soul. Period.

Now Low End Theory. I've written words already about this being the first Tribe album I heard but with Phife Dawg having left us, it's key to remember his presence is why this album stands out. We knew about Q-Tip being a great MC from the debut. We knew the first album was well-produced so the second would have it. But Phife's presence makes it have more oomph.

His intro on "Buggin Out" still gets me excited as much as hearing that bass kick in. His solo cut "Butter" showed the personality I'd become a fan of when I dug into Tribe.  And of course, his back and forth on Check the Rhime with Q-Tip became a new standard for group interplay.

I still love this album for what it has overall. The heavy bass sound. The immaculate production and Q-Tip giving us gems on "Verses from the Abstract" (The world is kinda cold and the rhythm is my blanket). It's hip-hop that was smoothed out but no less great. You can hear it now and know that the Native Tongues wasn't just De La Soul's left field greatness but it was also Tribe finding their own lane and giving us timeless music.

"Scenario" will be played forever and ever and ever and we'll get hyped like dungeon dragons with Busta. But today's birthday means we'll also miss Phife Dawg much more. The 5-Foot Assassin who gave us wonderful chemistry with Q-Tip and made Tribe one of my all-time favorites.  A classic album with bass and rhymes for days and helped usher in the alternative rap sound that Ultramagnetic MCs, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers and more started.

Happy birthday to three game-changers. Timeless works of art that will never leave my ears or many of us who grew up in their aftermath.

9/29/98: 15 Years Later (The Love Movement)

A Tribe Called Quest is my favorite group of all time. Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders affected me deeply in college and Midnight Marauders is in my personal top 10 – not just hip-hop, but all time.When I saw their documentary last year, I was both happy and sad. Happy to relive my favorite things but sad to see how things fall apart after Midnight Marauders.

That's why it's hard for me to write about The Love Movement because it represents the end*. The end of Tribe. The end of an era. One of the saddest farewells in hip-hop and 15 years later, it still is sad thinking about it being the last album we have with Q-Tip, Phife Dawg and Ali Shaheed Muhammad.

Love Movement isn’t a bad record. It’s not on par with their first three but it’s better than Beats, Rhymes and Life. It’s a farewell where all the old friends gather to pay respects but it’s not a celebration.

Low End Theory turns 21

The first time I heard A Tribe Called Quest's Low End Theory, I was a sophomore in college. It was 2004 and I decided it was time to finally buy a Tribe album. I found it at Best Buy and the cashier told me, "You're gonna love it."

(That's one of the sad things I miss buying music today. Not a lot of cashiers know enough about the music you're buying to give you feedback anymore. It's just ring it up, exchange money/receipts and "Have a good day")

So I came home, popped it in my desktop and listened for the next 37 minutes. What happened next help spark my love affair with one of the greatest groups in hip hop history. I played that album over and over that year and when I saw Tribe reunite that summer at the San Diego Street Scene, the booming bass of "Buggin Out" hit my soul deep!

Electric Relaxation: Bizarre Tribe - A Quest To The Pharcyde

I haven't done a music post in a while but I heard something this week that inspired me to share it. It's a great combination of two of my favorite groups of all time that embodies how creative, fun and unique they were.

"Bizarre Tribe - A Quest To The Pharcyde" is a mixtape that mixes vocals from The Pharcyde over beats from A Tribe Called Quest. Except it's not just a pure mash-up - there's live drums, recreation of the beats, original sample sources, clips from the ATCQ documentary and mixing in different songs.

For example, "Soul Flower (We Got)" has Pharcyde's "Soul Flower" rapping over Tribe's "Jazz (We Got)" and a recreation of "Butter." The song titles give you a hint of what's going to be the main mix but be prepared to hear other Tribe songs mixed in so seamlessly. That excitement is what I love about this project.

Created by Gummy Soul, a trio of DJ/producers Wally Clark and Amerigo Gazaway along with MC Kurtis Stanley, it's great for anybody who's a fan of Tribe or Pharcyde. Gazaway was the main force behind this mix and it's obvious he respects both groups' legacy as much as I do because it doesn't seem rushed or forced together with beats that seem out of place.

Electric Relaxation: A Debate over "Niggas in Paris" and its success

(Disclaimer: I personally don't use nigga in my everyday speech. But since we are adults and I'll be darned if I let mainstream (White) publications say it with no fear, I'm going to say it here because I'm discussing the song and the word in general. This also isn't meant to be my complete opinion on the word because there's more to say.)

I guess this was inevitable. At some point, there’d be a popular hip hop song with nigga in the title that would somehow cross over and be a pop hit. I didn’t think it was possible but as Jay-Z once said “difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week.”

It’s no surprise that America’s favorite rappers were the first to do it. Jay-Z and Kanye made history again as "Niggas in Paris" is the first #1 R&B/rap hit with Nigga in the title as well as the first Top-5 and 10 pop hit.

Let’s get this out of the way. I didn’t like Watch the Throne when I first heard it. Besides a few songs, it was too gaudy, too much focus on excess, Jay-Z’s still on lyrical cruise control (on the surface at least), and not even an inspired Kanye made me enjoy it like I would have in 2005/06. I’ve only liked one Jay album since he came back from retirement so hearing him isn’t exciting anymore.

But “Paris” was a highlight. It sounded like a foreign beat and it felt funky like what you’d expect to play in the background as you visit Paris. Not to mention, I got visuals of my Black heroes who spent significant time in France – Josephine Baker, Richard Wright, James Baldwin and more. I liked the song more than just the catchy hook or Kanye’s usual lyrical shine.

Yet like Jon Heder said in the sample, I don’t even know what it means…..that a song has crossed over with Nigga in the title (but only says it four times in the song). Is it all bad, quietly dangerous or even a sign of the further meshing of cultures that there isn’t more outrage? Or is this the final spawn of something that’s been bubbling for three decades?

NWA wasn’t the first act to use nigga in their lyrics. 70’s Black movies and Richard Pryor had already made that word a bit popular in the communities and other cats in the 80’s had done it, especially Ice-T and Schooly D. But Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, MC Ren and DJ Yella made that word part of their identity and Hip-Hop/Black culture would never be the same afterwards.

Their last album “Efil4zaggin” is the first (and to date, only) No. 1 album with nigga in the title and even then, they had to flip it backwards. It was also a sign of hardcore rap making a popular dent following the 3 million seller of Straight Outta Compton.

But as I remember an MTV special showed, Straight Outta Compton and Ice-T’s Power only used Nigga 40-50 times on their album. Cats on average probably use it over 100 times now. Yet NWA’s name and “F--- the Police” gave them a lot of shock value notoriety.

Even as more and more rappers started using nigga in their raps, White fans still knew that word was a no-go. My White peers knew never to say that word when they rapped songs and only the truly smart alecky idiots would dare say it.

Despite the widespread usage, songs like A Tribe Called Quest “Sucka Nigga”, Goodie Mob’s “The Experience” and Mos Def’s “Mr. Nigga” discussed what the word meant and people always got reminded that there was a flipside. Cee-Lo said it best on The Experience - "you ain't a nigger because you're Black, you're a nigger cause of how you act" (meaning it was about ignorance, not skin color). Of course, that got lost among every rapper and their mama using it.

I didn’t grow up using that word. I began saying “brotha” because I realized at some point, it’s better to reinvigorate a term of endearment than recreate one. Like the Last Poets said on Nas’ “Project Roach” - “We should resurrect brothers and sisters instead of trying to kill the word nigger” because that mentality still exists."

(Speaking of Nas, his last album was supposed to be titled Nigger and I would’ve supported it because his album had songs that discussed the word and it’s impact. Of course, it was forced to be changed but it didn’t tone down some of Nas’ songs that looked at how we see ourselves)

Every word we use, it has a capacity

And if you don't understand the words you're using

And understand the capacity of it

You are using words that is creating a destiny for you

That you don't even know, or even conscious of

I once wrote a poem discussing why I didn’t use the word yet at the same time, since my college was so White, I grew to feel comfortable when I heard Black folks use it.  It was a reminder that I could be cool around my people and just be myself instead of always hanging around one group. That may sound hypocritical but it shows how it can be confusing. 

15 years ago, it never would’ve been cool to have a pop hit single with it in the title.  Let’s not forget it was barely 10 years ago when The Source tried to destroy Eminem’s career over 90’s tapes with him saying it.  Times have changed and it’s coincided with the culture becoming far more integrated and younger folks having less awareness of cultural differences/history (and tastemakers being less sensitive about it)

A generation of kids have heard nigga in popular rap and are growing up thinking it’s normal – hence the V-Nasty’s of the world who say it and Black folks who defend them for whatever reason. That offends me more because when we don't check others, we've lost control of a word we tried to empower. Years ago, White people would listen to rap and know much better than say the word. Nowadays, people want to know why they can't say it or what's the harm.

I asked on Facebook how people felt about the song being a hit. Some could care less. Some were concerned over why folks are using that word still. But that small sample showed me why it’s no surprise that in 2011, the right, safe rappers could get away with doing it without most folks raising an eyebrow over it.

A friend of mine made a good point in an email that if 2 of the top Black artists are doing it, it’s troubling because of America’s fascination with violence and hate. Black artists used to uplift the people and now we’ve gotten so comfortable with using that word that it’s regression that it’s become so ingrained in popular music.

Both points are valid and it’s exactly why this song being popular is hardly eyebrow raising yet it also should be. "Niggas in Paris" to me is an ultimate sign of how far we’ve come on culture mixing but a question if it truly is progress – if anything it’s obviously surface progress. Is it cool if Top 40 plays a song with it so kids will have the awkward conversation of requesting it? The way I figure, pop hits have had that word in it for so long that having it in the title is the only logical next step.

It’s a confusing argument for me.  I'm not saying we censor the word cause everyone has the right to do with it as they please but when that word escapes the boundaries of the group trying to reclaim it (similar to other harmful words) - what then? Does it lose it's power and is that a bad thing given the dark history of the word? 

I guess the only thing I’m clear on is who should and shouldn’t use it and the fact that us using so much has created more problems than liberation.

What Inspires Me? (Music)

"Music is the air I breathe, the prayer I leave" - Talib Kweli said one of the best lyrics describing how people love music. Good music sticks to your rib and reminds you of the moment when you heard it.

But before this goes into a deep love affair, let's get to Part 3 of my inspirations. These are the artists that have inspired me the most because they resonate with me and speak to me.

(Note: These aren't all my favorite artists and I left some out intentionally. These are just the ones who left a mark on me in the most way)

(A Tribe Called Quest - A reminder to be yourself and "never follow someone else because opinions are like voices we all have a different kind")

(Little Brother - No group impacted me more this decade. "Dope rhymes, dope beats, what more could they want?" Saw them twice and were reminded why I love hip-hop.)

(Public Enemy - Thanks for teaching me to fight the power and not believe the hype. )

(Red Hot Chili Peppers - Thanks for reppin the City I live in, The City of Angels. )

(Prince - doing it all and doing it oh so well. A creative genius who remains a purist)

(Nas - "It aint hard to tell, I excel and prevail." Simple reason why he's the best.)

(Rage Against the Machine - They remind me never to be comfortable and always fight for my beliefs along with injustice.)

(Kirk Franklin - For updating gospel music in my era without watering down its message, he's a reason I believe gospel music will always stays fresh musically. )

(Jimi Hendrix - A reminder that creativity knows no bounds)

(Incubus - Lyrically beautiful/thought provoking, musically challenging. California goodness)

(Ice Cube - You Know How He Does It. One of the best writers/storytellers in hip-hop and a reminder that being real means speaking your mind. Favorite album of his.)

(dc Talk - Showed me Christian music isn't soft and poppy as well never being afraid to evolve without compromise. Christian music needs to challenge its audience while uplifting them.)

(Kanye West - I hate what he's become but every now and then, he reminds me why his songs relate to me like they did on this album.)

(The Clash - Working Class Heroes who inspire me to stay vigilant)

(OutKast - Thank you for reminding me that the South always has something to say)

Next up: Places.