Soundtracked

I Get Around

"Pick out one of these OMG 200 Facts You Didn’t Know… Until Now  . Write a story, poem, rant, monologue, or opinion about it."

Well well well...looks who's back for another day? Guess I just couldn't let the bug go, the poetry isn't coming to me right now, and y'all are just gonna get my verbal spitting in a typed-up format. But you know that's why I love all y'all and I get the love back.

That 200 facts link was filled with a lot of good stuff. I actually read through it all and thought I could talk about a number of things. I may even Pocket it for later "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  use. But for now, I've chosen maybe the one fact no one else will...

5. Tupac was the first U.S. artist to have an album reach Billboard #1 while still in prison. It was his third studio album, titled “Me Against the World”.

Let it be known that I love Hip Hop. I won't go so far to say I'm a historian, but I did write a 20-something page term paper on it in high school and I'm not afraid to talk about its early days. As far as I go, that era ended with the Wu-Tang Clan (but that's another entry for another time).

By that point, Rap as a genre had went mainstream. It was being pimped out by the record labels and flashed all over MTV and basically everywhere you looked. Goofy-ass white dudes were imitating it on live TV. I bailed, content with my Public Enemy, BDP, and Beastie Boys tapes. Stuff that was addressing consciousness. NWA was fine when I was an angry kid looking to piss off older people or take an extra rep while I was lifting weights, but guns/bitches/money got old to me fast. I was drawn to substance, not drama.

And that's about the time Tupac broke away as a back-up from Digital Underground. Everyone knows them from "The Humpty Dance"  ...and if you don't, maybe I don't trust you .

Unpopular Opinion: I wasn't into him. He was gangsta rap when I was fallin' off it. People would ask me about "Who was better, Biggie Smalls or Tupac?" and I just didn't give a fuck. Like, Notorious BIG's "Hypnotize"   has some great beats and samples, but it was nothing special lyrically to what Chuck D, KRS-One, or anyone I respected was up to. I wasn't into drugs and money. I'd already found my soul, and the MTV generation back then wasn't feelin' what I was feelin'.

I'll admit that I bought one Tupac cassette back in the day...but it was part of the typical teenage Columbia House scam (Get 12 CDs for $1!). I think I got it only cuz it had a song with Ice Cube on it, and to this day I have no remembrance of it. It was one of those tapes where I figured out where the good songs were and how to flip the tape over to get to the other good songs, minus the crap. Rockin' rewind/pause   like a fuckin' pro on the boombox I got from the neighborhood bike thief that was missing a window.

All of this is not to say I didn't enjoy a little Tupac here and there. I was one whose cup was filled already. I was moving on. But "I Get Around" is dope and I'll still shake whatever's left of my ass to it when the time comes.

"I Get Around"   -Tupac

"Gotta get a tight grip, don't slip; loose lips sink ships!
It's a trip; I love the way she licks her lips, see me jockin'.

Yo I wish someone would solve Biggie and Tupac's murders. Even though I wasn't a fan of either, I know it ain't fair. And I know this plea will fall on deaf ears, which bugs me just as much. Can't help it. Alright, I'm gassing out of this beautiful summer Monday, and a nap is awaiting. Peace, still clown with the Underground, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!