*LITE POP ALERT* Although this website/blog is dedicated to exploring the deeper meaning in popular culture, sometimes you can love something just because, well, it makes your eyes pop. Or your ass move. So every once in a while, we are going to write shorter pieces about such. Hence, "Lite Pop." Here's a piece originally posted on Facebook:
I don't know if this will become a regular, but I threw a #1 on the title just in case. In my never-ending effort to get rid of all of the crap and clutter I've accumulated since high school (left L.A. with four boxes, came back from college with thirty four and they've been making babies ever since), I'm paring down my super-sizeable record/CD/tape collection. Still on the CDs... going through those early mix-CDs made with .WAV files (remember those behemoths?), trying to see what I can trash. I'm not as sentimental about the CD mixes -- the tapes though, those are going to hurt. Maybe because they took so much planning and effort and you had one take to get it right. So when they came out well, they were like gold. But the CDs? Eh, just reshuffle your playlist and burn again while you drink a latte -- no real time, hours-long commitment.
Perhaps as a result of the ease of CD-mixing, a lot of my CD mixes aren't that good. So on my way home from Whole Foods, I was confident I could trash the one I was listening to. I had all the cuts on iTunes and I could definitely get some better sequencing going than the hodgepodge of Ashanti's "Foolish" (so of its time, the song bores me now) to the Blow Monkeys' "Digging Your Scene" (still love that 80s underplayed classic) to Blu Cantrell's "Hit Em Up Style" that so didn't work. A few more late 90s/early 00's cuts played (Ja Rule, you are off the hip hop map for good reason) but then -- BAM! The horns and drums from Kool Moe Dee's "I Go To Work" kicked in and I was literally jumping in my seat. I know most people love Moe Dee's "Wild Wild West" or "How You Like Me Now" but "I Go To Work" has never failed to make me want to move my body. But now it makes my mind explode too because the lyrics and phrasing are so intricate, propulsive and creative. In my opinion, it's probably his best rap ever. It's great conceptually, rhythmically, musically -- it hits on all cylinders and is a true hip-hop classic -- it would definitely be on my top 10 all-time hip hop song list. Hell, that song is so good it not only makes me want to boogie or write my own rhyme -- it makes me want to exercise! Trust me, that's GOOD.
Perhaps as a result of the ease of CD-mixing, a lot of my CD mixes aren't that good. So on my way home from Whole Foods, I was confident I could trash the one I was listening to. I had all the cuts on iTunes and I could definitely get some better sequencing going than the hodgepodge of Ashanti's "Foolish" (so of its time, the song bores me now) to the Blow Monkeys' "Digging Your Scene" (still love that 80s underplayed classic) to Blu Cantrell's "Hit Em Up Style" that so didn't work. A few more late 90s/early 00's cuts played (Ja Rule, you are off the hip hop map for good reason) but then -- BAM! The horns and drums from Kool Moe Dee's "I Go To Work" kicked in and I was literally jumping in my seat. I know most people love Moe Dee's "Wild Wild West" or "How You Like Me Now" but "I Go To Work" has never failed to make me want to move my body. But now it makes my mind explode too because the lyrics and phrasing are so intricate, propulsive and creative. In my opinion, it's probably his best rap ever. It's great conceptually, rhythmically, musically -- it hits on all cylinders and is a true hip-hop classic -- it would definitely be on my top 10 all-time hip hop song list. Hell, that song is so good it not only makes me want to boogie or write my own rhyme -- it makes me want to exercise! Trust me, that's GOOD.
Kool-Ass Kool Moe Dee
I'm still gonna trash the mix CD, but it was such a nice surprise and reminder of how good songs can be that you haven't heard in a while and how revisiting the past can make you appreciate certain things you may have missed the first time around. So even though the clutter and the crap absolutely have to hit the bricks, sometimes there are benefits to sifting through slowly. Perhaps I have found my anti-clutter theme song? I'll put it on next time I'm trashing things, see if it helps and let you know.
LLH out.
Lite Pop. We Like It.
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