Music and I

Originally post at psablog.me on 8/23/11

This started as a simple relpy to JFish’s post over at Chives about Hip-Hop/Rap, but then mutated and I decided to just write a music blog. Check out Fish’s blog over at Chives HERE

I'm a white kid who grew up (younger years) in California. Then spent my Jr High/ High School years in a uptight, snobish midwest suburb.

While in California (ages 2-11), I listened to anything and everything. I was a fan of New Kids, Paula Abdul, Michael Jackson and anything that was relevant at the time. The most out there thing I ever listened to during this time of my life was Ugly Kid Joe’s “Everything About You”.  It was something I heard on one of my brother’s old cassettes. I also listened to some Van Halen cassettes he had, but at the time wasn’t able to get into it.

My father listened to a lot of Country and Motown.  I loved Motown.  He had won a couple cassette tapes from a local station.  I would listen to those over and over again.  I loved the sound and rhythm. But it wasn’t until I heard Garth Brooks’ “Rodeo” that I payed any attention to Country music. That was mainly because it sounded NOTHING like the country music my dad listened to. My father, however, wanted to promote me listening to country in any way possible, so Garth Brooks- Ropin’ the Wind cassette was the first country music I ever owned.

My mother’s musical influence on me was that of the Eagles, The Monkeys, and basically anything recorded in the 70’s. Of these, at this point in my life, I loved the Monkey’s the most.

After moving back to Missouri, following my dad's death, I started listening to Country more. My dad had always tried to get me to listen to it, as it was what he liked the most.  Other than Garth Brooks, i was never willing to give a chance. After his passing, it became my way of trying to remember him. At 11, it was the best thing I could think of.

At the time, I became a huge fan of mainstream country music. (I was young, shut it). Garth Brooks would become my equivalent of The Beatles for most people. Growing up with little to no friends, in a place where I had nothing in common with people my age, I found his music as a way to deal with any and all hardships I faced growing up. This was when I started liking music more for the lyrical part more than just liking something that seemed catchy.

Around half way through high school (‘97/’98) I started noticing how Country music worked, and began to hate anything Nashville was churning out to appease the mass of soccer mom’s that had become its core audience.  This was the time I discovered Johnny Cash, and Waylon Jennings.  I found a lot of my father’s old music and began to see the vast difference in the country of today, and the stuff that had meaning to it. This was also the time I started branching out even more.

This was also around the time I started searching out God and other aspects of religion. I started listening to various Christian rock artists. DC Talk, Carmen and others found ways to make awesome music. Honestly, even though their music is about God, I found that if you listen to it with an open mind, you can appreciate it, and even completely remove the idea of God from the songs.  But that’s not what I did. I just found it easy to do.  The music itself is a big reason for my religious beliefs. But as a rule, I will not discuss those on any open forum.

Growing up without any real male guidance (hell who am I kidding.. ANY GUIDANCE) I found music as the source of dealing with life.  I became a huge fan of acts like KoRn, Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock and Metalica.  In my mind there’s no real difference between the music these acts produced early in their career, then that of a lot of Hank Williams Sr. songs or Outlaw country, other than the beat of the music.

My introduction into Hip-hop was 2Pac in the mid 90's with All Eyez on Me. AYoM was huge for me.  See even if an artist means to mean one thing with a song, it’s what inside the listener that interprets it. And while I sure as hell had NOTHING in common with TuPac, his music had hidden meanings in it that hit me hard. Early Dre, and Snoop also found it’s way to have meaning to me. Guys who were bound and determined to change themselves and be better, and tell the world to shove it.

It wasn’t until The Slim Shady LP, that I really got engrossed in the genre.  It had nothing to do with that he was white, but everything to do with the fact he was rapping about shit I though on a constant basis. To me good music is music that kicks you in the fucking nuts and then hands you the ice pack to make it feel better. Makes you think about who you are as a person. Eminem did that for me.

But Eminem also showed me how many different types of rapping there is. Not only in the way a rhyme is constructed, but how it’s put with the music. It was this that made me pay more attention to songs from other genres to see how it was constructed and put together. I started getting into the production side of a song.

Unfortunately, aside from Nelly’s first CD, Drake’s CD, and some random Lil Wayne thrown in… I’ve found few hip-hop or rap that has been able to grab me.  I do have a fondness for some Tech N9ne every once in awhile, but I think that’s mostly because he’s a local guy and I want him to succeed.

My biggest beef with most Hip-Hop is the “I’m better than you” mentality that most of the artists have. I don’t give shit what you own, or how much dope you fucking do in the morning, or how many hookers you do it off of. I also don’t want to hear about you being able to beat the hell out of me. I’m sure you could.. I’m fat and unless it has anything to do with my wife, kid or family and friends.. Fairly un-motivated.

What I want to hear, is how you got to that point in your life. Tell me about the shit that 90% of the world fights through to become somebody. That’s the stuff I like. That is also what I think draws me to acts like Eminem, or Drake.

As I sit here now, listening to Rage Against the Machine-Evil Empire for the first time since high school, it’s all of these things that will affect the review I write for it. And to be honest.. my opinion of this album has greatly changed since I last heard it.  Some good, some bad. That interests me. A Lot.