In Heavy Rotation (May 2016)

So let me tell y'all a "what had happened was" story about this month's "In Heavy Rotation".  My "Against the Grain Pick of the Month" was supposed to be Aesop Rock's The Impossible Kid, but it just didn't come together the way that I wanted.  It's not that I didn't listen to it or enjoy the album.  However, whereas I can listen to most albums and pick out my favorite three songs and a few notables, I couldn't quite do that this time around.  I had every intention to listen at least one more time to get a better feel, but I never got around to it because May has been a month for lack of more specific words.  Maybe it was just that good that I couldn't limit my "review" to just a few picks, but at any rate, I'd definitely recommend the listen and purchase.  Also, the first pick mentioned in this post could've almost been O.T. Genasis' Rhythm & Bricks or Desiigner's Panda mixtapes, but there just weren't enough standout songs on either project other than "Cut It" and "Panda", respectively.  Long story short, although there are only four picks instead of five, they all bump.  Now that I've explained myself, let's get to the real reasons why you're here...

GUILTY PLEASURE PICK OF THE MONTH: PROJECT PAT, Mista Don't Play: Everythangs Workin (Loud, 2001).  So there are two reasons why this particular pick--which could've also been a "Throwback Pick of the Month"--came to be.  First, I searched and searched for some quality music from "unknown" artists via the Interwebs for my "Social Media Pick of the Month", but I quickly realized that won't happen every month because everybody who swears up and down that they're a rapper or a singer just won't appeal to me that often.  Second, in the midst of a conversation, I quoted "Out There Part 2 (Skit)" where one of the dudes said, "Man, f--k that!  Men do what they want, boys do what they can!"  Third, while searching some music one day, Project Pat's Mista Don't Play: Everythangs Workin came up as a suggestion and it immediately made me nostalgic to riding around with my homies and blasting this album until our ears bled.  In retrospect, the Memphis rapper probably should've made "Ignorant Sh--" before Jay-Z because I should have never liked songs like "Gorilla Pimp" as much as I did; he's literally advocating violence against women--more specifically, prostitutes.  However, what makes Project Pat the perfect inaugural "Guilty Pleasure Pick of the Month" is the fact that those DJ Paul/Juicy J beats crank so hard that you don't eeeem care.  As I was riding down I-295 on my way to work one day, you would've thought it was my senior year of college all over again as the "shake junt" anthem "Ooh Nuthin'" was blaring out of my speakers with Pat kicking it off, "You can call me Gold Mouth, that's what I said/Hey baby you gon' eat your CORNBREAD?!?!"  On the posse-cut "Break da Law 2001" featuring Crunchy Black, DJ Paul, Juicy J & Lord Infamous, Juicy J actually had my favorite lines: "I would let you hit this Crown, but you b-----s can't behave/I would let you hit this FIRE, but you b-----s smokin' safe."  Finally, on "If You Ain't From My Hood" featuring DJ Paul & Juicy J, you get vintage Pat in the opening four lines: "I know this sucka from the suburbs/Cool with this other motherf----r on the outskirts/Tried to get Project Pat caught up in this sh-izz-irt/Since you n----s hate, then your plan didn't wizork."  It's not that Project Pat ever blows me away lyrically, but between his unique flow and those prevalently thumping 808 drums on Mista Don't Play, all he ever had to do was make an album full of crank and I was sold.  OTHER NOTABLES: "Cheese and Dope" and "Life We Live" (featuring Edgar Fletcher & Namond Lumpkin).  

HOMETOWN HERO OF THE MONTH: TARICA JUNE, Stream of Consciousness, Vol. 1.5 (EP) (2016).  If you're in the D.C. area, then I'm sure that you've probably seen the "But Anyway" video floating around Facebook, YouTube and social media in general by now.  However, more and more folks across the country have gotten hip to Tarica June.  Featuring five songs from the first volume of her 2014 mixtape, Stream of Consciousness, Vol. 1.5 is perhaps a more perfectly condensed introduction.  On "The Cover-Up", June gives the visual of what it's like to be "social" in today's society--something of which I constantly take note: 

I'm in a room full of people, everybody's looking down/Conversation is nowhere to be found...'cuz everybody's on their phone/Might as well have just stayed home/Why come out in public for what you could do alone?/And it's TV's everywhere, what's on, we don't care/Just stand there and mindlessly stare/Buy a couple drinks to remind us we there/In a couple of week, you'll find us, we there...

Taking samples from both Suzanne Vega's "Tom Diner" and P.M. Dawn's "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss", the aforementioned "But Anyway" speaks a lot of the language that many native Washingtonians can understand, especially us Black folk who recognize that D.C. is no longer "Chocolate City":

But anyway, off grid sh**, nothing to tweet/The city's still filling up with those who dance off-beat/More than 140 characters, and all of them weak/They walk by, low eye, act like they can't speak/They walk dogs--when I say that, I don't mean their feet/That's 'cause they scared of their neighbors, them they don't wanna meet/But anyway, this is third generation for me/My parents and my grandparents all from D.C./So I feel like I notice things other folks can't see/And like I represent things other folks can't be...

Although "But Anyway" is more relatable from a socio-geographical perspective, "Four Unit (My Life)" resonates with me the most.  With a dope sample, producer Dela gives June the ideal backdrop as she spits bars that sounded like she took some pages out of my life:

So my nose was in the books, but my head was in the stars/I was writin' papers at the same time I'm writin' bars/I was sittin' up in class lookin' like I'm takin' notes/When I'm really writin' rhymes, tryna get some better quotes...

Now I nearly put the entire second verse on here, but I really want y'all to check the rest for yourselves.  If you've either sacrificed a dream for something safe or you actually went after that dream against all convention, then "Four Unit (My Life)" should speak to you just as much as it did to me--if not more.  In listening to Stream of Consciousness, Vol. 1.5, I realize that the biggest gift that June has as an artist is the ability to reach inside the listener's brain and heart and say exactly what he or she is thinking and feeling.  OTHER NOTABLES: "S.O.C. (Cray)" and "Uncompromised".

PERSONAL PICK OF THE MONTH: MUSIQ SOULCHILD, Life on Earth (Deluxe Edition) (eOne/My Block, 2016).  Here's a little known fact: the first artist about whom I've ever done a music review was Musiq Soulchild as I highly recommended his debut album, Aijuswanaseing, in a college magazine during my senior year.  Thus, speaking about Life on Earth sixteen years later and choosing it as my "Personal Pick of the Month" is like coming full circle as a writer.  Although I admittedly spaced out at moments during the first five tracks, the pace gets steadier.  With just a piano and strings, the classic feel to "Outer Space" (only available in the deluxe edition) gives Musiq a dramatic backdrop as he speaks about cutting one's losses in a failed relationship:

And I wish that things can be the way they used to be/Heaven knows I do/But we're all tried out/So this is where we end/'Cause for us to start again is like a man without a ship trying to go/To outer space/When we know we won't get far at all/'Cause now we're both so out of place/We were so close we almost had it all...

Musically, the progressions alone in "The Girl" could've been enough of a reason for me to pick this as my favorite.  Musiq, of course, won't just let good music steal the entire show as he sings about a woman who's used to being "Superwoman":

Take off all them hats (you don't need them no more)/Drop off all them bags (why you holding them for)/Remember you've got my arms now/Let me carry all of that (so let me girl)/I ain't gonna ever be able to read your mind/But tell me what you expect of me/And I promise I'll do my best to try, I'll try for you/No matter how hard things may get/I got you, so you ain't gotta do this by yourself...

However, among so many good songs, "Part of Me" hits the hardest, particularly in featured vocalist JoiStarr's verse:

Oh, I don't think you get it/No you don't even understand/Don't you feel like something's missing/So why baby, why won't you do something about it/Do something about it/And when they ask me what I'm thinking/I don't say nothing/But it's you I'm thinking about/It's you I'm thinking about/And I just don't know how to fix it/Like I don't even know what you there with her for/You know she don't make you happy, babe/And I don't know, we could be be happy, babe/I know 'cause I see it in my head/You're living my dream, babe/You're in my heart/You're a part of me...

All-in-all, between solid lyrics and quality production, Life on Earth is evidence that Musiq continues to be one of the most consistent R&B artists of the last two decades.  OTHER NOTABLES: "Change My Mind" and "Far Gone" (feat. Rapsody).

THROWBACK PICK OF THE MONTH: PINK FLOYD, The Dark Side of the Moon (Harvest, 1973).  So there's one simple reason why The Dark Side of the Moon is my "Throwback Pick of the Month": Baby Boy Scribbler.  Whenever I wear my Pink Floyd T-shirt to bed and get up with him in the morning, the first things that the young shuffler points out are the letters--"K" is always the first letter he says with conviction along with "O" and "Y".  Hence, you can thank a 21-month-old for this selection; he's already primed for this line of work.  As for the album itself, there's a reason why it's considered one of the best albums of all time: it truly is a musical landmark.  One of the first songs that come to mind when thinking of this album, the melancholic feel of "Us and Them" effortlessly flows from smooth to intense as the band muses over the senselessness of war: "Us and them/And after all we're only ordinary men/Me and you/God only it's not what we would choose to do."  With a mean Roger Waters bass line, Richard Wright's bluesy movements on the Wurlitzer, a unique 7/4 time signature and 7-beat tape loops of sound effects, the cleverly-funky "Money" (which is musically my favorite on the album) speaks about the "necessary evil" that the matter at hand can be: "Money, it's a crime/Share it fairly, but don't take a slice of my pie/Money, so they say/Is the root of all evil today/But if you ask for a rise/It's no surprise that they're giving none away."  A quintessential sum-of-all-parts track, "Time" (which is lyrically my favorite) touches on losing track of the days, weeks, months and years of one's life:

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain/You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today/And then one day you find ten years have got behind you/No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun...

Just those four lines are proof enough that this is one of the most brilliant and relatable translations of being at a crossroads, not knowing where time went and how the rest of your life will be spent.  If you're a lover of all music and you've never experienced The Dark Side of the Moon, please treat yourself to it ASAPington.  Besides, if Baby Boy Scribbler gravitates toward it and he doesn't even know what half of this stuff means yet, then you know it's fire.  OTHER NOTABLES: "The Great Gig in the Sky" and "Any Colour You Like".