Scribbler's "Get Out of My Brain!" Countdown of the Month (June 2016)

The beauty of the "Get Out of My Brain! Countdown of the Month" is threefold. On one hand, there are songs that you have absolutely no problem with occupying your brain space.  On the other hand, there are others that have no business being there at all and make you question your self-proclaimed impeccable taste in music--particularly whether or not you ever had any in the first place.  On a third hand loaned from some stranger on the street for the purpose of making my point, you could start off a month thinking that you're gonna have a few repeats from last month, but the vast treasury of music combined with the randomness that has always been your mind takes over.  To the last point, The Manhattans had a really strong chance to be the first repeat spot holders with "Wish That You Were Mine", but that whole first time for everything thing will have to wait at least another month.  So enough of the introductory fluff...let's discuss this month's space invaders...

#10 A TRIBE CALLED QUEST FEAT. LEADERS OF THE NEW SCHOOL, "Scenario" (The Low End Theory, Jive, 1991).  Blame two things for this infectious hip-hop classic being on the countdown this month.  First, everybody needs some good Saturday morning/afternoon clean-up music.  So I've made four different lists to cover different periods of my life, and "Scenario" is part of the list that covers my junior high school years.  As soon as it came on, I was transported right back to the school gymnasium when we would songs like this, "The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)" by Black Sheep and "Just the Two of Us" by Chubb Rock during gym class or indoor recess.  Second, the Golden State Warriors' unprecedented recovery from a 3-1 deficit against the "Chokelahoma City" Thunder in the Western Conference Finals instantly cued up Phife Dawg's verse when he said, "But we've been known to do the impossible like Broadway Joe."  As I wrote my NBA Finals pick'em post, that line continued to invade my brain space.  I'm convinced that each member of that team from Steph Curry to Andrew Bogut had that line swirling in their heads even worse than I did.

#9 PINK FLOYD, "Money" (The Dark Side of the Moon, Harvest, 1973).  In order to tell the story of "Money", one has to know the story of the song with which it was paired before "Scenario" replaced it at the No. 10 spot.  So when I listened to The Dark Side of the Moon as part of May's "In Heavy Rotation" post, "Money" was one of the main songs that stood out as it always has whenever I listen to this album.  However, when it started roaming the fields of my mental pastures, it brought along a sidekick: "Cheaper to Keep Her" by MFSB.  Now some of y'all might be like, "Why not Johnnie Taylor's version?"  Simple: I've listened to MFSB's version more in my lifetime because I'm a huge fan of their work, although Taylor's version is absolutely legendary for its candid lyrics.  Nevertheless, being a lover of classic keyboard sounds as a blogger moonlighting as a music producer, the Wurlitzer in "Money" just wouldn't get off of my mind for an entire day and ruled with more of an iron fist than "Cheaper to Keep Her".  Maybe next time, MFSB; y'all have plenty of songs that are indelible enough to make at least one of these countdowns...

#8 TERENCE TRENT D'ARBY, "Who's Lovin' You" (Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby, Columbia, 1987). There aren't too many times when I think that anyone does a Jackson 5 song better than The Jackson 5.  A young Michael Jackson was so ahead of his years and could sing a love song convincingly as if he had been through a regretful situation five times over.  However, when my mother purchased Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby when I was eight years old and I heard his cover of "Who's Lovin' You", it was the first time in my life that someone had outdone one of my biggest childhood idols.  Fast forward nearly 30 years later while doing my Mother's Day tribute, I decided to listen to the album in its entirety and I was right back in front of my grandmother's house in Northwest D.C. where I remember being in awe and falling in love with this song.  I just wanted to keep listening to it over and over again, but I didn't have to Perfect end to an already stellar album and it's worth listening to every other song just to get to this one.

#7 VIV AND THE REVIVAL, "Flash" (The Introduction, Republic, 2016).  Truth be told, I'm not that crazy about this song.  I mean, I don't hate it or think it's the worst thing ever made, but the lyrics don't really do it for me.  The music does kick butt though and saves it from being all around meh.  However, the reason why this song has landed on this month's countdown is because I don't do like many other Madden NFL 16 players who have grown utterly annoyed with its soundtrack and mute their TVs when the game is at the menu screen--as is the case with many of these songs, that's much to my chagrin.  All I'm trying to do is restructure my Madden Ultimate Team and find more players to fit my new defensive identity and next thing you know, I've got "white heat, flash like whoa" stuck in my head...for days.  At the end of the day though, if anything is to stick from that soundtrack, then I'd much rather have "Flash" than "Rubberband Stacks" by Brooke Candy.  Everything about that song gives me Iggy Azalea reject--which is ironic because most hip-hop purists and avid fans would say that Iggy is a blatant knockoff herself.  Moving on...

#6 LILLO THOMAS, "Let Me Be Yours" (Let Me Be Yours, Capitol, 1983).  When I first started taking my spring and summertime two-and-a-half-hour walks around Southeast D.C., Temple Hills and Oxon Hill, I was making an 80s playlist that included Luther Vandross, D-Train, the B. B. & Q. Band, Chance and Howard Johnson.  In finding the right music to get me in the perfect hoofing zone, I stumbled upon this Lillo Thomas number on YouTube from his debut album and was instantly hooked.  Being among one of my favorite Paul Laurence productions--known primarily for his work with Freddie Jackson--this has easily become my second favorite Lillo song behind "Wanna Make Love (All Night Long)" and makes me think that it was the precursor to his aforementioned label mate and background singer's modest hit, "He'll Never Love You (Like I Do)".  "Let Me Be Yours" is a song that I now associate with sunny days, warm weather and/or long walks, so as soon as we pretty much skipped over the temps being in the 70s and went straight to summer, it was an automatic and much-welcomed mental trigger.  Speaking of which...

#5 ALEXANDER O'NEAL, "Criticize" (Hearsay, Tabu, 1987).  On that same playlist from like five years ago was "Criticize"--a song that I associated with sunny days and long walks around that same area in Oxon Hill long before I knew that "Let Me Be Yours" ever existed.  Probably sometime around 1994 when we first moved to Southwest D.C., I discovered that my mom had the Hearsay tape in her stash of tapes that she rarely listened to, if ever.  Once I started playing it, I couldn't get enough of it and it became my absolute favorite album in Alexander O'Neal's catalog.  Even as a teenager hearing this song for the first time that I could recall, I knew that I never wanted to be in a relationship like he sang about.  Fast forward nearly 22 years later, this song getting recently stuck in my head is twofold: 1) as just mentioned, the weather started breaking, and 2) it was a matter of association.  I heard the next song in the playlist first and my mind automatically connected it with "Criticize"...

#4 ALEXANDER O'NEAL, "Innocent" (Alexander O'Neal, Tabu, 1985).  When I first purchased his greatest hits album in the mid 90s, "Innocent" actually wasn't one of my favorites--and honestly, it still isn't.  Don't get me wrong, I like the song and it jams, but on a compilation with the aforementioned "Criticize", "Sunshine", "A Broken Heart Can Mend" (one of the biggest reasons I bought the album in the first place) and "Never Knew Love Like This", this easily got lost in the shuffle.  However, I made a Saturday afternoon cleanup playlist comprised mainly of songs deriving from "The Minneapolis Sound" and had the desire to hear this song as part of the mix for whatever reason.  When this song played as part of the shuffle, I was jamming so hard that I cleaned the heck out of that stove and those cabinets like never before.  Next thing you know, I still had the song on my mind when I made a quick run later that day and a few nights later when I couldn't sleep very well.  I never thought that I'd ever blame Alexander O'Neal for losing sleep, but I can think of much worse songs to keep me up at night... 

#3 DESIIGNER, "Panda" (The Life of Desiigner, GOOD/Def Jam, 2015).  By the way, that last comment was not intended to be shade toward "Panda".  As much as people in my particular age group and older wanna hate this song, it effing cranks.  I won't lie though...when I first heard it on my way back from a lunch break and realized how much I liked it, I kinda felt like I was betraying the hip-hop culture.  Just days before, I had to defend Desiigner when a video of him "freestyling" came out and, on cue, the hip-hop heads whose heyday was during the Golden Era were like, "This is trash!"  I came to grips with the fact that I'm the same dude who wrote this post about "real" hip-hop and thought, "So what if I like 'Panda'...who gon' check me doe?!?!"  Despite his typical, lacking subject matter, this dude put together some nice multi-syllabic combinations as well as a dope flow over a banger.  So how did this make the countdown?  Simple: it's everywhere.  Friends randomly recite it because it's stuck in their brains, too, it's always on the radio and so many people have had 'Panda' video memes.  Thanks to each and every last one of you for lodging this silly behind song in my brain... 

#2 FULL FORCE,   LISA LISA & CULT JAM, EX-GIRLFRIEND, UTFO, DOCTOR ICE & CHERYL PEPSII RILEY, "House Party" (House Party Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Motown, 1990).  Even when House Party first came out over 26 years ago, the theme song never crossed my mind much--if at all.  Kinda hard to get airplay in this Superdome when Today's "Why You Get Funky On Me", Kid 'n Play's "Fun House" and Full Force's "Ain't My Type of Hype" were the biggest songs from and cranked so hard on this soundtrack.  However, when House Party was supposed to land the No. 4 spot on my "Rave & Favorite Five: Tuesday Night at the Movies" countdown, this was the first song that came to mind.  It's like I was trying to pump myself to watch this movie in preparation to write the post.  Needless to say, Friday was Chill and House Party was Bilal's  DJ table.  Nevertheless, at least House Party-related relic made a countdown within the past month; it just happened to be a very unlikely one. Speaking of unlikely, that's the perfect word for the No. 1 song that won't leave me alone...

#1 O.T. GENASIS FEAT. YOUNG DOLPH, "Cut It" (Rhythm & Bricks, Conglomerate/Atlantic, 2015).  If you've been on Facebook enough in the past month, then you've seen the Whitney Houston video synchronizing her dance moves with this song.  Mind you, I never confused Whitney Houston for Janet Jackson, but this beat made her moves look super smooth and it's too bad she didn't live long enough to know or see it.  From that day forward, I was obsessed with this song.  Like seriously...I played it every day at least twice a day for a week and I can't tell y'all the last song that had that kind of effect on me.  I love it way more than I should.  In fact, the obsession was so deep that I played what must've been a rough version of it and I was highly disappointed because the ad-libs weren't the same and he didn't say "your price is way too high, you need to cut it" as swaggerific as the version with Young Dolph.  Then again, this should come as no surprise: ever since "CoCo", O.T. Genasis has been good for putting out dope songs that stick more than they should.  Now if only they could find one of these trap beats to make Mary J. Blige's infamous bop look better.  Talk about being a miracle worker...

So what song(s) have been invading your space this month that you've had trouble shaking?!?! Please feel free to share in the comments, and don't forget to check out next month's edition!