In Heavy Rotation (July 2016)

After knocking the Black Music Month post out of the park in June, I kinda laughed to myself about the July lineup like, "Dang...I sure do have a lot of White people on this list!"  Then, looking at two of the five picks, I later thought, "Somebody is gonna think that I curse like a sailor and say some of the most offensive things known to man when nobody is watching!"  At the end of the business day, I don't care either way because, if anything, it shows that nothing is out of bounds for my listening pleasure and that I have quite a few screws loose--but y'all already knew the latter, so that's not breaking news.  Before we begin, here's a programming note: I tried my absolute best once again to give Desiigner a chance beyond "Panda" and "Timmy Turner".  However, his New English mixtape sounded more like new gibberish with all of the same machine gun ad-libs from both of the aforementioned singles all throughout and I just couldn't subject y'all to that.  I can tolerate those two singles on their own, but an entire project of that is a bit much for my ears.  So now that the disclaimers and the insufferable mention are out of the way, let's start the show...

THROWBACK PICK OF THE MONTH: THE CURE, Three Imaginary Boys (Fiction, 1979).  My introduction to The Cure was working in the receiving department at Tower Records in Northwest D.C. and one of my fellow clerks was a huge fan.  If you knew this guy and his personality, then their style of music made perfect sense.  Hence, I decided to dust off Three Imaginary Boys and some of the songs started coming back to me as if I was back lifting 50-pound boxes, labeling CDs and logging in all 1,000 copies of Usher's Confessions album into our database.  Aside from a vicious guitar solo past the midway point, the musical and lyrical simplicity of "Three Imaginary Boys" stood out, particularly in the hook: "Close my eyes and hold so tightly, scared of what the morning brings/Waiting for tomorrow, never comes/Deep inside the empty feelings, all the night time leaves me/Three imaginary boys sing in my sleep, 'Sweet child, the moon will change your mind.'"  Although the lyrics are sparse in "10:15 Saturday Night", the music and the lyrical concept work in concert with each other as lead singer Robert Smith cleverly paints the picture of sitting around during a time of the night when people are getting their fun started and he's subjecting himself to constant "drips" from the tap over a lost love.  "Accuracy" is no different than "10:15 Saturday Night" as the lyrics are pared down to focus more on Smith's rhythmic guitaring and Michael Dempsey's mean bass line that fuse their post-punk/new wave style with a bluesy touch--think along the lines of Pink Floyd's "Money".  Now I could've easily picked Three Imaginary Boys as an "Against the Grain" pick, but it was good to go back down memory lane when the rotating third chair in our back room always brought along people who had diverse ears for music.  Other than discounted product, wearing what I wanted and not having a stuffy desk job, that was the best thing about working at Tower.  OTHER NOTABLES: "Another Day" and "Fire In Cairo".


AGAINST THE GRAIN PICK OF THE MONTH: RUDY RAY MOORE, The Second Rudy Ray Moore Album - This P---y Belongs to Me (Comedians Inc., 1970).  For the first time in "In Heavy Rotation" history, we have a comedy album on the list--or as they called them back in the day, a "party record".  However, the late, great Rudy Ray Moore was more than a jive-talking, triple X-rated comedian or the legendary Dolemite; his delivery was more like dropping bars and y'all know that I'm a sucker for some dope rhymes.  On Season 2, Episode 16, of TV One's Unsung Hollywood, Too $hort talked specifically about Rudy Ray Moore's influence on hip hop:

We embraced him because you look back it at and you go, 'That's that hip-hop swag'...what we would've been doing if we were in his shoes...when you become what you are, you get a lot of things from places.  We got a lot of the funk from George Clinton, but I got a lot of Too $hort from Rudy Ray Moore, no doubt about it.

Pulling from that as well as really wanting to go "Against the Grain", I went with The Second Rudy Ray Moore Album - This P---y Belongs to Me and ummm, errr, uhhh, yeah...this was something else to say the least.  "Mr. Big D--k, And Others" finds the libidinous subject knocking on the door of a brothel, going through several "workers" who can't handle his "prowess" and finally gets the madam of the house who advertises the quality of her own product before showing Mr. Big D--k how it's done: "I got a p---y so good, it'll make a laying man walk/A blind man see and a dumb man talk!"  Now I don't care how old you are...if you've never heard any portion of "Signifying Monkey", then you should probably go play in nighttime traffic dressed in all black.  "Way down in the jungle deep/The bada-- lion stepped on the signifying monkey's feet!"  Need I say more?!?!  Even with that legendary track, "Hurricane Annie Meets Dolemite" steals the show for me as Moore trumps up the most epic sexual encounter of all time with "the most gorgeous whore he had ever seen": "She had eyes like diamonds, teeth like pearl/Long, black wavy hair on her head and c--k, laying in curl/Her t-ts stood up like soldiers, a-- looked like a butter bowl/She was a stone soul sister full of soul."  Now some might think that Moore was the crudest dude in the game--so much so that his albums sold predominantly under-the-counter and by word of mouth.  Nevertheless, I will say this: if you've never experienced Rudy Ray Moore, then I guarantee that whatever comedian you think needs their mouth washed out with soap looks like a choir boy next to him.  OTHER NOTABLES: "California Poetry".

PERSONAL PICK OF THE MONTH: ALLEN STONE, Radius (Deluxe Edition) (ATO/Capitol, 2016).  Much like Tory Lanez, OG Buddy of the Blog Country has been singing Allen Stone's praises for months--only a little more glowingly.  Then again, what else should I expect from the same guy that brought me on to a radio show with him in college?  He kinda knows what he's talking about when it comes to music.  I didn't ask him which album should I check out first, so I independently chose Radius.  On first listen, he reminds me of Eric Benet if Benet looked more like a long-lost member of Creedence Clearwater Revival, but the soul is there nonetheless.  On "The Wire", it's just the music and Stone as his pensiveness about arbitrary rules and dichotomies takes over: "Who made up these rules?/Who's a star and who's a tool?/And who's a genius and who's a fool?/Oh, who made up these rules?/Who wrote all of these laws/When to spit and when to applaud/What's of the devil and what's of God?"  On "Freezer Burn", his opening lines in describing a frigid woman tell enough of the story: "When I met you three months ago/I said to myself, 'Man, this girl seems so cold'/Just 'cause you glitter doesn't mean you're gold/Just 'cause you're selling doesn't mean I'm sold."  Finally, "Upside" features some of Stone's best vocals on the entire album and once again manifests how the way you open a song is paramount:

Love is like gravity/It pulls me down equally/And draws me back every time/This love is a heavy kind/That love is my enemy/I keep it close, close to me/And I forget that the pain it caused/It's better to have loved than lost it/This love has no alibi/Still, it feeds my appetite...

There aren't too many people who are in love or have been in love who can't relate to at least four out of those ten bars and he did a solid job of capturing and emoting that feeling.  Much like the next two albums on this list, Radius embodies the spirit of "In Heavy Rotation" as its replay value is clearly there and made me wanna dig deeper into Stone's catalog.  OTHER NOTABLES: "American Privilege" and "Faithful (Bonus Track)".

THE TWOFER (SOCIAL MEDIA & HOMETOWN HERO) PICK OF THE MONTH: NIGEL HALL, Ladies & Gentlemen...Nigel Hall (Feel Music/Round Hill, 2015).  In case y'all didn't already know this about me, I absolutely love being put on to new music--whether it's someone whose impeccable taste I trust or a person who's never given me a recommendation but their vibe gives me reason not to take their suggestion lightly.  So when the cousin of D.C. native Nigel Hall adamantly plugged his latest album in one of my Facebook groups, I thought, "Let me give this a shot."  I'm glad that I did because Ladies & Gentlemen...Nigel Hall is right up my alley as it blends all of the familiar elements of classic soul music.  One of the best examples is "Don't Change for Me" with its Rufus-like opening guitar, gritty organ play and booming drums as Hall infuses tons of soul into lines like "don't change for me 'cause I don't need no favors, baby" and "we used to have long walks and good conversation/and now our difference in opinions are turning into situations".  The musically all-encompassing "Too Sweet" is like a mix of Kem's best work, a touch of Maxwell and guitar elements reminiscent of Maze featuring Frankie Beverly's "When I'm Alone" as Hall makes being a sucker for love sound so smooth:

Saw you in the nightclub when you turned around and noticed me/Soon enough, I was talking to you with my hand on your knee/Felt so right and looked so good, it was hard for me to resist/Then I realized that I was just another man on your list/Wanted to leave yesterday, but you kept on coming 'round/Should've known it would go this way, you're just too sweet going down...

Although I dig the original by Latimore, the Monica and Usher remake and other covers including O.V. Wright, I can say with all certainty that Hall has my favorite cover of "Let's Straighten It Out" because it's the best marriage of vocals and music as he convincingly delivers it as if Benny Latimore wrote it especially for him.  Other than the final pick, I have listened to Ladies & Gentlemen...Nigel Hall the most and enjoyed every single minute of it front to back, and I'm sure that my dear "In Heavy Rotation" supporters will feel the same if you love some good old-fashioned soul with a slightly modern touch.  OTHER NOTABLES: "I Just Want to Love You" (featuring Alecia Chakour) and "I Can't Stand the Rain".

GUILTY PLEASURE PICK OF THE MONTH: EMINEM, The Marshall Mathers LP (Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2001).  Confession time: I shouldn't like The Marshall Mathers LP as much as I do.  This was that album that I couldn't stop listening when I was 21 and in my last year of college, so there was a lot of immaturity involved in gushing over an album that featured the other "F" word one too many times.  As awesome of a track as "Kim" was back in the day, it's almost disturbing to listen to it now--although it's still vividly dope and clever in a psychotic and demented way.  Furthermore, a lot of his lyrical vitriol was aimed at artists who clearly don't spit bars and should never try--although he's given it to plenty of people who can.  However, when I fired up this album and listened to it for the first time in years, it still cranks from top to bottom and his wordplay, flow and often-inappropriate but killer wit are the stars of the show.  On "Who Knew", it's easy to pick a set of lines like "I'm sorry, there must be a mix-up/You want me to fix up lyrics while the President gets his d--k sucked," but the a-hole in me who sometimes laughs at what he shouldn't gravitates toward this:

I don't got that bad of a mouth, do I/F--k sh-- a-- b---h c--t, shoddy-de-doo-wop/Skibbedy-bee-bop, a Christopher Reeve/Sonny Bono, skis, horses and hitting some trees/How many retards'll listen to me/And run up in the school shooting when they're pissed at a tea-cher...

(Whole time, I just realized Jay-Z got part of his hook for "Ignorant Sh--" from "Who Knew", so apparently, I'm not the only who understood the point of the song.)  On the low-down, gritty and grimy "Remember Me?", Eminem offended more folks with ill bars like "Came home and somebody musta broke in the back window/And stole two machine guns and both of my trenchcoats", but it's Sticky Fingaz who has my favorite two lines because of how he delivered them: "Want beef, n---a? Pbbt, you better dead that sh--/My name should be 'Can't Believe That N---a Said That Sh--!"  If you want a blueprint on how to start off a controversial album with an infectious beat, then look no further than "Kill You"--which has always been my favorite song on the album.  Outside of "Kim", this is Em at one of his most sadistic points:

B---h, I'ma kill you; I ain't done this ain't the chorus/I ain't even drug you in the woods yet to paint the forest/A blood stain is orange/After you wash it three or four times in a tub, but that's normal, ain't it, Norman?/Serial killer hiding murder material/In a cereal box on top of your stereo...

There are only four words that can sum up The Marshall Mathers LP: the dude is diabolical.  I honestly cringed reading and writing out some of the words to these songs.  Then again, most geniuses have a diabolical side and, speaking purely from a lyrical delivery standpoint, this was his Albert Einstein moment.  OTHER NOTABLES: this is one of the few times that you'll see commentary on "notables", but this is absolutely necessary because it's all about one-liners and ad-libs.  Delivery is everything on "I'm Back" with these two lines: "'Cause if I ever stuck it to any singer in showbiz/It'd be Jennifer Lopez and Puffy, you know this."  I laughed like I never heard those lines and the ones following them like 50 previous times before.  Finally, on "Marshall Mathers", three ad-libs make me chuckle like a 10-year-old kid who just started cursing: 1) when he follows up "starting sh-- like some 26-year-old skinny Cartman" with "got dammit"; 2) the grunt he makes after he insults an attorney with "he's just aggravated I won't ejaculate in his a--"; and 3) he says "I'm finally allowed to step foot in my girlfriend's house" and follows it up with a goofy "hey!"  Golden.

So what's been in heavy rotation for you lately?  Please feel free to share some of your favorite albums and mixtapes of the past month in the comments.  Don't forget to come back and check out next month's edition of "In  Heavy Rotation"!!!