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

The month of July leading into August was an interesting time for music for a few reasons.  First and foremost, this is one of the few times where every song that entered the countdown stayed on the countdown--which is ironic because the beginning of the month found me flooding my ears with music, but I was probably tired of having melodies and beats on my mind for the majority of the last 24 days.  Second, there were a lot of times where one song would make me think of another song or one moment would remind me of another moment where I was thinking about the same song or sets of songs...pretty much a real fustercluck.  Third, I've had quite a few instances where I've had the desire to hear music either from those with whom I've broken bread or who I've known better than the back of my hand.  (Hold on...checking this extra hairy patch on the back of my hand...okay, I'm good.)  So in the August edition of the "'Get Out of My Brain!' Countdown of the Month", you all will witness "Moments In Intersectionality", "Moments In Shameless Plugging" and two other songs that won't leave me alone.  Let's jump to it...

#10 DRAKE & FUTURE, "Jumpman" (What a Time to Be Alive, A1/Cash Money/Epic/Freebands/Republic/Young Money, 2015).  Moments In Intersectionality, Part 1...this particular overlap manifests how the brain can be a web of so many thoughts.  First, doing the epic 30th birthday party for one of my dear, dear friends--which is the best party that I've ever attended in my entire life next to 9th Wonder deejaying at a club in downtown Philly in 2007--initially put this song in my brain because it was on her playlist.  Second, during a shootaround with a random brother who later dogged me in a one-on-one game at the basketball courts in Hillandale Local Park, this song was blaring over someone's car speakers.  Although I didn't really crank to it super hard at the party, I found myself bouncing to it while taking a quick breather and getting a little bit of life from it.  Third, I've come to realize that when in doubt about a song of the past six years having the capability of sticking to the walls of your cranium, blame Future.  More important to this conversation, the connection of Mr. Freebands tied "Jumpman" with this next entry on the countdown...

#9 DJ KHALED FEAT. JAY-Z & FUTURE, "I Got the Keys" (Major Key, We the Best/Epic, 2016).  Moments In Intersectionality, Part 2...the arguably sad part about "I Got the Keys" is that the song more prominently features my favorite rapper in the whole wide world, but if somebody held a gun to my head and told me to recite just one of Jay-Z bars, then y'all would be heartbroken that your ninth favorite blogger is no longer your ninth favorite blogger.  However, the crossing of paths with this track is deeper than some dude who has used auto-tune to his advantage more than even T-Pain.  You have to consider it entering my brain space during a market run last weekend with Baby Boy Scribbler, who I allowed to play with my house keys at the checkout for a hot second as I chanted, "I GOT THE KEYS, KEYS, KEYS!  I GOT THE KEYS, KEYS, KEYS!"  Then you have to factor in the very next day when I came to the daunting conclusion that I'm not 16 years old anymore at the aforementioned basketball courts and this was blaring over those same car speakers.  Add in another instance with BBS going in my pocket and playing with my car keys this time around as if he's planning how to get the Honda from dear old dad 14 years in advance and yeah...I think it's obvious why "I Got the Keys" made the list...

#8 HEATHEN ALUMNI FEAT. KAVAH KING & A.J. THROWBACK, "The Inspiration Part 2" (Heathen Alumni Mixtape Volume 2.0, Heathen Alumni/HU, 2014).  Moments In Shameless Plugging, Part 1...now this song ended up in my head for two reasons.  Before we get there, here's why this is "shameless plugging": A.J. Throwback is my alter ego twin brother and Kavah King has been one of his most frequent collaborators of the past three years.  Moving on...Reason #1: being perhaps my favorite verse where my bro is a featured artist, the personal testimony in his 32 bars still resonate with me nearly two years later.  Reason #2: Kavah has once again summoned the services of Sir Throwback to bless the mic for the third installment of their "Inspiration" trilogy.  (In case you've never heard it, here's Part 1.  Yup...more shameless plugging.  That's what happens when you have your own blog.)  So A.J. has been studying his verses from the first two parts and I've been that guy who not only has to keep hearing about how dope of a line "now I'm going hard every single stroke, I Extenze" is, but I've heard the intended beat for "Part 3" like a hundred times already.  (No plug there...y'all will have to wait to hear that.)

#7 MAIN SOURCE, "He Got So Much Soul (He Don't Need No Music)" (Breaking Atoms, Wild Pitch, 1991).  Moments In Intersectionality, Part 3...so ever since I moved to the outermost part of Silver Spring, Main Source's Breaking Atoms album has been connected to my experience out here--largely because it's great snow shoveling music--and is at least a once-a-year staple much like A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory.  Particularly, there are two songs to which I look forward the most: "Peace Is Not the Word to Play" and our No. 7 entry for the month, "He Got So Much Soul (He Don't Need No Music)".  So how did this one end up in my brain recently and what qualifies it as overlap?  Simple: the song in the No. 4 slot will tell you a lot of what you need to know--that is, once you get there.  All that I can tell you is that I was just in a Golden Age of Hip Hop mood and it's hard for me to discuss that period and not think of Large Professor.  Now while I always kinda giggle at the simplicity of lines like "I'll eat you like a plum" and "I share the rhymes that are kicking like feet", the production is so dope that it doesn't even matter.  Besides, any song that makes me think of my homie from the Bronx when Large Pro says "baby pa", it's well worth the spins around the old Superdome...

#6 BEYONCÉ FEAT JAY-Z, "Drunk in Love" (Beyoncé, Parkwood/Columbia, 2013).  Moments In Intersectionality, Part 4...so remember how I wrote that post last week for Mrs. Scribbler recalling songs that made me think of her the most?  Welp, "Drunk in Love" could've easily made that list to fulfill the 'Yonce quota because when this song first came out, it seems like she had this on three-peat like Jordan championships and Drake diss records that never saw the light of day.  Although the Carters weren't able to beat out one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite singers and original TV girlfriends in the late, great Phyllis Hyman, they were able to make this list.  Combine that with that legendary birthday party and how this was on the after party playlist--although we had to cut it short because of time constraints, so the song never actually got played at the party--and you have a recipe for repetition.  Whether we're talking back in the Destiny's Child days with "Killing Time" or fast forwarding to the 4 album and being completely enamored with her clinic in flawless harmonies on "Party", "Crazy in Love" continues Beyoncé's 18-year history of consistently making at least one song every year or two that leaves an indelible mark on my ear drums...

#5 RANSOM RELLIC, "Dear Doubter" (Shock Treatment: The 4228 Wisconsin Avenue Story, High Society/M.O.R.A.L., 2010).  Moments In Shameless Plugging, Part 2...although my arguably-but-only-slightly-better-looking twin brother drops no bars this time around, he flexes his producing chops on "Dear Doubter".  However, as evidenced from past posts featuring the likes of Mac & G, Klutch Da Rapper, PATH P, my homie Malik Hunter from Nat Turner and the aforementioned Kavah King, the best "shameless plugs" that I enjoy the most are for my friends.  Having known this brother for ten years, Ransom Rellic has been one of those lyricists whose skill and conceptual approaches to songs I have always respected and "Dear Doubter" is one of the brightest moments from his work with Sweet Brother Twinzie.  Just two lines propelled this song into the countdown and have defined my mantra as of late: "Or when I make a move, I don't feel you need to know the move/Just know that when the time comes, I'ma show and prove."  Being a line that is in direct correlation with my favorite Memphis Bleek line ever in "the strong move quiet, the weak start riots", these two lines remind me that not everybody should be privy to your plans because some people are either waiting for you to fail, will tell you how you can't do something or make it seem like your destiny just isn't in the cards for you--no matter how much that fire within you cannot be extinguished.  Who better than my friends to remind me of that musically?

#4 PUBLIC ENEMY, "Fight the Power" (Do the Right Thing Soundtrack, Motown, 1989).  Moments In Intersectionality, Part 5...so if you have a very short memory, "Fight the Power" is the reason why Main Source's "He Got So Much Soul (He Don't Need No Music)" was randomly stuck in my head.  Whole time, the songs are nothing alike, but they both get me hype.  So let's discuss two cool things about this classic.  First, how about it being the first song since starting this countdown to make the list in back-to-back months, and if there's any song that I'm cool with doing that other than "Cheers 2 U" by Playa, then it's "Fight the Power".  Second, do you believe that an outfit can firmly place a song in someone's brain?  In preparing for that birthday party, it was either come up with an outfit that's "played out like Kwame and them f-----g polka dots" or gives people Public Enemy meets Spike Lee.  Finding a Malcolm X hat, a beaded ankh necklace, some fake-me-out Cazal personality frames (because I wasn't paying $375 for a pair of real Cazal 607s), a Cross Colours shirt (no, I don't still have mine from back in the day and, yes, they are still in business) and a pair of Air Jordan Spizike 3Ms on the cheap, I went with the latter choice and it was such a hit that I actually won second place in the best dressed contest and a bottle of Belvedere.  (That last part matters.)  Although "Fight the Power" wasn't even on the playlist, it was in right in the thick of Brooklyn in my head while I was wearing my outfit...

#3 BACKYARD BAND, "Byb Hello" (Street Antidote, Unruly/R&G/Dirt Bag, 2016).  Introducing the first song on the countdown that doesn't fall under either "Moments in Intersectionality" or "Moments in Shameless Plugging" as "Byb Hello" is the big cheese that stands alone.  In making the playlist for the already-mentioned-ad-nauseam birthday party, this was the song that tripped me up the most because it was the last go-go song in the entire mix.  In the first take, the transition from the late, great Chuck Brown's "It Don't Mean a Thing" to "Byb Hello" was sloppy and forced me back to the drawing board.  In the second take, the transition was much better, but at a family cookout, my uncle played it and I realized that I had cut it short of one of the most crankinest parts in the entire song.  (I'm aware that "crankinest" is not a word, but guess what?  It is today.  Again...my blog...my rules...and that's my bike, punk.)  In the final take, it came out just right as the transition was smooth and the song was faded out at the right moment.  Hence, having to hear that song so much in a two-week period + how often they play it on D.C. radio = the No. 3 Brain Space Invader...

#2 A.J. THROWBACK, "Sheer Elegance (Welcome to the Glow) (Instrumental)" (Sheer Elegance (Welcome to the Glow), The Hardhood Classics Network, 2016).  Moments In Shameless Plugging, Part 3...Sweet Brother Twinzie was in a creative slump since he produced this song last October.  In fact, you would have to go back another month since he made an entirely original beat without sampling another musical composition, so you're talking a ten-month gap.  Chalk it up to personal issues, possibly questioning his future in music or perpetually being a perfectionist, but he just hated what he was doing with the beats or with his pen.  Then the inspiration for this lavish creation right chea rained down on him like manna from Heaven and brought the absolute best out of him that he was nearly convinced was nonexistent.  Once he finished it, he just kept playing it over and over and over again like it was the first beat that he ever made--either that or like he was back in his momma's house circa 1996 playing Lillo Thomas' "Wanna Make Love (All Night Long)" or any Freddie Jackson song three times in a row.  I will say this: with a percussive backdrop and a synth-driven melody worthy of rose petal pathways and all gold everything, it's good to see my bro return to his classic form.  Now he nearly took the top spot and vacillated from week to week with the final entry, but 1) that would've seemed like nepotism at its most egregious and 2) this month's big dawg edged him out to possibly anger some folks...

#1 DESIIGNER, "Timmy Turner" (The Life of Desiigner, GOOD/Def Jam, 2016).  So the Brooklyn rapper who people often say sounds like the Atlanta rapper who kicked off this countdown failed to make the last two "In Heavy Rotation" editions because ummmm, yeah...I just can't take an entire mixtape or album of Desiigner.  However, "Timmy Turner" is one of those songs that will have you at the crossroads of your taste in music altogether.  On one side of the fork, you have your dear, dear friends who echo T.I.'s sentiments from "King Of Da South": "Man, these n----z is all hype/Not even rappin' on real mics/They just get high and say whatever the f--k they feel like."  On the other side, you have your dear, dear friends who just...won't...stop...singing...this...song.  As much as you try to hold on to whatever integrity you think you have as a connoisseur of fine music, you realize that everybody has a guilty pleasure and "Timmy Turner" is my latest one.  It was bad enough when "Panda" made last month's countdown and narrowly missed snagging the top spot, but that wasn't good enough for Desiigner.  He had to take it a diabolical step further by teaming up with one of my favorite producers of all time in Mike Dean (Scarface, UGK, Jay-Z and Kanye West just to name a few) to make so many people think that this is the best thing since canned peaches.  "Timmy Turner" is on my brain so much that I can guarantee that this will make next month's countdown; I just won't tell you where it will land yet because you might judge me even harder than you're judging me right now...

So what song(s) have you all not been able to get out of your brain for the past few days, the week or the past month?!?!  Please feel free to share your experiences, for better or for worse, in the comments.  Don't forget to come back in September for the next wild and crazy "'Get Out of My Brain!' Countdown of the Month"!!!