Although every summer of my youth was "life-changing", not even the No. 1 summer in this countdown can top the summer of 1995; heck, there aren't too many years that can contend with 1995 outside of the forthcoming top dawg. For Momma Scribbler, Big Little Brother Scribbler and I, it was our second summer living in our first-ever house in Far Southwest D.C. (or the "Southeast part of Southwest" as many of us D.C. folks call it, which also happens to be geographically accurate) that came with a lot of firsts, including our own rooms and a private line for us to talk about the mindless things that adolescents discuss with our friends. When we weren't at our respective summer programs, the broski and I kicked it around the way with our new friends playing Spades in our backyard, hooping at the basketball courts or hanging at whatever mall was accessible by Metro as we were neither old enough to drive nor mature enough to earn our parents' trust even if we had the age and the license to boot. However, beyond my overall quality of life improving between the ends of ninth and tenth grade--especially from a social standpoint--the following five things rightfully earned the summer of '95 the No. 2 spot in the "Ninetysomething Days of Summer" edition of my "Rave & Favorite Five"...
You never know how a month's worth of random songs being lodged in the corners of your mind will work. Once the last batch of brain invaders left the scene of the crime, the first culprit looking to raid was "In My House" by the Mary Jane Girls. Truth be told, I can't even tell you what made me think of that song recently because as much as I've always liked it, I don't think about it very often. Hence, I had a feeling neither "In My House" would make the cut nor "Put It In Your Mouth" by Akinyele, "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" by Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack", "My Dad's Gone Crazy" by Eminem nor "The Lovers" by Alexander O'Neal. Guy's "Goodbye Love" had three opportunities to make the list--twice on its own and once via sampling on Mary J. Blige's "Don't Go"--but still didn't make it despite a strong resurgence. Of all people, Rihanna nearly made "Get Out of My Brain!" history with three entries including "Sex With Me" and "Needed Me", but you will soon see which one endured. Now that the losers have been accounted for, let's talk about the winners...
Whereas I went from a "Black Music Matters" in June to mainly "White Boy Wasted" in July, the August edition of "In Heavy Rotation" has its own swagger. Not only could many of these picks be interchangeable, but most of them are from artists who I like and respect, but I'm nowhere near the head of their fan clubs. However, that's the marvel of music: there's always an opportunity for an artist to change your mind or make you more of a believer in their work--especially if it's evident they have the talent and charisma to keep your attention for the majority or the entirety of a project. So enough talking, let's get to the tunes...
As I neared the conclusion of writing the third part of the "Ninetysomething Days of Summer" edition, I realized 1992 could've easily been higher on this list. Although the summer of 1993 felt more like a coming-of-age season, the summer of '92 provided an ample foundation as it was the first all-around dope summer I ever experienced in twelve-years-and-75-cents of life. However, perhaps the biggest snub on this countdown could've been enough to propel this summer higher on the list: Boomerang. Now I could gush over how dope the soundtrack was--more on that later--but the movie was such a huge deal because of how much Black star power was involved between Eddie Murphy, Robin Givens, Halle Berry, Lela Rochon, Grace Jones, David Alan Grier, Martin Lawrence, Chris Rock, Tisha Campbell and the late, greats Eartha Kitt and Geoffrey Holder. Not to mention that after much pleading, Big Dadi Scribbler took me to see it on opening day--although we missed all of the previews (a moviegoer no-no) and narrowly made it in time. Despite no movie of that summer making as much of a dent in my memory bank as Boomerang, it still has a hard time beating these five reasons pleading the case for the summer of '92...
This has not been an ideal Olympic run for Team USA's Gabby Douglas, the darling gymnast extraordinaire of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Douglas was arguably robbed of defending her title in the individual all-around since each country can only send through two representatives in the final. A costly mistake on a handstand along with other deductions not only kept her from getting a medal in the final on the uneven bars, disappointingly coming in seventh place. Her only part in any medal was when the team notched gold in the team all-around, but during the medal ceremony, she was excoriated for not putting her hand over her heart during "The Star Spangled Banner" despite Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump doing the exact same thing and receiving little to no flack about it. However, among Black women in particular, the constant ridicule since 2012 has been about her hair--which has been called "crunchy" and having dandruff while her edges have been criticized for being "straight disrespectful". Of course, there have been a lot of folks running to her defense, saying things along the lines of "she's competing at the Olympics, while you're at home".
