Those of you who checked out my Mother's Day edition of the "Rave & Favorite Five" might have thought, "Awww, that's sweet...him love his momma!" Facts, and don't you forget it. Also, you may remember me saying that I come from a musical family not in the sense of trained singers or musicians, but just in a household of music lovers and Big Dadi Scribbler played the biggest role in shaping my musical tastes. Much like I've had for the past ten years of living on my own, my dad had his own dedicated room for music that was full of vinyl and turntables--a room to which I would constantly follow him and fuel my fascination. He's always had an excellent ear for music and knowing what songs would either be hits or could get people out on the dance floor and keep them there. Furthermore, he's never been the type to limit himself to "age-appropriate" music. Quick example before we begin...when he spent time down in Fort Lauderdale, he'd come back to D.C. with a bunch of Plies and Rick Ross mixtapes--often making me feel like I needed to play catch-up with him. So as you'll see in the Father's Day edition of the "Rave & Favorite Five", there might be a lot more hilarity and head scratching involved with this tribute, so buckle up...
#5 KENDRICK LAMAR, "The Blacker the Berry" (To Pimp a Butterfly, Top Dawg/Aftermath/Interscope, 2015). While at work one day, I remember talking to Big Dadi Scribbler about how much I love K.Dot as an artist. For whatever reason, my enthusiasm piqued his interest and next thing you know, he was telling me about how he checked out some of his music. Several months later, To Pimp a Butterfly drops and it's pretty much the only album that I'm listening to or care about for like two months straight. I call him one day and of all of the possible caller tunes he could've used, he has "The Blacker the Berry", which is one of my favorite songs on TPAB as well as in Kendrick's overall catalog. My reaction is twofold: 1) I didn't know that people still use or buy caller tunes and 2) I was like, "What does he know about that?!?!" Whole time...that made me so happy that there would be a lot of times when I called him just to hear his caller tune, although I could've easily just played the album. Heck, he had me questioning my deep-seated fandamonium earlier this year during the 58th Grammy Awards when he sent me a text message that said something like, "You know your boy is on the Grammys right now." Although there are plenty of other songs that I could've easily put on this countdown, this song will always make me think of how I actually put my father onto some dope music for a change, almost as a way to repay him for all of the great music to which he introduced me.
#4 R. KELLY, "Your Body's Callin'" (12 Play, Jive, 1994). Now while Big Dadi Scribbler may have known his music like the back of his hands, he wasn't always the person to count on to get an artist's name right--especially when it came to artists of the 90s. I remember getting a letter from him around '94 talking about new music at the time, and the following people didn't stand a chance: Mariah Carey was "Milah Kelly"; Tevin Campbell was "Kevin" instead; and R. Kelly's middle initial somehow became 1) a part of his moniker and 2) must not have been Sylvester as my dad transformed him into "R.K. Kelly." To make matters more interesting, remember the part in Hitch when Sara (Eva Mendes) clowns Hitch (Will Smith) for butchering Earth, Wind & Fire's "Reasons" while doped up on Benadryl? Similarly, my father could never be accused of being a great singer as he would belt out the lyrics to this song and anyone of us around would think (or actually say), "R. Kelly sings this, right? How about you let him sing this song!" So I can't ever listen to this song without thinking about Big Dadi Scribbler making a call of the wild, acting like he was signed to Jive Records and putting an extra letter in R. Kelly's stage name. Gotta love our parents, don't we?!?!
#3 CAMEO, "She's Strange" (She's Strange, Casablanca, 1984). When we lived at my grandmother's house in Northwest D.C. between 1983 and 1985, this is when I first remember music being all around us. Aside from the world-famous debut of Michael Jackson's version of the Moonwalk during the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever special and being obsessed with Run-D.M.C., I recall being drawn to two albums laying around the basement: 1) Whitney Houston's debut album where I think I asked my mother, "Mommy, where did all of Whitney Houston's hair go"; and 2) Cameo's She Strange album with a wild woman on the cover who looked like either a Thundercats extra or the precursor to The Misfits, Jem & The Holograms' rival band. I don't even know for sure if Cameo was one of Big Dadi Scribbler's favorite bands, but it always seemed like they were playing whenever he was around and that probably heightened my fascination with them as a kid. Cameo just always struck me as a bunch of super cool weirdos who sounded like no one else in the game--a uniqueness that I'm sure inspired me as an aspiring artist. Cameo was the first group that I recognized as "funky" from the door and "She's Strange" was perhaps the first song that cemented that connection. (SIDEBAR: am I the only person who thinks that although the bass line is wicked AF in "She's Strange", is it not ridiculously close to the bass line in Teena Marie's "Square Biz"? I'm just sayin'...)
#2 PHIL COLLINS, "In the Air Tonight" (Face Value, Virgin/Atlantic, 1981). First and foremost, find me a person who doesn't like this song and I'll show you a depraved soul who hates life itself. Second, my longtime love affair with "In the Air Tonight" is a story of coming full circle and one that begins with Big Dadi Scribbler. Living in Oxon Hill Village between 1985 and 1987 were two of the most memorable, influential years of my young life and music had a huge role in framing my outlook. In the spring of 1986, my brother and I were home with my dad and he had music blasting through our apartment one afternoon. When this masterpiece came on, I was like, "Whoa!!! What...is...this?!?!" It just seemed to resonate through our apartment more than the other songs, especially when those drums storm in and the beat finally drops; it was like the toms shook the walls into submission and my life hasn't been the same since. No song connects me to the last time that I lived under the same roof with my father more than "In the Air Tonight". As far as coming full circle, I've been in a major creative slump as a musician for about eight months now. However, one of my last complete production jobs was a sample of "In the Air Tonight" and it's also one of the last production jobs that I actually love. Then again, that totally makes sense. Nevertheless, as much as nostalgia as this song brings me, prepare yourselves to be bewildered as no other song on the face of the earth makes me think of Big Dadi Scribbler more than...
#1 2PAC FEAT. OUTLAW IMMORTALZ, "Hit 'Em Up" (B-side to "How Do U Want It", Death Row/Interscope, 1996). Where do I begin with this...let's talk about one day a few years ago when I'm still living in Parklands and Big Dadi Scribbler picks me up and takes me to work. As we get on the Southeast Freeway, this starts playing and he pumps up the volume as if it's 1996 all over again and the East Coast-West Coast rivalry has been renewed. Excited at his most recent musical discovery, he turns to me and says, "You ever heard this before?!?!" The Golden Era Hip Hop fan in me is like, "Have I heard this before?!?! Is water wet? Is the sky blue on a bright, clear, sunny day? Is 2Pac dead and gone??? Wait, don't answer that last one...but OF COURSE I'VE HEARD THIS BEFORE!!!" However, the part of me that allows dear old dad to have his moment of putting me on to only one of the most incendiary diss records of all time simply replies with a smirk, "Yeah, I know about this." So remember how I said that Momma Scribbler can be hip when she wants to be? Well, this wasn't one of those instances as Big Dadi Scribbler tried to hip her to "Hit 'Em Up" during a car ride not long after my ride to work with him, but his attempt failed miserably. On one hand, I thought, "Dad...why would you play such a vulgar song like 'Hit 'Em Up' for a woman approaching her 60s???" On the other hand, I laughed to myself because I knew what her reaction would be before she ever told me about it. Now, instead of the visual of 2Pac and Faith Evans together in that infamous picture that hyped up his beef with The Notorious B.I.G. a little more, I will never be able to think of this song ever again without thinking about how hype my dad was as if it was that brand new, come-and-get-it, come-and-get-it hot sh-t, hot sh-t.
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In my 36 years of life, I just recently found out that Stevie Wonder is one of Big Dadi Scribbler's favorite artists. I mean, it's no surprise because it's Stevie Wonder and as the type of music connoisseur that he is, it doesn't get much better than that. Furthermore, I know that there are plenty of other songs that he probably likes way more than any of these. However, these are without question the first songs that come to mind when you ask me about the man who is largely responsible for initiating my interest in music. Although we've had our ups and downs as father and son, I am grateful to him for so much. I can say with all certainty that other than helping to bring me and my brother into this world, I am the most thankful to him for giving me one of the greatest gifts that keeps on giving. There might be a lot of dads out there who think they're the coolest of the cool, but just remember that there's only one BIG...DA-DI!!!!
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