Well, it’s the end of the year (but not the end of the decade as some proclaim) and I can’t believe I’m still doing this. When I started scanning magazines, I figured that it would take a year at the most but lo and behold, I haven’t even scratched the surface of my huge storage container yet. And with a wife and children steadily demanding my attention and energy, I can barely get a moment to scan these days. But I will soldier on and post mags when I have the time.
Anyway, was any album this year better than Raekwon’s Only Built for Cuban Linx 2? I think not. You can add up every indie, mainstream, and pop album and they were all inferior to Rae’s comeback. Even the weak Dr. Dre produced songs didn’t weigh down the album too much. Overall, 2009 was a great year for music whether you value quantity or quality. Will 2010 be even better?
Crazy story. Yesterday afternoon at about 12 noon, me, wifey and the children went shopping at Whole Foods down on 20th and Callowhill. My wife was making me pick out pears and yams and as I’m strolling past the citrus juice and dairy section, here comes Black Thought whizzing by on his phone headed for the cheese section. Funny thing is that, something told me to wear my heavy duty all black Okayplayer hoodie that morning because it raining like crazy outside. So I mentioned this to my wife while she was picking out soy milk and she didn’t believe me. Little did she know that I always seem to bump into The Roots members at food establishments and this was my third or fourth time bumping into Thought. It’s uncanny. I explained to her that way back when the Okayplayer website first got started (I actually remember discussing the whole design and layout of the original website in my apartment in U. City, back in ’98, with the person who originally set it up), I bumped into Questlove, in mid ’99 I think, as he was walking out of this same market when it was named Fresh Fields. I stopped Quest cold in the parking lot with his bags in hand and his companion looking me and up and down, to debate his ‘classic’ review/rating of Mobb Deep’s The Infamous on the site because I considered it (and still do) a 4.5 out of 5. I was so upset that day, that I called him by his first name out loud in the parking lot and shocked the ish out of him. Y’all know that I can debate something I feel strongly about with no fear or hesitation. Anyway, so Black Thought was wearing a very stylish hat just like the one I was wearing (see pic above) but my wife initially saw him from the back and didn’t believe it was him because he was wearing…pajama pants!?! I couldn’t believe it either. One of my all time favorite MC’s wearing pajama pants outside? At first, I was thinking, “I must be too old or something” but I think me and Thought are the same age. But you’d never catch me wearing pajamas; much less outside! I had to actually stop myself from saying something to him about it. For real. I had an entire old man speech rant planned about how we both grew up on Kool G Rap, Public Enemy, The Krown Rulers, Boogie Down Productions, Three Times Dope, Big Daddy Kane and Rakim and that this would never happen with them. My wife distracted me while she waited until Thought stopped to buy some baked fish or chicken at the prepared foods section to get a good look and then agreed that it was him. I had planned to congratulate him on that Late Night show and all but with the pajama pants issue, the baby hanging all over me and my son begging me for apple juice, I had no energy left. Funny that I caught him peeping out the Okayplayer sweatshirt I was wearing, twice, as if he wanted one for himself.
Have any of you noticed the requests for access to this site on the Wordpress site? Leeches are very rude and selfish people. I’ve deleted and replaced about 40 people here since November because some people just don’t like to comment but love to download. Just so you know, I may be deleting your access soon, too. To avoid this, stop leeching and leave comments. Simple, right?
That’s it. Happy New Year.
