The Grunt

My musical tastes vary from hip hop, r&b, soul, gospel, funk, old school, some pop, some rock, you name it. Well, except country and metal.

The topic of today is “old school”. There are many songs out today that sample from old songs, which I’m still learning. You have your regulars that are easy to pick out, but sometimes, you may have a favorite song, and may not even recognize the fact that the current artist sampled the beat of an old song until you come across that song. You may come across the original in a commercial, in which companies have started using old tracks for advertising, or a tv show. I’m still finding out that some of my old school favorites are actually covers of OLDER ones.

In honor of VH1’s “Hip Hop Honors”, for several days, VH1 Soul played some nostalgic hip hop videos. These artists are the pioneers of the rap/hip hop game and it’s important we pay homage to them. As I age, gracefully, I forget that those younger than me didn’t come up with Big Daddy Kane, Kool Moe Dee, LL Cool J, Run DMC, KRS One, BDP, Get Fresh Crew (Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh, Kwame), Sugar Hill Gang (a lil before my time, but well known in my eyes), Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Salt n Pepa, Oaktown’s 357, JJ Fad, MC Lyte, The Real Roxanne, Roxanne Shante, YoYo and so on and so forth. I know I left out many good ones, but you get the point.

I urge people to delve into their hip hop history…notice how I said “Hip Hop”, not “rap”. There IS a difference. Well, I can give two differences: Quality & Content, besides the obvious contributors to what defines “hip hop”. Anyway, if you haven’t heard of some of those artists, take a listen, use all the (legal) downloading services to do some research.

Same for other genres…funk. Parliament, Gap Band, Cameo, Kool & the Gang are all groups that made a mark in funk music. The J.B.'s, George Clinton, James Brown…look into these people, turn off the same ol crap that you hear everyday on the radio for just one day and listen to music that gave you the urge to move your feet, bob your head, dance in your seat at work, turn it up loud in the car, dance in your car seat.

Listen to the old school that you don’t hear everyday on your local “old school and today’s r&b” stations. Listen to some B-Side music. You’d be amazed at what you find.

Listen, Learn and have a Funky Good Time...