Before I list the songs from my latest mix, I have to share the background.
Ever since I was a little shooter, I’ve always loved making mixtapes. It started on Sunday nights, listening to the “Shadoe Stevens Top 40,” trying to seamlessly tape songs without Shadoe’s “Holllllyyyywooood Squuuuuares!” voice. The countdown seemed to be exactly the same as the Casey Kasem countdown on Sunday morning, but for whatever reason I would only tape “Givin’ Him Something He Can Feel” by En Vogue during the nighttime broadcast.
I sat with my one-speaker stereo (the One Touch Recording box), faithfully taping the songs through my incredibly advanced and sophisticated 10-year-old ears (I’m being sarcastic, but “Life is a Highway by Tom Cochrane still holds up.) A couple years later, my brother bought a CD player that I could record to tapes. I was in heaven. I’d scour over stacks and stacks of CDs and cassette singles in order to provide the perfect music for my walk to the school bus, or more realistically Richfield Intermediate School because I always missed the bus. (Seriously, my fifth-grade teacher Ms. Johnson gave me an alarm clock because I was always late. But since it was the old fashioned analog clocks with the ticking and the alarm bell, my brother promptly threw it against the wall on about the third day of use. So the mixtapes had to continue.)
My friend John had what seemed to be thousands of cassettes that his brother passed down to him, so there was always another outlet for music if whatever I was taking from my brother became stale (it was actually about 50 or so tapes, but they were all stacked alongside each other on a desk, so you could look at every single one in the collection.). Johnny’s house would be the first place I would see/hear records like Ice Cube’s “Amerikkka’s Most Wanted,” Paris’ “Sleeping with the Enemy,” GangStarr’s “Hard to Earn” or Masta Ace Incorporated’s “Born to Roll.” Our anthem was “Aint no future in your frontin’” from MC Breed. ….It always makes me chuckle to think of these really young, suburban white kids (us) rocking out to music like Public Enemy and other groups with such strong, unrelenting political messages (Paris, early Cube.) Maybe the music stuck because it was incredible music, message or not. I mean, we weren’t running out to grab X-Clan records. Anyways.
I kept making tapes, eventually coming up with the brand name “Phat Beats and Dope Rhymes.” (Original, isn’t it?) All throughout middle school, junior high, high school and even freshman year of college, I used that name for my mixes. When CD burners hit the market, I saved up money and copped one so that I could create compact discs with jewel case covers and everything.
Well, eventually I stopped making covers because cases died off when it because logical to dump all of your music onto a computer. The covers stopped, but the mixes continued, using dates instead of numbers. A new name also emerged, taken from The Coup song, “Me and Jesus the Pimp in a ’79 Grenada Last Night,” a song from a nameless mix I made when the tabs on my white Grand-Am expired. (The lyrics: “Aint gon mash too fast, cause my tags aint right…” It’s also an incredibly transcendent storytelling cut. Get familiar.)
Hence, I give to you “My Tags Aint Right” – April/May 2007. These aren’t exclusive songs by any means, but just some tracks I’ve come across that are hot. Some are new, some are old-school and some are just ones I’ve been feeling lately. And this whole “I posted a mix on iTunes shit is just too easy for people who never really cared about making a mix in the first place. Like someone once said (link), “There are rules.”
Anyways, enough self-indulgent babbling. Enjoy.
De La Soul – Keeping the Faith
Great start to the day.
Maroon 5 – Makes Me Wonder
Yeah, I know this seems like an odd fit. But I was really feeling this on a “P.Y.T” vibe when I first heard it. Now, not so much.
Musiq Soulchild – B.U.D.D.Y.
Uses the same drum sample as Ini Kamoze’s “Here Comes the Hotstepper,” so there is a brief loss of originality points, but if you’re looking for originality with someone who named himself “music,” you’re in the wrong place. Decent R&B cut.
Sa-Ra – Hey Love
Really jazzy, laid-back vibe. Cut from the Slum Village mold. Listen to them here: http://www.myspace.com/saracreativepartners
Common f/Bilal – Play Your Cards Right
The Game f/Kanye West –Wouldn’t Get Far
Murs – Silly Girl
Amy Winehouse f/Pharaohe Monch – Rehab (remix)
Rich Boy f/Andre 3000, Jim Jones, Murphy Lee
T.I. – Top Back
A song made for the summer (well, last summer but still). With new music coming from TIP, I went back and threw this on the mix. If this doesn’t make you put your windows down and roll with your elbow out the window, it’s never going to happen for you.
UGK f/OutKast – International Players Anthem
Devin the Dude f/Andre 3000, Snoop Dogg – What A Job
Slow, southern acoustic drawl from one of the most slept on artists in hip-hop history. Flawless bars from Andre 3000 about downloading tracks and meeting fans in the street.
De La Soul – Thru Ya City
Redman f/the Def Squad and Biz Markie – Walk In Gutta
Eh. I’m still waiting for this to grow on me. It hasn’t.
Birdman & Lil Wayne f/Rick Ross, T-Pain – Know What I’m Doin
Redman f/Nate Dogg, Snoop Dogg – Merry Jane
Ne-Yo f/Jay-Z – Call Me Crazy
2 Comments
May 1, 2007 at 9:35 am
Only Ms. Johnson would actually give you an alarm clock in fifth grade. I lived across the street and was always late….she kicked me off the Crossguard and told me that she got phone calls from college admissions ALL the time inquiring about incoming students fifth grade attendance. What is now obviously a fabrication led me to seriously question my future success. God she was mean. I am so happy to have found a forum where I can finally denounce Ms. Johnson’s deceitful ways!
On a music note, I too spent hours in my room making mix tapes. I particularly remember a three month period of putting Gangster’s Paradise on each tape at least three times….that or Montel.
May 1, 2007 at 10:35 am
Blasphemy! Ms Johnson was great!
She gave me a savings bond at the end of the year. And if you believed that colleges cared about fifth-grade attendance, then you deserved to be told that. haha.
I liked her style. And at our fifth-grade graduation, I inadvertently roasted the entire school year. I think Mike Dokken still has a tape. It was pretty legendary.
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