9 Albums That Built Me

The hashtag #9goodalbums was going around social media a while back and I figured I'd finally give it a whirl. This list is supposed to contain 9 good albums that "built me," and generally I stay away from these things because I hate limiting my influences/favorites. 9 spots could never actually cover the albums that had a major impact on me. Inevitably, a few great ones are left off, but so be it. Gotta start somewhere.

The following albums are mostly from my youth. There have been incredible albums in the last 20 years, but I've found that with most people (myself included) the most "influential" music is generally that which you first fall in love with.

Motley Crue - Girls Girls Girls

A "Best of The Beach Boys" cassette is one of my earliest memories of music. I think it was my parents' tape, but I grew very attached to it. I loved their intense positivity and vocal harmonizing. It always felt like I was being whisked away to a California beach when I listened to them. I even had a Beach Boys windbreaker. 

My Dad also had several "Best of Motown" cassettes, with the greatest hits from each year of Motown's heyday. Between that and listening to the Oldies station on the radio during long car rides, I was exposed to a lot of older music, which I'm very thankful for. As I grew up, I was able to see the influence on current music, and even recognize some samples and reconfigured melodies.

Most of the stuff I listened to as a very young kid could be described as "pretty" and melodic. Then came Motley Crue. I saw a video (probably Smoking in the Boys Room, from their previous album) and it opened up a whole new world of possibilities. It was the anti-establishment, don't give a fuck attitude I didn't even know I needed. These were hard rocking, long haired weirdos with motorcycles and girls all around them, the essence of cool to a prepubescent boy. 

I loved Motley Crue for a while. They rocked out, they had singable hits, they were fucking crazy...Nikki Six was literally dead from a heroin overdose, paramedics revived him, and he went right back for more heroin! That's a rock star!

I don't think I was even "into" girls when this came out, but this album let me know that liking girls was cool. It also told me that long hair, leather, motorcycles, and smoking in the boy's room were cool, but somehow, those things never caught on with me.

DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - He’s the DJ, I'm The Rapper 

This album changed my musical direction for good. I had enjoyed some rap songs before this point. I liked Run DMC, some Biz Markie, Tone Loc. But I was still mostly into Motley Crue and Van Halen. When this album and its videos came out, hip hop took over my musical preferences completely.

Will's charisma and humor always got the spotlight, which coincided with the larger trend in hip hop of MCs starting to take the spotlight from the DJs, who were always top billing up to this point. Technically, Jeff even had top billing in this group, and with good reason: he was a phenomenal, one-of-a-kind DJ. Without his backing, Will Smith may never have been the global megastar he is today. The Fresh Prince persona brought people in, but Jeff kept them coming back. Despite the success of Will's solo music career, the quality of his later music just never compared to his Fresh Prince days.

This album has the obvious hit singles (Parents Just Don't Understand, Nightmare on My Street) but the album cuts are the true gems. Here We Go Again, Brand New Funk, Charlie Mack - First Out the Limo. Insanely fun jams that still hold up. Then there was Human Video Game with Ready Rock C doing beatbox versions of Sanford and Sons underwater....just awesome stuff. Live at Union Square gives a good glimpse of how well Will and Jeff rocked a crowd, and how well they represented the fundamental elements of hip hop.

As silly and "commercial" as Fresh Prince could be, this album is truly iconic, a highlight of 80s hip hop that withstands the test of time.

Leaders of the New School - A Future Without a Past

This was an incredibly influential album in my life, which I purchased because I thought Scenario was on it. I ended up buying The Low End Theory for Scenario, and that is one of my favorite albums of all time (which I didn't include here because I talked about it enough already) so it all worked out, and I learned two things: always check the track list, and you can never go wrong when Busta Rhymes is involved.

Ok, maybe not never.

Similar to Fresh Prince, these guys were funny as hell. This album took on some serious issues (Just When You Thought It Was Safe, Too Much on My Mind), but always with a smirk and a snap about your mother. They all had their own identity and style, but on this album everything meshed perfectly. There's a 12 minute outro where they thank people in their lives and shout out other rap groups, and I could still sit and listen to the whole thing.

A few years later, Busta Rhymes began his ascent to hip hop superstardom. Sadly, they only have one other album together, which is also good. I always loved Busta (he blew my mind on Scenario) but Chalrie Brown may have been my favorite. Pinocchio's Theory is such a bizarre and awesome song. And Dinco D is still underrated.

Gang Starr - Daily Operation

I heard Take it Personal on BET Rap City and I was transfixed. How could this mellow, smooth-voiced short dude sound so menacing? My head was bobbing uncontrollably and I wanted to hit someone over the head with a pool cue for stuntin on me. The scratches on the chorus were beautiful; besides Jazzy Jeff, I had never heard scratching sound so majestic. The beat was hypnotizing, with those interjecting piano keys looped throughout.

Then I heard Ex Girl to the Next Girl, with those horns? I had to have the tape.

But there was a problem. It had an Explicit Lyrics sticker (Thanks Tipper Gore!) and I was 11 years old. When I went to the mall with the family, I split off and went to Sam Goody, where I quickly purchased it (thanks, non-caring Sam Goody employees!) with the money I made weed whacking. Then I carefully peeled off the sticker before showing it to my parents. Honestly though, it was barely explicit. It had a few swears, but I think labels were just tossing stickers onto every rap album.

This album also introduced Jeru the Damaja and Group Home, artists I loved for a while. Gang Starr made a couple classics after this (Hard to Earn, Moment of Truth) but there's a special place in my heart for this album.

Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers

Whew. Enter the Wu-Tang. What the hell was this? Do people understand what it was like to hear this album in 1993? Like nothing I had heard before.

I heard M.E.T.H.O.D. Man a few times, including once at a roller skating jam at Bulkeley High School that my mom must've been chaperoning because I was still in middle school. It was cool, and Meth had that star charisma, but it didn't stand out that much. But then came Mystery of Chessboxin. The video. The beat. The lyrics. Mindblowing. It was like the comic books I loved and kung fu movies I had seen on Saturday afternoons coming together to create an atomic bomb of awesomeness. They had the same attitude and vibe as Motley Crue, except with timbs, jeans, and hoodies instead of leather pants and long hair. They had the same energy and cohesiveness as Leaders of the New School and A Tribe Called Quest. There were so many different styles and voices that you were bound to connect with at least one.

This album was hard as hell, but what often gets overlooked by hip hop albums deemed "gangster" or "street" is the humor. Try not to laugh during the "torture" skit. The Coen Brothers can barely do dark humor that well (one of my favorite movies ever is Fargo, which came out 3 years after this). There is wit and a dark humor throughout the album that better illuminates the tragic realities these guys were exposing. And the music...the grittiness, the grooves, the sound effects....everything combined to create this pure, unique musical experience that has still never been matched.

Their next album is also a classic (and the two after that are good) and several of the members have classic solo albums, but nothing could ever match this album's impact and appeal. Soowoo! 

Redman - Dare iz a Darkside

This is one of my all time favorite albums and Redman's entire persona and discography is hugely influential to me.

From the album cover (a reference to Funkadelic, which I didn't even get until years later) to the red cassette tape, to Redman's frenetic energy, absurdist humor, and magnetic charisma, I can't say enough about this. It came out my freshman year of high school which was not a good year for me overall. Redman provided me with a much needed release. I could lose myself every time  I put on my headphones and listened. But I could also find myself. Thanks to Redman and especially this album, I realized I could be different and weird and upend expectations. This was a departure from his previous album (which is also great) and was met with a lot of skepticism and criticism. But the music and the man were undeniable. This was who he was and the music he wanted to make, and you were going to love it.

After this album, he made several more classics, which sold even better, and he shot to superstardom with Method Man. When Redman made it, I felt like a part of me had made it. I mean, watch his Cribs episode and tell me you don't love that guy and want to root for him forever.


Outkast - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik

For a while, I didn't want to believe Southern rappers were good. I liked Geto Boys but that was about it. Hell I barely gave West Coast rap a fair shot. Nothing could beat the East Coast!

Then came Andre and Big Boi, putting all that to rest. Their accents and their vibe and the local references I didn't quite understand drew me in. All of a sudden, the notion that geography mattered when it came to music seemed absurd. At 13/14 years old, "cool" meant more than anything, and these motherfuckers were cool. They had taken the mantle from Motley Crue and rock stars. They even made Atlanta Braves gear seem cool and I hate the Braves!

They, Andre especially, grew increasingly weird over the next albums (all verifiable classics) but the quirkiness was apparent here. They embraced their black, Southern culture completely and wore it as a badge of honor. And they were so cool and confident that the mainstream had no choice but to embrace them eventually.

I love all their albums (except the Idlewild soundtrack, which was still decent) but this and Aquemini are by far the most influential. Aquemini was a staple at college. They had grown so much as artists and people, yet the're chemistry together was even better; they were diving deeper into personal and social issues, and they were even weirder. To be honest, I could have put Atliens or Stankonia here, too. But this is where it all started, so it gets the nod.

Mobb Deep - The Infamous

I was 14/15 years old, unhappy at school, going through puberty...I needed something, I didn't even know what it was. It turns out, I needed two teenagers from Queensbridge to make one of the most sinister, neck-breaking, face-punching hip hop classics of all time.

Mobb Deep had Outkast's coolness but with a side of menace. There wasn't much quirkiness or humor either. This shit was dark. The beats somehow made you want to simultaneously zone out and think about the meaning of life while punching everyone who ever wronged you. I refused to wear any boots besides Timberlands for a decade because of this album. This album sounds like a harsh winter spent in an alley playing cee-lo for shots of Hennessey. This album sounds like teens working through depression in an unbelievably harsh environment...because that's what it was. And it is beautiful. 

Danny Brown - XXX

I had to put this on here because this album was the beginning of a new era in hip hop to me. The late 2000s were particularly slow/weak for hip hop. There were some solid acts out there, and some veterans still making good music, but it had grown pretty stagnant. I had gotten really into downtempo/trip hop/instrumental acts like Bonobo and Blockhead. Rappers were starting to bore me. It was on Blockhead's blog where I first heard of Danny Brown. Blockhead was raving about him. I then saw a few other blog posts doing the same, and I finally checked him out.

He was definitely unique. I didn't take to his music right away, and I think he purposely makes it not easily accessible, especially beginning with this album. But I dug his originality and wit and overall vibes. Then I gave this album a focused listen, and it finally hit me. This was what and who I had been waiting for for a decade, at least since ODB passed, or since the last proper Outkast album dropped. Hip hop had life again. Excitement. It was breaking boundaries.

During the recording of this album, Danny was dealing with turning 30 and reflecting on his life...at the same time I was turning 30. I can't exactly say I lived a similar life, but I could definitely relate to the emotions he was expressing about getting older, worrying about running out of time, worrying about whether he'd ever be good enough, etc.

Plus he was just funny as hell. And once I got used to his high pitched yelp, I could hardly listen to any artist with a regular voice anymore.

Although Danny was 30 and had been making music for years, he was still part of a "new school" of rappers that I discovered around this time. After hearing XXX, I wanted to check out what other new artists were doing, and I discovered Schoolboy Q and Black Hippy, Roc Marciano, Freddie Gibbs (all artists who Danny has worked with). My faith in hip hop was restored. Thanks Danny!

I Love You All...Class Dismissed. 

Reactions, Retractions, and Re-reactions

So we've all seen the videos of the MAGA kids and the Native American man in DC, then we've all seen the pushback claiming we didn't see what we saw, then maybe you saw the main kid making the rounds on TV saying he has nothing to apologize for, or you saw Trump tweeting they did nothing wrong. The entire incident is mind-numbing and such a perfect microcosm of the bullshit we've all endured for the past 2 and a half years.

Let me start with this: in my opinion, the longer videos change nothing. The MAGA *cough cough Klan cough* hat wearing kids were disrespectful and mocked the Native. The initial angry response to the incident was a response to that, and the fact remains that many people see it as disrespectful. But, "disrespect" is a matter of opinion. Maybe you saw the kids' actions as racist and disrespectful, maybe you saw their actions as simply typically assholeish for a group of kids, or, maybe you didn't see them as disrespectful at all. I don't see how that's possible, but it's still all a matter of opinion.

And yes, there was more to the story, and more is added to the story every day because as a society we'd rather focus on shit like this than something more meaningful. Part of it is that we feel helpless to change meaningful things (all of my calls to Senators and angry videos have done nothing to end our government's treatment of immigrants or our multiple wars) so we rant and rave about shit like this. And here I am, still doing it. But I think that as ridiculous as the whole situation is and how far out of hand it has gotten, the incident is illuminating, and I'll try to make my final say right here.

First off, there was a group of Black Israelites harassing everybody there. Black Israelites are out of their minds in general and they were definitely in the wrong here. As anyone who has walked past them in NYC or any other major city, the best way to deal with them spouting nonsense is to ignore and walk on by. They initiated the entire problem, and that is important to understand, but again, doesn't change anything.

Secondly, some people responding to the initial videos absolutely took it too far. There is no reason to post these kids' names and addresses online. For what? Are you going to go harass kids? Threaten them? They were being little shits, they didn't hurt anybody. I'm all for protesting at Mitch McConnell's house, he's a public official doing harm with his policies, but you don't harass and threaten dickhead kids. You make a video yelling at them and keep it moving!

Thirdly, there is a larger societal problem with people reacting to things without fully thinking them through or knowing the whole situation. On social media there is an imperative to be the first to say or post something, which means a lot of people don't fully verify what they are saying or posting. Of course, that's usually what goes viral, not the facts. However, the facts of this incident don't change my response to the kids' behavior.

Fourthly, the media and people on social media did get some things wrong. Many people thought Nathan Phillips was just sitting there and the kids surrounded him. That didn't happen (that certainly would have been worse). Some outlets called him a Vietnam vet (I did as well) but he said he was a Vietnam-era vet in his interview. CNN then ran with "Vietnam Vet." Hey, maybe Trump is right about CNN being shitty? *insert broken clock metaphor*



So now for the incident in question. Nathan Phillips was there for an Indigenous People's March, and the MAGA kids were there for a March for Life. They both had a right to be there. (There's a whole other article to be written about Catholic schools letting kids wear political paraphernalia on a school sanctioned trip, and the fact that Catholic schools bus in kids for an anti-abortion event, but that's for another time.) Black Israelites were there (maybe for the March for Life? they actually hold beliefs that align much closer with Trumpers than liberals or any other group) to start shit, because that's what they do wherever they go.

As I see it, Nathan Phillips walks up between the two groups (MAGA and the Black Israelites) to diffuse things which seemed to be getting out of hand. Some people think he never should've done that, but that's what peacemakers do, take initiative before things get worse. No other adults were being responsible, so he took it upon himself. He's clearly not aggressive (unless you really hate drums, I guess). Now, the main kid (Smug Smirker) claims he was personally trying to diffuse things. So he stood in Phillip's face smirking while the rest of the kids chanted and laughed and acted like asshole kids. It's certainly possible Smug Smirker wasn't trying to disrespect him, but that's exactly how it looks, and many other kids are actively mocking Phillips, so it's hard to separate one possibly non-disrespectful kid from a group of his disrespectful friends right behind him.

It’s also impossible to disconnect the MAGA hats from what it has come to represent. History and culture and politics frame the situation,which is what mostly caused the outrage. The kids can claim they're not racist (despite mocking Natives) but the hat is definitely a symbol of racism. People have literally used the words “Trump” and “MAGA” to taunt minorities across the country (and a study showed that areas that voted for Trump saw an increase in bullying in schools). Also, Trump’s policies are directly harmful to minorities, including Natives. Not to mention, Trump himself constantly insults people, even using Native names as insults. Teens and kids may not make those connections, but it’s the same as wearing confederate flags on their clothes: they might not fully understand the implications but that doesn’t erase the implications. I'm sure part of wearing the hat is being seen as rebellious (although supporting a guy who controls the federal government is not exactly rebellious) but it’s not like they're wearing a weed shirt or an offensive band name. MAGA means something specific. Trump has been consistently racist throughout his life and as President, and if you search #MAGA on Twitter, its not exactly a bunch of people talking about equality and world peace. So for most people, its impossible to separate all that hate and actual harmful policy from a kid wearing a MAGA hat.

I know many people treat politics like a reality show or sports and just cheer on their “team”, so to them, getting offended by a MAGA hat just means you're too sensitive and they "won" somehow. But politics actually affects people. People aren't upset by the obnoxiously ugly hat, they're offended by the obnoxiously ugly policies and worldview it represents. Kids acting like obnoxious brats wearing that hat is an ugly spectacle, and again, none of the longer videos or hand-wringing articles change that.

Let's give the kids the benefit of the doubt and say they weren't trying to be racist (despite the school's history of racism). It doesn't change they fact that they were being little dickheads. And not understanding how white privilege works doesn't mean you don't benefit from it. These little white kids, even with chaperones from a Catholic school there with them, are allowed to be little dickheads with no recourse. In fact, not only are they allowed to act like that, their actions are then defended by their parents and the entire right wing media industry. The smug smiles and laughter just symbolize that white privilege that they will always be able to use to belittle people with no accountability. I don’t like to always compare and say “what if this was a group of black kids” but in this case I think it’s enlightening to picture that. A group of minority kids surrounding a white veteran and acting like dicks would have brought the National Guard out. Laura Ingraham would still be ranting and raving about the failure of the entire black culture.

So that's my reaction and response to the initial situation. The kids were acting like dicks and were representative of the shitty behavior of the political movement they support.

But of course the story didn't stop there. Conservative media was not going to let these white kids get ridiculed and judged! It's not like they were in a school shooting or something: it's perfectly okay to mock school shooting survivors, or even call them actors! It's not like they were killed by a racist loser, it's perfectly ok to mock that dead kid, too!

An avalanche of defenders came through immediately. There was a longer video that claimed to tell a different story (it doesn't) and right wing media sites published articles about how the media got it wrong again (it's hilarious to me how right wing media outlets claim that they are not a part of the mainstream media. Guys, when you have White House press credentials, YOU ARE THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA! Fox News still claims its not part of mainstream media, and it gets the highest ratings!). Then, because mainstream media is obsessed with "both sides-ing" every single situation no matter how obviously one-sided something is, they all published articles claiming that "we all rushed to judgement!" (we didn't). CNN was on the front lines pushing back against criticism of the kids. Of course, CNN neglected to mention that the Smug Smirker kids' parents hired a PR firm started by a CNN pundit. Whatever! The story now became "Media got it wrong! White kids can't be racist!"

Other media sites were quick to publish a retraction so they could claim to be objective: "We show both sides of the story, you can trust us!" they all rushed to say. Except, this "non-biased objectivity" doesn't always lead to the truth. Think of the Obama birther conspiracy. Instead of just saying it's bullshit, mainstream media always framed it as "many people think that Obama was not born in the US" because they didn't want to upset crazy conservatives. In this incident, they rushed to say there was more video, but didn't explain how that changed anything. They just wanted to cut off any criticism for "not showing the whole story."

So the kid is now making the rounds on the talk shows, and the President himself chimed in (of course) to say that media is the enemy of the people. He even invited them to the White House! Sarah Sanders said she's never seen people try to ruin kids lives like they did with these kids from Covington. This is a woman who works for an administration that tore toddlers away from their parents and locked them up in cages. This is a woman who works for a man who called for the execution of 5 black teens despite them being found innocent. Spare me the tears over these asshole kids.


All of this just serves to solidify the issue that most people had with these kids in the first place. We knew, (just like they know) that these kids would always have this cloak of invincibility, the white privilege that would defend their right to act like assholes. That is what the "smirk heard round the world" symbolized: "We're gonna do whatever we want and we'll get away with it; in fact, we'll be considered the victims." And here we are.

Even many liberals are buying into this new narrative because they don't want to be seen as biased (this is a weakness that conservative media always exploits: conservatives are not concerned with bias in their favor). They also want to believe that these kids couldn't be that bad. They want to believe that the younger generation will always be more progressive. They also see their own kids in these kids. Revising the story  reassures them that these kids weren't actually all that bad. They need to believe that everyone is redeemable. Well, I believe that kids are redeemable, but only if they are taught how they were wrong in the first place. That's not happening here, and it's also a larger problem in society. We seek to forgive people before they've actually earned our forgiveness.

Since we're all taking a deep dive into this story to remove any "bias," let's keep diving. Take the reaction of one of the parents: they immediately blamed “black Muslims.” Again, the Black Israelites were in the wrong, but its says a lot about people who can't distinguish religions and label a fringe Christian/Hebrew religion as "Muslim." It says something about the mentality of the parents, which is reflected in the kids. (The story I linked to earlier about the school's basketball fans in blackface also says a little about their mentality: some people really don't see blackface, or saying the n-word, or doing tomahawk chops at a Native, as racist.) There were also videos showing the same MAGA kids harassing girls. But we don't need to know any of that to know that what they did in the original video was wrong.

I think a lot of people deserve criticism here (the Black Israelites, parents, kids, chaperones) but it’s interesting to me how quick people are to excuse the actions of young white men, whereas minority teens are held to adult standards (minorities are charged as adults way more often than white kids). That's actual racism, but to many white people, there's a belief that being called racist is on par with actual racism.

These kids act like assholes, then act like victims and say they have nothing to apologize for, and their parents and entire media outlets agree. On the one hand, they say kids need time to grow and learn from mistakes, on the other hand they're saying these kids made no mistakes. Which is it? I absolutely think kids need to have room to make mistakes and learn, but the problem is, judging by their response and their parents’ response, they will never learn. They did nothing wrong, people judged them wrongly for it, now they are the victims: that's the lesson they're taking.

If you take all politics and history out of the situation (I mean, you can't and shouldn't do that, but let's do it for sake of argument) it's just a bunch of kids being asshole kids. Shitty, but not enough to become a viral video or to write an article about. The situation became bigger because history and politics and culture do matter and are involved in every situation whether we recognize it or not. There's a reason people get offended by a white guy saying the n-word and not a black guy. That's because of history and culture and politics. One is acceptable and one is not. A white guy can certainly try to go around saying it and using black people's use of the word as a defense (some guys do!) but most people will see him as the clueless dickhead that he is. These white kids can say they were just laughing and chanting and staring at a Native man while they’re all wearing MAGA hats, but to most people who have paid any attention to what Trump has done, the MAGA hat itself is a provocation.

So I do think it’s important to look at the whole picture and situation before judging, and in this situation, the more I look at it and look at the history and politics that are intertwined in the moment, it still pisses me off even more. The more I look at the media's reaction, the less hope I have for Truth in the future.

But yeah, the kids lives shouldn’t be destroyed, and they wont be. I can't wait to watch Smug Smirker's inevitable daily show with Tomi Lahren!

I Love You All...Class Dismissed.