I don't know why but I woke up the other daying singing some Young Black Teenagers songs. I hadn't listened to the album in a long time either.
This is straight-up, fun, tongue-twisting, old school rap for you this week on What!?! Wednesdays. I'm not going to quote any of the lyrics here. This one just needs to be heard.
So enjoy "Tap the Bottle" by The Young Black Teenagers.
Felicia: "Un-uh. I live with a guy once and trust me, it's not even close to being the same thing."
Phineas: "What do you mean, why?"
Felicia: "'Cause, she can just pack up and leave whenever sh*t hits the fan. Talk to married people. That ring, believe it or not, has got this kind of weird power."
"No drink for me. I never drink unless I'm forced to. I'm not dependent on anything. Not wine and not psychotropics. Not nicotine or caffeine or sexine or lovine. To be cold turkey in this universe of anesthetized druggies can only be regarded as heroism. That's me: A heroine without a heroin habit."
- Monique Proulx. The Heart is an Involuntary Muscle novel translated by David Homel and Fred A. Reed.
What a beautifully written passage. I wonder if it is as poetic in the original French. I don't speak or read French so I am glad that this work has been translated.
I just happened onto this novel by chance as I glanced through the shelves at the public library. I'm over halfway through it now. I'm glad that I picked it up. I have already scribbled down four more passages that I will share with you soon.
"I started rhyming just to be somebody to make people notice me at the party and not just be the new kid that's albino make em say yeah I know but have you heard him rhyme though now take that same party around the globe and my stories connected with a lot of folks I hope so cause that's the only thing I know I know it so well I tell it with my eyes closed and I go with the feeling from the start blind in the eye so I see you with my heart and to me all y'all look exactly the same fear, faith, compassion, and pain and try as we may to mask it remains such as your religion or your past and your race the same color blood just pass through our veins and tears taste the same when they splash on your face The worlds getting too small to stand in one place its like we're roommates just sharing a space can't separate and still carry the weight gotta heal get away from the fear and the hate gotta shake free from the chains you see what remains just a human being end of the day don't matter to me what name you gave your spiritual plane close your eyes and you'll see what I'm saying I started rhyming just to be somebody found out that I already was cause can't nobody be free unless we're all free there's no me and no you its just us Street preacher what a fan once called me I been called worse and tried to live up hope you don't mind a few more stories I swear to god y'all I tell em with love"
- Brother Ali from the title track to his new album that dropped yesterday.
If you don't have that album, run out and get it. I wrote a bit about it today on my other blog as well. Check it out. This guy is the best MC in the game right now.
"It's good to get really dressed up once in a while. And admit the truth: that when you really look closely? People are so strange and so complicated that they're actually... beautiful. Possibly even me."
"The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible."
- Arthur C. Clarke
Happy Monday Everyone!
Remember that if you have a dream, no matter what it is, you can make it happen. Some may say that it is impossible, but if you really want something to happen, you can push passed the limits of what is possible.
"You may think that I'm talking foolish You've heard that I'm wild and I'm free You may wonder how I can promise you now This love that I'm feeling for you always will be You're not just time that I'm killing I'm no longer one of those guys As sure as I live this love that I give Is gonna be yours till the day that I die -- oh baby
I'm gonna love you forever, forever & ever amen As long as old men sit and talk about the weather As long as old women sit and talk about old men If you wonder how long I'll be faithful I'll be happy to tell you again I'm gonna love you forever & ever, forever & ever amen
They say that time takes its toll on a body Makes the young girls brown hair turn grey But honey, I don't care, I'm not in love with your hair And if it all fell out well I'd love you anyway They say that time can play tricks on a memory And people forget things that they knew But its easy to see its happening to me I've already forgotten every woman but you --- oh baby
I'm gonna love you forever, forever & ever amen As long as old men sit and talk about the weather As long as old women sit and talk about old men If you wonder how long I'll be faithful I'll be happy to tell you again I'm gonna love you forever & ever, forever & ever amen
Just listen to how this song ends I'm gonna love you forever & ever forever & ever Forever & ever forever & ever amen"
"It's amazing how far we'll go just to maintain some measure of control. The world spins a circle within a circle and we grip so tight it makes our knuckles white. When all we really want to do is let go, lose control, fall, see where we land."
"And though equally natural and native to the expanding human mind, the narrative comes first, has spiritual priority. Very young children love and demand stories, and can understand complex maters presented as stories, when their powers of comprehending general concepts, paradigms, are almost non-existent. It is this narrative or symbolic power which gives a sense of the world—a concrete reality in the imaginative form of symbol and story—where abstract thought can provide nothing at all.A child follows the Bible before he follows Euclid.Not because the Bible is simpler (the reverse might be said), but because it is cast in a symbolic and narrative mode."
- Oliver Sacks. The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and Other Clinical Tales. HarperCollins: New York, 1985. pg 183-184
Brother Ali is a talented artist and an amazingly gifted MC. He is definitely my favourite MC out right now. It's amazing to see how he has used live musicians in the studio to record his new album. I'm patiently waiting for it to drop next month. I usually get music for free from the radio station or from digital copies that are sent to me for the show or from artists who simply want us to play them. As such, I own a lot of music that I haven't paid for. But a lot of you don't have a radio show and still get free music. A fan asked Brother Ali if it's okay to download his stuff as long as he comes to the show to support him that way. This is what he had to say.
I don't normally post the same entry on both of my blogs but I just had to repost this one here for What!?! Wednesdays.
Intelligent hip-hop is alive and well. Check out this artist. He already has classics under his belt and I really look forward to the new album "Us" by Brother Ali.
"What's amazing is when you can feel your life going somewhere. Like, your life just figured out how to get good. Like, that second."
- Angela from an episode of My So-Called Life
I've felt like this a few times in my life. I think life takes us where we need to be, and on some rare occasions we can actually feel that we are in the right place and that things will work out great.
"If you can imagine it you can create it. If you can dream it, you can become it."
"No drink for me. I never drink unless I'm forced to. I'm not dependent on anything. Not wine and not psychotropics. Not nicotine or caffeine or sexine or lovine. To be cold turkey in this universe of anesthetized druggies can only be regarded as heroism. That's me: A heroine without a heroin habit." 
"In our paintings, our thoughts, our words, and our stories we have learned to imitate creation and make creation conscious of itself."
"It's good to get really dressed up once in a while. And admit the truth: that when you really look closely? People are so strange and so complicated that they're actually... beautiful. Possibly even me."
"The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible."
"An honest work of art is always an act of social responsibility."
"It's amazing how far we'll go just to maintain some measure of control. The world spins a circle within a circle and we grip so tight it makes our knuckles white. When all we really want to do is let go, lose control, fall, see where we land."
