Can It All Be So Simple?

Earlier in the school year I began my next business venture: selling lyrics to my classmates.  I can't really remember how it all began, but penning lyrics to songs was something I had done since early elementary school when I got super heavy into Michael Jackson and had to know every word he was blessing me with.  I attribute at least 75% of the blame for my deterioration of my hearing trying to really learn those hard lyrics; blaring the sound until things suddenly became more clear.

This was not my most successful business venture, not because of a lack of fun or customers.  Demand was fine.  I wouldn't have been able to do more.  But I charged only a couple bucks per song, and if you get a song like "Look Into My Eyes" by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony than you are stuck for days, shit, weeks for just a few lines - I wouldn't turn down the challenge:

I would made much more loot doing the dreaded yard work, but I didn't look at it as something I was doing for money - I was going to know the words to half of these songs anyway based on my own spins, why not get geeky with it and put some sort of pressure on me?  

"Triumph" was beginning to get spins on the radio and demand was HIGH for the lyrics - more so than any track Puff Daddy, B.I.G., or 2Pac released during the time, primarily due to the fact it was a LONG track; 9 emcees (10 if you count ODB's intro).  Many of the lyrics were more difficult to understand; less cut and dry, quicker pace, more prevalent similes/metaphors, and several members that lyrics make it pretty easy to decipher.  I wasn't going to learn the words without the album; there was too much profanity blurred out in the video/on the radio.

I copped the double disc from Schoolkids and was careful riding it home, bag dangling from my bike handle.  The double disc had a thin cardboard cover before you got to your typical album case and I couldn't let the corners get bent.

One of my favorite Raekwon verses of all-time. Really is something serious.

Disc 1 could have been it's own release and whoop the mess out of 95% of albums that dropped that year.  A mentioned "A Better Tomorrow" as the first Wu song I really fell in love with, but there are some other golden songs on the disc, namely "It's Yours" (Prod. RZA):

One of my favorite RZA-produced track gets set the hell off with Raekwon.  How good is this guy?  Seriously, I have to really get down to a top 10 (20, 30, whatever it ends up being) because I am excited and nervous for how high I will have him up there.  After U-God, RZA, and I.N.S. come through with all solid verses...the beat breaths for a bit and then Ghostface comes through with a typical Ghost verse; not the most deep, not the most complex, but unbelievably entertaining and that stands for a LOT in my book.

I like "Reunited" is another great track from Disc 1, although it didn't have any of my top 3 members on it so it wasn't quite a favorite.

For as solid as Disc 1 did in my book, Disc 2 is a better disc to me.  A first gem, "Bells of War" (Prod. by RZA):

Another terrific track is"Heaterz" (Prod. by True Master), which serves as just another reason why Raekwon is one of the filthiest emcees there is or has been. The dude is so multi-dimensional. He can come at you many, many different ways and all work:

And finally, the aforementioned "Triumph" (Prod. by RZA):

This really is one of my favorite quotable hip-hop songs of all-time, no other way to put it.

Wu-Tang Clan is really something quite special. To me, you have four top 25 lyricists: Raekwon, Ghostface, GZA, and Inspectah Deck.  Method Man, U-God, Masta Killa, and the late Ol' Dirty each bring/brought a different dynamic to group and are all solid enough to have dropped classic content on their own.  In RZA you have a lock city top 8 producer of all-time who's style fit perfectly with the sound of the lyricists.

It's the greatest conglomerate of emcees we have ever seen, and yes, it's just that simple.

"You Can Call It Band Practice"

Up to this point in my life my hobbies remained static year to year: basketball, video games, pro wrestling, and music.

But this WAS 6th grade, no better time than now to branch out. 

My grandfather on my father's side of the family played his sax every day I was at his house and also had a pretty sick manual accordion that I used to get down on (real low).  My mom played the piano several times a week since we had moved in to the new house a few years back.  I loved listening to all kinds of music, save country.  Annnnnnnd....I had heard that all the cool kids from the neighboring elementary schools joined the band.  How bad could it be?

Nevermind testing various instruments to decide which I would use.  I liked the trombone because I really just wanted to sling that thing  around and bounce up and down.  The perfect space clearer.  And so that's what I went with.

My mom dropped me off that morning; there was absolutely no way I could carry this huge instrument on the bus the very first day - I'd be toast and ultimately would be forced to defend my honor.

When I got out of the car, I asked a random faculty member as to the whereabouts of the band room - I had to get rid of this thing before too many people saw.  

As I looked around I couldn't help but notice that I may not have been the biggest man on campus in a figurative sense, but you best believe I was literally.  Even so, I was still younger at heart and always had a way of respecting those above my years when it was warranted.

The first day felt surreal; I knew no more than two kids in each of my classes and the teachers looked funny.  The whole changing classes really messed with my head too (in time I learned to love it to break the monotony).  There also seemed to be too many options at lunch; I froze up in the line and ended up only getting a brownie which I coupled with two bags of Hot Fries from the vending machine. 

But it was now time for the last period of the day....BAND!

As I entered the band room I couldn't help but feel like it was a party.  There were probably a hundred kids in the room that day.  Every seat was taken, some taken by two, and there was now no standing room.  Everyone was incredibly loud; I tried not to love it but I couldn't help it.  I would say 60% of the class knew each other from elementary school, so I already felt out of the loop.

Luckily on this day there would be no playing, just logistics.  Justtt logistics.  As we were going through our rules and expectations, I couldn't help but to let out a mini-yelp when I read that we were required to take out instruments home NIGHTLY for practice.  Are you kidding me with this?  What was I going to do? 

That first afternoon, the bus was just packed.  We had at least five kids who got on the wrong bus, and NO ONE missed the first day of school.  I was at a disadvantage because, that morning, I was unable to stake my claim by forgoing the bus for the car.  I was also carrying a second person with me in a huge black case that wouldn't really sit down when I asked him to do so. 

I made eye contact with each kid I passed.  I didn't know how far to take us both back.

Although I was bigger than these kids, there was hate in many of their eyes, so I avoided them so as to not conjure up my own shortcomings.  I finally found an aisle spot occupied by a Hispanic guy, "M", who was taking a nap, face pressed against the window; the perfect spot to get my partner out of the aisle before any more kids came on board.

Inside I had hoped that every afternoon M would be asleep in this manner to avoid having to look for other aisles.  That wasn't the case though.  More often than not, M would be sprawled out over an entire seat, Timbs slightly in the aisle (I saw him in fresh Air Max's maybe three days, the rest Timbs).  No one really messed with him, and he didn't talk to others.  M was quiet and subtedly dark; I understood that.

Each morning was simple, there were no crowds on the bus...it was the afternoon that I dreaded more in my quarter century here.

To make matters worse, as everyone else was getting infinite times better on their instruments, I still sounded mediocre at best.  Mediocre was a tag at this stage in my life I was not able to be.  If I had been a really strong player I would have fought through the bus issues, but it just wasn't happening.  Also, the trombone was gross to clean.  I tend to slobber and there was always just a lot of un-goodness down in those tubes.

I never regretted leaving band.  I had such a pep in my step now and felt untouchable.  Some time has passed and I had earned my keep on the bus.  I knew the trombone had to go and it went; my sacrifice to the bus gods.  I still hadn't spoken a word to M, but NOW...oh...NOW I would.

You see, M had been listening to the same album since the first day of school, Wu-Tang Clan's second studio album, Forever.

I had smash-hit "C.R.E.A.M." on the radio and television many times, and also heard a few other tracks off the group's first album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), but I didn't own the album. 

I would say I had a small background of the Wu.  What was I missing that caused M to bang this album every single day?

M never shared too many words, but I felt like if we did talk that we would get along.  So I spoke in his "words" aka actions.  I pulled out my headphones and a headphone splitter, sat in the seat right behind him, looked over the seat and insinuated with my eyes that I wanted a taste.  He looked up with an are-you-an-idiot? look before changing his tune after we made eye contact.  M unplugged his headphones, input the splitter, and hooked us both in.

He restarted the song that he had currently been listening to before I joined, "A Better Tomorrow": 

 

Thank the hip hop heavens that he restarted the song, as Inspectah Deck (first on the mic) just dominates, shedding his thoughts on his daily trife life at a more macro level:

"It's hard to keep control, I bless those who seek a scroll
Trying to reach a whole nation and break the sleeper hold
Not a role model, I walk a hard road to follow
I sold bottles of sorrow then chose poems and novels
The gospel was told, some souls it swallowed whole
Mentally they fold, and they eventually sold
their life and times, deadly like the virus design
but too, minute to dilute, the scientist mind"

Verses by Masta Killa, U-God, RZA were all dope, followed up by a Method Man I didn't know really existed at the time.  He only had 12 bars, and that was plenty for him to go nuts:

"As we dwell through this concrete hell, calling it home
Mama say, take your time young man and build your own
Don't wind up like your old dad
Still searching for them glory days he never had
So many bad want to scheme for American dream, no more kings
The cash rule everything now, we going down
These babies looking up to us, it's up to us
The Million Man March MC's, get on the bus
But envy, greed, lust, and hate, separate
Though the devil mind state blood kin cannot relate
No longer, brothers, we unstable
Like Kane when he slew Abel, killing each other"

Just as exciting as the obvious lyrical prowess, the production was very, very serious; almost mind-numbing.  Deep...dark...melodic.

After just one listen through I knew what kept M coming back for more and more, as I was left with the same very feeling.  There was only thing to be done...I had to pick up the album as soon as I could. 

-To be continued-  

Article title comes from "Band Practice 2" featuring Median and Phonte off 9th's The Wonder Years, which I'm pretty sure is my favorite album over the past several years.  I need to let it simmer though but my goodness.