First of all, I would like to note that a cat walking around on the keyboard makes it rather difficult to type. Just something to keep in mind.
The very observant among you may notice several posts in the recent past that have a title that begins “One AM,…” Those of you who have been around me when I’m really tired, and who have seen the insanity, crabbiness, and general lack of humane and genteel behavior that results from my being awake until all hours of the day and night may think this is a bad thing. You would probably be right. If prior posts weren’t clear, I hate Exchange.
But on to other things.
One of the advantages of many late nights is free time to both read books that I enjoy, and to listen to music that I haven’t heard in a while. Right now I’ve got Common’s “Like Water for Chocolate” playing in the background. I’d forgotten how distinct the sound of the late 90′s was — Common, Kweli and Mos Def, Hi-Tek, they’ve got something in their music that’s just not, well, common. In the past few years Common has gotten more play as a cross-over artist, selling himself on the basis of a rock/gospel/etc influence (which, truth be told, is just as clear on “Like Water for Chocolate” as it is on “Electric Circus”) and collaborations with a variety of folks. But his rhymes circa 2000 are amazing.
PS. I have this memory of a Common lyric that goes something like “Chillin’ at the Medici / listening to myself on HPK”. I don’t think I’m making that up from whole cloth, but I also can’t find it anywhere…anyone have any idea what I’m thinking of? And where I could find it? I’m feeling the need for a dose of Chicago memories at the moment…
August 30th, 2005 at 12:26 pm
Hi I,
the first line that pops to mind is from common’s “resurrection” album in “nuthin’ to do”: “back then HPK was the only station that would fuck with rap.” which also has the line “took the 6 instead of the 28 to get home faster.” that would be back when he actually lived in chicago. a great album, though.