The ’90s Loved Rick James

Welcome to February on DLT90s, where I’ll be remembering an album you mighta heard of called All Eyez On Me , speakin’ on the great DJ Premier, and for Valentine’s week, dropping my 25 Favorite Love Songs of All Time. And speaking of all-time, today would have been the 63rd birthday of one of the baddest muthafukkas of all-time… one of the best-singin’, best-lookin’ muthafukkas you ever seen… hold my drink, bitch.

R.I.P. Lady T

Unfortunately, DLT90s returns on a sad note. Yesterday, Mary Christine Brockert, better known as Teena Marie, passed on at the age of 54, after falling asleep on Christmas night and being found by her daughter Alia Rose the following morning.

DanjLovesThe80sToo: Playing With Power

Ayyy y’all… didja miss me?! Welcome to December on DanjLovesThe90s, where I’ll be droppin’ it on a woman you mighta heard of named Lauryn Hill, the production skills of DJ Premier, and my favorite Christmas movie of all-time.

Speaking of Christmas, most of my favorite and particularly memorable Christmases were during the ’80s when I was a youngin. I changed interests every year it seemed, but one that I kept for quite a while was in video games. I was a lil’ late for the Atari craze of the early-’80s, but by the later half of the decade, I was right on time for a new system that had all the kids goin’ nutso- the Nintendo Entertainment System.

DanjLovesThe80sToo: Krush Groovin’

Around 1985, hip-hop was in the process of proving it was marketable and long-term. Anyone who thinks the mass commercialization of the music and culture just popped up outta nowhere can trace way back to that ’84-’85 era for its earliest examples. Even back then, hip-hop (and especially breaking) was being used in some of the corniest ways possible to sell products. Fruity Pebbles used it, Atari used it, even fukkin’ Alfonso Ribiero used it. But more than anyone, the movie industry started using it with an influx of low-budget “rap movies”. And maaaan, were most of them shits awful.

Da Dirty 30: DanjLovesThe80sToo

Welcome to September on DanjLovesThe90s, where I’ll be coverin’ the likes of Busta Rhymes, BlackStreet, and Fresh Prince of Bel Air, among other shit. As the fall commences, I also plan to introduce yet another new column named DanjLovesThe80sToo… which leads us to today’s entry.

The ’90s Loved The ’80s: ZAPP

About a month or so ago, I happened to be on Youtube and came across an episode of TVOne‘s Unsung, the documentary show about R&B artists of the ’70s and ’80s whose stories have rarely been told. This particular episode featured Zapp, the ’80s funk group headed by Roger Troutman. In addition to noting that my iPod was lacking a lot of their music that I liked, I also had to put them down for a future “90s Loved The 80s” entry, considering how much of their music was sampled during the ’90s.

The 90s Loved The 80s: (More) Punk Smooth Sh*t

Some of you early, early DLT90s readers might recall the first time I covered this, but I’m a superfan of them smooth ’80s R&B joints. I zone with those when I’m in coolout mode and whatnot. For that same reason, I also rock with a lot of the hip-hop tracks that sampled them during the ’90s. Truth  be told, when a newer song samples one I used to like, there’s a 75/25 chance I’m automatically gonna like it. While that’s not always the case, it helps a lot. So this brings us to today’s entry, with four more tracks from the ’90s that I hold in such esteem, which borrowed heavily from four from the ’80s that I like just as much.

Jackin’ Off!

…what’d YOU think this was gonna be about? PAUSE for the cause. Come on now- it’s still New Jack Week, and I can blog about a lotta stuff, but I doubt I’ll ever be doin’ an entry on… THAT.

Back when I was a youngsta listening to the radio, I filled up many a Memorex with New Jack Swing hits between 1988 and ’92. I can’t dance for jackshit now, but I was doin’ my best back then, although I could never get that Bobby Brown “My Prerogative” move quite right. I was also never gonna get a Gumby fade or blonde streaks or any of that craziness. Even without the crazy hair, and even when I was also crankin’ that Guns ‘N’ Roses somethin’ hard, I was all in with the NJS.

The ’90s (And Mariah) Loved The ’80s

So… today, Mariah Carey hits the big 4-0. Even though she tends to come off like the  old broad who thinks she’s still cool, and I’ve always been “blah” about most of her music, MC is aiiight with me. Matter fact, I’d wife her up if I was sure she didn’t have a drinking problem and she wasn’t wild’n out with Nick Cannon. She’s also a big ’80s R&B fan, as can be gathered by how many classic joints she’s revisited over the course of her career. There’s also that awful Glitter movie she made, but that’s neither here nor there. Here’s a few of her remixes from the late-’90s and the tracks they borrowed from.

(Oh, and don’t y’all go judgin’ me about seein’ Glitter– my niece used to fukk with that movie hard.)

The ’90s Loved The ’80s: “White People Music”

Growing up in the ’80s, once I got hooked to music, I started listening to everything. I listened to both the R&B and pop stations, watched any video show I could find on TV, the whole shit. Much to the surprise of my friends around my way, I liked a lot of what was often referred to as “white people music”. At the time, I hadn’t looked at or listened to it that way- it was all just music to me. The only real difference I knew was that there were “singin’ songs” and “rappin’ songs”. I could rock with this just as much as I did this with no problem. Unfortunately for me, I got clowned more than a lil’ bit about that shit.

Apparently, a lot of rappers and producers must have felt the same way. Along with the fact that some white artists used to be played on urban stations, some of these people seemed to have grown up equally exposed to “white people music” from the MTV era. From Method Man referencing a Hall & Oates hook to (of course) Puffy‘s use of The Police’s “Every Breath You Take”, lots of pop hits have been sampled/flipped/interpolated/etc. in the hip-hop world. It especially started happening more frequently in the last couple years of the ’90s, which brings us to today’s entry.