It's the Songs You DON'T Hear All the Time - LL Cool J & Me | MUSIC is not a GENRE - Episode #12
SUPPORT ME ON PATREON\n\nWATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE\n\n\u201cI Need A Beat\u201d \u2013 \u201cI Can\u2019t Live Without My Radio\u201d \u2013 \u201cRock the Bells\u201d \u2013 \u201cGoing Back to Cali\u201d \u2013 \u201cBig Ole Butt\u201d \u2013 \u201cJingling Baby\u201d \u2013 \u201cAround the Way Girl\u201d \u2013 \u201cMama Said Knock You Out\u201d. Anyone who knows classic hip-hop \u2013 second & third wave in this case \u2013 knows LL Cool J. And if you know LL, you probably know at least one of the songs I just listed. (Lemme tell ya, his greatest hits CD is ON POINT.) Well, I happen to have a 12\u201d of an album cut from his first LP, Radio, which is this here selection. Only true LL fans would know these two songs. And to be honest I had to relisten to both cuts to remember what they were. But as soon as I did, it all came flooding back.\n\nWhen you hear a song that you & everyone else has heard a thousand times, the connection to its original ear erodes little by little. I can hear or perform \u201cI Melt With You\u201d, and at this point I no longer FEEL 1983. Still love the song, but it\u2019s been totally unmoored from its 80s anchor point. BUT the songs you DON\u2019T hear all the time \u2026 those still retain the intense connection to their original time. You feel them as strongly as you did then. These two LL songs do that for me. The sparseness of their production \u2013 a la early Run-DMC & Beasties (who were also produced by Rick Rubin) \u2013 brings up images of the clothing and the dances. The lyrical content & delivery bring back that feeling of someone speaking directly to me in a way no one else had. I can only feel those things with songs I haven\u2019t heard as frequently.\n\nThe great thing about great music is that, no matter how many times you listen to it, it\u2019s always good. And quite often the more you listen to it, the better it gets. It\u2019s how I absorb music. It\u2019s how I create music. You may have heard one of my songs once. You may have liked it. I can tell you this: Listen again. And again. And even again. You won\u2019t just like it. You\u2019ll understand it. You might even love it. Here\u2019s a song clearly inspired by LL and that era, with a lyrical theme that says the same damn thing:\n\nREC - \u201cThe Power of Repetition (Everlasting)\u201d (from the album Syncopy for the Weird)\n\nWhat classic hip-hop were you into? What songs of ANY genre do you consider special to you because you DON\u2019T hear them all the time? Discuss dammit!\n\n\n--- \n\nThis episode is sponsored by \n\xb7 Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app\n\nSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/musicisnotagenre/support\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices