Old School Friday – My Theme Song

By Kevin ⋅ July 24, 2009 ⋅ 3 comments

Happy Old School Friday, everyone! This week’s theme is My Theme Song. Ok, this is the truth. Often, when I wake up in the morning (er, afternoon) and I’m faced with the day’s travails, I’ll start to feel down, like I’m just not up to the tasks at hand. I’m sure this is something most folks who read here can relate to. Here’s what I use to get myself out of that mindset: “Can I Kick It?,” by A Tribe Called Quest.

That’s all, folks. Happy OSF Y’all! Thanks for playing, and as always, much love to all the other OSF participants.

Old School Friday – The Divas

By Kevin ⋅ July 17, 2009 ⋅ 5 comments

Here I am, once again slipping in an OSF post at the last minute. This weeks theme is The Divas. Y’all know by now that when I kick it old school, I kick it real old school. So, here’s one of the originals, Billie Holiday, kicking it mellow.

And for a something a little more contemporary, I give you Tina Turner (Watch and learn, Beyonce. Watch and learn!).

That’s all, folks. Happy OSF Y’all! Thanks for playing, and as always, much love to all the other OSF participants.

Carry On, Michael Jackson

By Kevin ⋅ June 25, 2009 ⋅ 8 comments

I heard at work. First, one of our barista’s boyfriend called to break the news. Then, I received a few phone calls from customers, random people, who must have thought that being holed up in a store meant we hadn’t heard the news. One customer asked us to broadcast the news over the load speakers. Think about that for a minute. For all of his troubles, Michael Jackson touched a lot of people’s lives in a profound way.

I grew up with Michael Jackson. My siblings and I used to argue, back in the day, over who was the baddest: Michael Jackson or Prince? Truth be told, we always ended up giving it up to Prince; but we always went back to Michael. Moms would get mad at us, scared we were gonna wear the carpet down from trying to do the Moonwalk in the living room, or blow the stereo speakers from cranking “Thriller” too loudly, or give her a headache from cranking “Beat It” too loudly.

Michael Jackson – New Music – More Music Videos

And even before then, my parents had all of the Jackson 5 45s. I used to sit in my room when I first discovered the pleasure of music, with my little orange box record player and rock the hell out of “ABC,” “Rockin’ Robin,” “I Want You Back.”

Later in life, when I started DJing, I always made sure to have a Jackson 5 cut in the mix. It had become necessary, never cliche.

Let us not forget The Wiz. I grew up loving the Wizard of Oz, and seeing The Wiz in the theaters just blew my little mind. The story took on a whole new level of awesome once I saw it with brown folks playing all the roles.

Ease On Down The Road
by choucoune92

This is how I’m going to remember Michael Jackson: The joy, the pleasure, the family. Yes, Michael had his demons. We all do. That his demons were obviously exacerbated by fame, pressure, race and gender in the face of enormous fame, and many more things that I (and you?) might not ever understand will surely be lost on a lot of folks (MSM, I’m looking at you). I’m not trying to say that he was beyond criticism. I am saying that right now, I want to honor Michael Jackson for all of the joy that he has brought me and mine. And for all that other stuff, well, I just don’t know. I didn’t know before he passed away and I’m not going to pretend like I know now.

I just hope that Michael Jackson is now resting in peace.

Old School Friday – Dance for Me

By Kevin ⋅ June 19, 2009 ⋅ 6 comments

Wait a minute? Wasn’t the last OSF just yesterday? Damn if time doesn’t fly lately. So, this week’s theme is Dance for Me! Ahhh…this is a theme close to my heart. I’ve never understood those that don’t love to dance, every chance they get.

This one, I dedicate to Jay-Z. Hee hee.

Zapp – “I Can Make You Dance”

This is probably my old crankiness kicking in, but what happened to energy like this in music?

Sly and The Family Stone – “Dance to the Music”

Peaches and Herb – “Shake Yo Groove Thang”

Happy OSF Y’all! Thanks for playing, and as always, much love to all the other OSF participants.

Old School Friday – Soul Train

By Kevin ⋅ May 8, 2009 ⋅ 5 comments

So, I’ve missed the last few OSFes, but when I found out that this week’s theme is Soul Train, there was no way I was gonna let all that silly life stuff get in way of partaking. I dare you to find a black person in the United States and born in the seventies that wasn’t glued to Soul Train every week. They do not exist.

So here we go.

Al Green, “Sha-La-La.” Maybe I’m just looking in the wrong places, but my man Al Green doesn’t seem to get the props he deserves these days.

The Soul Train Line was a milestone in United States culture.

Anyone remember this jam from the Pointer Sisters? I’m beside myself!

Happy OSF Y’all! Thanks for playing, and as always, much love to all the other OSF participants.

Old School Friday – If My Mamma Only Knew

By Kevin ⋅ April 10, 2009 ⋅ 2 comments

Here my late ass is once again with the OSF post. The theme is If My Mamma Only Knew, which is especially funny to me because today is moms birthday (Happy Birthday Moms!).

Who am I kidding? Moms probably knows about that shit. Heh.

Happy OSF Y’all! Thanks for playing, and as always, much love to all the other OSF participants.

Old School Friday: If I Were a…

By Kevin ⋅ April 4, 2009 ⋅ 4 comments

Here I am, once again slipping in an Old School Friday post at the last minute. So today’s theme is If I Were a Boy/Girl. I have no idea where to go with this one, truth be told. So I’m going to take a pass and just post some general old school goodness.

Ok, so this technically isn’t old school, but it’s got that old school 80’s vibe going on, and I’m digging it. I’m currently on the hunt for more of this (props to Amanda and Samhita for the heads up).

Dj Blagstarr and Rye Rye – “Shake It to the Ground”