Old School Friday — Never Would of Made It

This week’s theme T.G.I.O (Thank God It’s Over) in honor of this week’s historic election of President Barack Obama! My pick is Marvin Sapp’s “Never Would Have Made It”. Though its not technically old school, I thought it was appropriate. We did it yall! We did it!

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Old School Friday: Gett Off!

This week’s theme is His Royal Badness, Prince Rogers Nelson. Now everyone knows lil man is really prickly about his videos being posted on the web. I found a performance from the 1991 MTV Awards where he’s literally shows his behind performing “Gett Off”. Hopefully, I won’t get a visit from his legal dogs for posting this performance. But anyway, here it is.

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Old School Friday: Road Trip Songs

This week’s OSF theme is road trip songs. My pick is “Award Tour” by A Tribe Called Quest. The Midnight Mauraders cd was in constant rotation in 1994. I was in graduate school in Maryland and use to drive six hours to go home every so often. It was Tribe’s best CD in my opinion and I would listen to it repeatedly on those long road trips.

From the same CD “Electric Relaxation”

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Old School Friday — It’s Disco Baby!

This week old school video theme is Disco! My pick is the late, great Andy Gibb! I had a major crush on him when I was in 4th grade. I thought he was dreamy. I even remember watching him on Solid Gold back in the day. I was so shocked when he died at 30!!! in 1988. Here is Andy in his hey day with “Shadow Dancing”.

andy gibb – shadow dancing
Uploaded by kareem93

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Old School Friday — Politics

Its Friday baby! Time for Old School Friday. This week’s theme is political songs and how timely. My picks for the week are:

KRS-One “Sound of Da Police” — Whoop! Whoop! One of my favorite jams off of the “Return of the Boom Bap” cd. “Sound of Da Police” and “Black Cop” were contstantly playing on my boom box back in the day. And with the recent Sean Bell murder and mockery of a trial, this song is still relevant today, unfortunately.

Tupac “Changes” — RIP Tupac! Amazing how over a decade later lyrics like “there’s war in the streets and war in the Middle East” are still relevant. However, I hope there is no truth to the lyric “we ain’t ready to see a black president”. I often wonder what role Pac would play in hip-hop today and in this Presidential election.

Marvin Gaye “Inner City Blues” — Classic Marvin Gaye and again the words still resonate today.

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Old School Friday: It’s Only Rock-n-Roll But I Like It!

This week’s Old School Friday theme is Rock music! As much as I love me some hip-hop and R&B nothing beats a good kick ass rock song. So here are my picks:

Queen — We Will Rock You. All hail the late, great Freddy Mercury. No one could belt out a straight up rock song or a ballad better, than Mr. Mercury. Here he is performing with the rest of Queen at Live Aid in 1985.

AC/DC — Back In Black. The opening guitar riff and Brian Johnson’s screeching vocals make this a headbanger anthem! Love it!

AC/DC – Back In Black
Uploaded by hushhush112

Living Colour — Cult of Personality. Living Colour showed how hard brotha’s could rock. While Bad Brains and Fishbone came before them, Living Colour were able to obtain mainstream success and sell lots of records.

Living Colour – Cult Of Personality
Uploaded by krematoria

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Old School Friday — It’s Rick James Bitch!

Okay so the title is a so 2005. Whatever. Anyway, this week’s Old School Friday theme is Motown. My pick is one of the funkiest musicians to come from that label, Rick James. The late, great James Ambrose Johnson Jr. aka Rick James was one of the popular Motown artists during the 70s and 80s. In fact, James 1978 debut “Come and Get It” was the first cassette (yeah, cassette) I ever owned. I was 9 and my mom bought it for me to go with the funky new orange cassette player my Grandmother gave me for Christmas. The drug and sexual references were over my head at the time, and I have to wonder what my mom was thinking when she bought it for me. Anyway, here is Rick singing “Mary Jane” live on The Midnight Special with the late, great Wolfman Jack:

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Old School Friday — Break Up Songs

TGIOSF — Thank God It’s Old School Friday!!! This week’s theme is break up songs. While I was trying to think of some great break up songs, I started thinking of some my own personal breakups while I was a single girl. Unfortunately, I tended to be the one kicked to the curb than the one doing the kicking. Which can make you a little salty. Fortunately I met someone who kept me from becoming completely bitter. Anyway, I dedicate these picks to my past boyfriends who didn’t realize a good thing when they had it, but I really hope their happy now (seriously, I really do LOL!).

Kelis — “Caught Out There”: This was my jam! And such a different sound for R&B at the time. Unfortunately, she didn’t live up to her potential. Much like husband Nasir Jones (but that’s another post).

Alanis Morisette — “You Oughta Know”: The best break-up anthem of all-time regardless of genre. This song was angry, sarcastic, and just plain hard core! My favorite line — “Did you forget about me, Mr. Duplicity, I hate to bug you in the middle of dinner, it was a slap in the face how quickly I was replaced and are you thinking of me when you f**k her”. Talk about raw emotion. Love it!!

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Old School Friday: Ice Cube "Check Yo Self"

This week’s Old School theme is old school hip-hop. In my previous post (more like rant) I used the Ice Cube song “Cave Bitch” to express my sentiments. So I decided to stick with my man Cube for my pick this week and select “Check Yo Self”. This is when Ice Cube was at his peak! The song featured Das Efx who had every rapper putting “iggity” in their lyrics. The video continues where “It Was a Good Day” left off. With the work drama I faced this week, some rhymes by O’Shea Jackson definitely fits the bill.

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Old School Friday: The Sylvers

This week’s old school theme is kid groups. My pick is The Sylvers “Boogie Fever”. The Sylvers were a group of nine brothers and sisters who had a string of hits back in the 1970s. The Sylvers consisted of Olympia, Leon, Charmaine, James, Edmund, Ricky, Angie, Pat, and Foster. Foster was like the Michael Jackson of the group — the cute little brother who garnered most of the attention. Oldest brother Leon was an incredibly talented producer who wrote and produced songs for The Whispers, Shalamar, and Lakeside. I think my first album was the Sylvers album with “Boogie Fever” on it. And I even had a little crush on Foster. I have no idea where the Sylvers are these days, (although Edmund died of lung cancer in 2004) but thank God for YouTube where you can see them in all their polyester and afro’d glory.

Check out other old school friday posts at:

• The Marvalus View
• Mind of Marcus
• Black Kool
• Electronic Village