Intern Chick

I couldn't have been more than 4 years old.  I heard this song one year around Christmas on the radio and there was just something about it.  I had to have it.  My mom went to every store our small little city had, asking for a version, ANY version, of this song.  It was the impossible quest, but she found it eventually.  I can still remember what the cover of the cassette looked like, and I played it relentlessly.  I can't say exactly what the reason was, maybe it was all those instruments being played so loudly all at once, maybe it was the passion the choir sang with.  This was my first favorite song, and began the never ending quest for the next song that gave me that feeling.

I don't know what it was about Christmas when I was little that got me into music more than the rest of the year (ha), but my parents had this song on vinyl, and I can remember what the cover looked like.  I loved his voice.  Nat's voice instilled a very early love for classic crooners in me, and made me become very aware of the fact that music of the past was not to be overlooked.  I still have a deep appreciation for singers like him, Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, Tony Bennett, and countless others.

This was one of the first CDs I got.  Boyz II Men was also the first artist that I fell madly in love with.  I still remember the first time I heard Boyz II Men, my sister had their CD "II" playing on her stereo and the song "Thank You" was playing, I was an instant fan. As soon as Shawn Stockman's voice comes in on this song, I felt everything I ever wanted to say but didn't know how.  The song is on some Mike Jones "back then they didn't want me, now I'm hot they all on me," sh*t.  I was young and knew nothing about this, but it spoke to me.  I knew I had never heard people sing harmony like that, I didn't even know it was called harmony then!  This song is why I want to do the A&R thing, and why I've wanted to do it since the time I was 6 or 7.  I wanted to hear more artists like Boyz II Men, I wanted to be apart of the making of that music; I wasn't going to let it go.  Even now, when I start to get discouraged, I throw this song on and instantly remember why I'm here.

I wanted to list Junior M.A.F.I.A.'s "Player's Anthem" here, but my first introduction to Biggie was his video for this song.  I can still remember that brown hat and jacket he wore, and seeing him sitting in that booth in the club, exuding cool.  This wasn't my first introduction to Hip-Hop, but it might've been the first rap video I saw, definitely the first one I remember seeing.  I couldn't get that beat out of my head, and his whole look in the video stayed imprinted on my brain.  I wanted more of this coolness he so easily carried with him.

I think I saw the video for this before I heard the song.  I remember when Tupac (and Biggie, for that matter) died, and I remember being kind of shocked that one day he was here and the next he wasn't.  This song came out a few years later, and this was probably the first time I realized how talented he was; I couldn't ignore this song, as soon as the the sample from Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is" dropped, I was all ears.  I became aware of 'Pac's lyrical ability and the way he rapped about how bad things were but was able to uplift his listeners by urging them to do something about it.  That spoke to me, loudly, and made me appreciate Hip-Hop for what it was meant to be in its purest form:  a positive outlet for social commentary and change.

There you have it, my list of songs that left me with something I still carry today.  There are more, but I wanted to keep it short, because I could talk about music forever.  Two others that I won't get into...."I Used to Love H.E.R." by Common, and "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five (two songs every Hip-Hop fan should know and love)