Intern Chick

You know those people that have "favorite quotes" coming out their ears (and maybe their mouths)? While I'm not one of those people, I somehow started this Memo in my Blackberry where I add in any quotes I've come across while going about my everyday life that mean something to me. I didn't think I really cared about it until one day I accidentally deleted it and was extremely upset. They aren't your typical quotes that you copy down from some painfully corny website with whiny Muzak playing in the background. I take them from magazine articles or interviews, books (fiction and non), a few from songs, and some just from regular conversation. I have nothing else to write about, so I'll let these speak for me--and you can quote me on that... Which one is your favorite?

1. If people aren't laughing at your dreams, you aren't dreaming big enough.

2. Luck is what you have left over after you give 100%

3. Contemplate compatibility before commitment.

4. As long as the music has the true to the heart soul, it can be Hip-Hop. As long as it has soul to it, Hip-Hop can live on. - Tupac Shakur (from a rare interview)

5. In the end, I've found that flying solo is difficult but not impossible -Victor Manuelle (interview with Billboard Magazine)

6. 'Stressed' spelled backwards is 'desserts'. (who's with me on this one??)

7. Never work for money, make money work for you.

8. Without resistance, there is no growth. Without growth there are no good and bad moments. Without good and bad moments, there are no special moments or lessons learned.

9. If crime doesn't pay, does that mean my job is a crime? (This should be the motto for every intern, and its probably true)

10. The higher your goals are and the bigger you dream, the smaller your competition becomes. - J. Cole (first artist signed to Roc Nation)

11. When you know you're going to make it; when you know you're destined for something and you believe in yourself, you have to keep telling yourself its coming or else you'll start to doubt it. - J. Cole (from an interview)

12. Stay far from timid, only make moves when your heart's in it, and live the phrase "sky's the limit." - Notorious B.I.G. (from the song "Sky's the Limit" feat. 112)

13. Envy can be a positive motivator. Let it inspire you to work harder for what you want.

14. 90% is your business, 10% is your talent.

15. There's no association of people wanting to see others do well in this space. They think that if someone else is doing well, they must not be. They're stealing their ability to do well, and to me, that is sad. - Lyor Cohen (on the state of the music industry in an interview with The Source magazine)

16. You have to love what you do to really make things happen. - P. Green

17. Specialness, excitement, and emotion are what resonate. - Ralph Lauren (as quoted in Vogue magazine)

18. Stay up. Be aware. Be innovative. Let's keep making this shit interesting. - Jay-Z (from an interview with XXL Magazine)

19. One reason you work hard to be the best is so the people you're up against see right away you are. You make 'em believe they can't beat you, and they can't. - Tabitha King (from her book "One on One")

20. On Earth, our dear ones do live on through those of us to whom they were so very precious. (A personal favorite of mine)

Add your own!

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)