Music is the
evolution of emotion. By placing emotions in a more acceptable form, music has
taken on a face that allows men and women, parent and child, black and white,
US and UK, etc. to come closer and understand one another. Like it is commonly
said, music is universal so it speaks to everyone’s soul
I collect music and have a vast collection of CDs around the 400 mark now. I used to work at Best Buy selling music for years and now I make a living as an engineer. Still I remember making my own acid jazz mix tapes and blasting my boom box on campus in front of the cafeteria. DJBJ or Lyrikal is what they called me. I write poetry and continue my search for the best in 'progressive' hiphop and neo-soul musicians. Music inspires the best of my poetry and I've quite a collection of those as well as proof.
Please remember, everyone’s opinion of the same song or artist is different due to their own experiences and tastes. My soul leans towards funk, soul, and jazz first and foremost. I’m not the truest of hip hop fans only because it was frowned upon in my household (until I was old enough to buy my own music). I listened to a lot of jazz greats as a kid like Miles Davis, George Benson, Nina Simone, Coltrane, Brubeck, etc. as well as blues and soul powerhouses of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. My hip hop experience really didn’t kick in until Heavy D, Tribe, and Public Enemy came through so I’ve had to double back on hip hop classics like Grandmaster Flash, Rakim, Whodini, etc. I was a child of the 80s so I like that 80s sound when most radio stations played the exact same music. The Police, James Ingram, Michael McDonald, New Edition, The Jets, Madonna, Micheal Jackson, Janet, Gloria Estefan, EWF, The Maze, Eurythmics, Prince, Terrance Trent-D’Arby, and more.
I had strange tastes as a kid so it will be reflected in what I listen to today. Though I don’t like pop, I still feel some of it since pop really surged in the 80s. Nowadays I’m into what is considered ‘Neo-Soul’ now. Like the artists who have been labeled that have said, I don’t like that label. I look at it like this. Music for me was so dead and unappealing in the 90’s that it wasn’t even funny. I bought new artists albums and quickly resold only to find 2 or 3 songs that I ever liked on the album. As a result, I rebelled and stuck to buying jazz. I really didn’t get even get into Prince until his “Diamonds And Pearls” days only to find out that I had missed hours of bootleg songs and good CDs. A lot of the new artists today, like Common, Mos Def, Outkast & Dungeon Family, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, D’Angelo, and the rest of the Soulquarian team, are pushing the envelope of their respective genres of music which is bringing in fresh new sounds that are still building on the true greats of yesteryear. On top of that, their collaborations inspire greatness in fellow artists they work with who like the sound. As a result, the late nineties up til now have seen an influx of great new artists and albums taking hip hop and funk into the mainstream more now than ever. Like these ‘neo-soul’ artists say, their sound is just soul music or just REAL music. Not computer generated, looped, borrowed, or laced. Just soul and funk.
My Personal Fav Artists
Hip Hop
1. Mos Def
2. Talib Kweli
3. De La Soul
4. Little Brother
5. The Game
6. The Roots
7. Foreign Exchange
8. Outkast
9. Goodie MOB
10. Common
Soul
1. Prince
2. D'Angelo
3. John Legend
4. Kelis
5. Brandy
6. MeShell N'DegeOcello
7. Amel Larrieux
8. Erykah Badu
9. Raphael Saadiq
10. Dwele
Other Favs
1. Missy Elliott
2. Brand New Heavies
3. Marcus Miller
4. Res
5. Rhonda Smith
6. Rage Against The Machine
7. Linkin Park
8. Will.I.Am
9. Gwen Stephani
10. Sting
