Side A
Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz-Deja Vu (Uptown Anthem)
Jay-Z feat. Amil & Ja Rule-Can I Get A...
Marvin Gaye-Sexual Healing
M. Doc feat. Cristina-Free
Citizen King-Better Days (And The Bottom Drops Out)
Nirvana-Rape Me
Bush-Machinehead
U2-Sweetest Thing
Whitney Houston & Mariah Carey-When You Believe
The Roots-Datskat
The Roots-Swept Away
Seal-Dreaming In Metaphors
Side B
Beastie Boys-She's Crafty
BLACKstreet feat. Mya, Mase and Blinky Blink-Take Me There
Sublime-Santeria
Lil' Kim feat. Puff Daddy-No Time
Seal-Fast Changes
The Offspring-Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) (Remix)
Soul Coughing-Circles
Cracker-Low
Lauryn Hill-To Zion
Neutral Milk Hotel-King Of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1
Led Zeppelin-Kashmir
Thanks to my brother's hip hop collection, I could pretty much have any song I wanted in its unedited form. I had yet to even consider buying my own CDs since it already took enough for me as a jobless kid to buy $1 blank cassettes. If he left his CD case laying around, I would try to record as many songs as I could because there was no telling when he would grab it for his own use, which explains why hip hop tracks will sometimes be bunched together for at least the next few volumes.
Since my brother was always buying new stuff, he wasn't as interested in a lot of his older CDs, so he sort of just let me have them, which included some hip hop and R$&B classics and even non-urban stuff like Seal and Hootie & The Blowfish (yep, that was his CD and I hope that doesn't embarrass him). This was a very formative time for me as a listener since I was able to embrace hip hop further on my own. Aside from the few cassettes I'd get for birthdays and Christmas, I did not have many opportunities to listen to albums on my own. About a third of the hip hop I was exposed to came from hanging out with my brother and my cousin, who both bought the latest releases with regularity. The coming mixtapes will give a good idea of how much my brother's library had an impact on me and The Collection.
One of the first big discoveries from my brother's stash: The Roots - Swept Away
I was familiar with The Roots and their single from a few years prior, "What They Do" off Illadelph Halflife and their latest one, "You Got Me," was starting to gain some traction around the time. Little ol' ignorant me thought that Illadelph was their first effort, so I was pretty puzzled and excited to see Do You Want More?!!!??! among my brother's CDs. Overall, I was impressed with the songs and the musicianship in general, which was even more of a novelty in 1995 than it was in 1999. One of the tracks that immediately took my attention was "Swept Away" since I probably thought it was the most chorus-oriented song on the album.
Song that made me wish I had more money so that I could buy CDs: Lauryn Hill - To Zion
I used to listen to Sound Opinions faithfully back in the day when it came on WXRT. I relished the concept of a radio talk show devoted strictly to music and tuned in every Tuesday night from 10PM-12AM (or however late I could stand to stay up). On this night, the two hosts, Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot (the music critics for the Chicago Sun-Times and Tribune respectively), were discussing their favorite albums of 1998. Kot had The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill as one of his picks and shared "To Zion" as one of the key tracks. I had yet to hear the album, but with me being a big Lauryn Hill fan I bought just about every magazine cover she was on and I had read countless reviews of the album, so I was already familiar with the back story of the song. I could even tell you what to expect, from Carlos Santana's guitar to the high note she hit at the end and also a few lyrics here and there. As much as I knew about the song, my expectations were still exceeded. It was just as good as any of the singles up until that point and it was every bit as passionate as I imagined. It's always a rare treat whenever you can grab an album track from the radio, so naturally I replayed it a lot since I couldn't afford the CD. If anything, it just made me want Miseducation that much more. At least now I could hop into a few conversations at school about the album.
Oh, and I also got this one from Sound Opinions that night too: Neutral Milk Hotel - The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. I
DeRogatis' #1 album for that year was In The Aeroplane Over The Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel. I was sort of familiar with it since I read his top ten in the Sun-Times, but when he went into the description of Elephant 6 and how trippy their music was, I was instantly intrigued and ready to press record. For me, it was one of the more abstract things my ears had heard at the time. Years later, I bought the album and grew to love it.
Another track I had no idea that was a cover at first: M-Doc feat. Cristina - Free
When I was young, I thought this melody was so vibrant and original, then I found out it Deniece Williams did it first and I understood why it felt so timeless. To me, this version was possibly the greatest thing ever because it was rare to hear melodies that soaring over contemporary R&B production. I've come to appreciate Williams' take on it more over the years, but back then you couldn't tell me one wrong word about this track.
Song that was better than it had any right to be: BLACKstreet feat. Mya, Mase and Blinky Blink - Take Me There
Even with the talent surrounding this track, I'm sure on paper that a song sampling the Rugrats theme would cause some skepticism. Such a description would have excited me enough to give it at least one listen, but my hopes would not have been high. The results turned out to be as charming as anything that was on radio at the time and I think the right decision was made to focus on reminiscing about childhood for this song. It definitely made me smile often.
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