I’m going with a few hip hop legends this week, none of whom have been featured yet. Today’s first artist is one of the earlier hip hop groups I was introduced to. There certainly were quite a few listens in the Fastenal with Chavez’ days.
Outkast “Aquemini”
I’m not sure how it has taken me 30 blogs to get here, but those two dope “boys” (now respected hip hop elders) are finally here. I find myself with headphones on constantly for work but was listening via Clip speaker when Stacey walked into my office the other day. She was coming to tell me something important I’m sure, but we got distracted taking a moment to appreciate this song that was playing.
Aside: Outkast reminds me of a particular assignment for Spanish class in college. My professor was a grad student from South America who loved the incredibly popular at the time song, “Hey Ya”. She disappointedly mentioned not understanding any of the words they were saying. She tasked us each with translating the song into Spanish, and encouraging us to perform it for the class. (hint: I didn’t perform it)
“Más frío que ser genial”. Indeed.
The Pharcyde “Runnin'”
I got this inspiration for this week’s blog from a typically unlikely place, a software developer demoing a random app feature. One of the iOS guys was sharing his screen, typically a rookie move vs sharing just a window, and “happened” to have his Spotify open in the background. The huge white font “The Pharcyde” snapped me back to listening to today’s first song on repeat in college.
So shout out to Vlad, who won’t be seeing this, but sent me a cheers emjoi on slack when I thanked him for the nostalgia.
Fun Fact: This track, like many hip hop classics, is produced by J Dilla
De La Soul “Pain feat. Snoop Dogg”
A few more artists needing no introduction, but still getting one, De La Soul and Snoop Dogg collaborated on this one track from 2016. All parties involved have been making hits for decades, but it was nice to discover this chill record made within the past 5 years.
The video is pretty entertaining too, but be warned, there are some emergency broadcast type interruptions in this version. I’m down for the classic TV motif, but like cop sirens, loud attention getting safety sounds shouldn’t be paired with otherwise enjoyable songs.
