The 90's in Music but Not Really

Hey everyone.  I know it's been a while since I checked in with this blog thing.  It's not like I disappeared.  Most of my readers I get from Facebook anyway and I chime in there or on Twitter from time to time with quirky jokes or something I think is funny, but I can't fully be myself in 140 characters or less so I thought I'd write a blog to get you all caught up on what's been going on.  Since I last wrote I moved into my own place.  I am living solo for the first time ever, which is different.  I usually have something to do but not every night.  Alright writing about myself is pretty boring.  I will say that I've been trying to live as 90's as possible.  The music was so much better in that era you know.  From gangsta rap to the beginnings of grunge to the Latin invasion and boy bands of the late 90's; almost all of the music is better than this Lady Gaga Glee stuff there is now.  The rappers just repeat everything over and over again.  They don't tell a story which is all they did back in the day.  I mean has Drake or whoever else is big now ever heard A Tribe Called Quest album? 

The Low End Theory, A Tribe Called Quest

#154 best album of all time according to Rolling Stone Magazine

They don't even know what rap is.  I'm no expert and I know the 90's had groups like Kriss-Kross and feel good songs like Jump, but the feel good music now comes from LMFAO and The Black Eyed Peas.  That's crap.  Music has lost it's soul in this new millennium.  I don't want Nicki Minaj up in my ears.  Give me Lil Kim or Lauryn Hill. In 1990, I was 5 years old with my whole life ahead of me.    I grew up in the 90's and had some of the best times of my life, bicycling all over Dayton.  I would hunt for snakes and go fishing at Belmont Lake.  I loved the Ninja Turtles and later the Power Rangers.  My family really liked country music during this time, so I grew up listening to Dwight Yoakam, Garth Brooks, Alabama, and Sawyer Brown.  My other roots came from exploring on my own.  As most of you know I love writing poetry.  No I'm no helpless romantic Fabio looking guy trying to romance women by writing a few sweet lines.

My poetry is me.  It's hard to explain unless you've ever gotten a poem from me, but they are serious with funny one liners here and there.  This stuff I'm blabbing about, well not blabbing, actually typing about, has nothing to do with my original point which is I love poetry.  I really enjoy narrative poems.  I think this is what got me into rap music.  Back in the 90's most rap music told a story, like many rock and roll songs did as well.  Nowadays, rappers just say f*ck this and b*tch that.  Their rhymes have no substance.  Sure the pioneers of rap music cussed now and then but it wasn't just to say the words.  It was to emphasize what they were spitting about.  Rappers nowadays are a dime a dozen, but there are few MC's anymore.  Anybody can rhyme cat and hat and be a rapper, but an MC puts on a show.  They make the audience feel. They run the show with talent and skill and now I'm getting off track again.  I'm trying to write about 90's music influences and I keep slipping into these webs I can go off on and I have commentary on but let's get back to what I'm meaning to speak on.  How is this even about music anyway?  Is this blog about music, or everything 90's?  The alternative rock genre also took off in the 90's.  It seems like every hit came out of this genre.  R&B also took off in the 90's but never gets as much attention on any throwback stations.  If you ever turn on Pandora, you'll hear Smells Like Teen Spirit or Runaround, when playing a 90's station, but how often do you hear Lately by Divine or I Don't Have the Heart by James Ingram?   Until recently I never really got into the R&B hits of the 90's but once my ears were turned to these songs I really believe this genre is underrated in the whole scheme of 90's music.  There are a lot of cliche songs from the 90's.  I mean who doesn't know the words to Gangsta's Paradise, I Swear, or Iris? Cliche or not, all of the songs had substance that today's music seems to lack.

Winner of the Day: Anybody who goes by 3 names.  I realized most of them are awesome.  This is in honor of a great loss we had.  We recently lost Michael Clarke Duncan.  I heard that if you knew his full name when he was out, he'd give you a $5 bill on the spot.  Other great three named people include James Earl Jones (Mufassa and Darth Vader voice) and Billy Bob Thornton.

Loser of the Day: Replacement Referees in the NFL.  They can't catch a break.  Without them, there would be no football.  With them, the calls are horrendous and the games are getting as long as baseball.  Let's get a contract and get the real refs back out there.

Quote of the Day: "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." -Aesop

Song of the Day: I Don't Have the Heart by James Ingrim

Thought of the Day: Be yourself.  Never change who you are for anyone else.