The Soundtrack of My Life: 1996-97

I want to begin this entry with a preface. Those who know me know that I left Howard University in July of 1995 and was at home for a year at Brookhaven College. I decided not to do a musical segment on that lost year of my life (musically) and instead jump ahead to the wonderful school year of 1996-97. However the music that I dug that year (95-96) was The Fugees, Tupac & D'Angelo. So here it goes...

FRESHMAN YEAR, Part Deux 1996-97
Resident of: Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays Hall Room 405
Hung out with: Jamal Dedeaux, Claude Williams, Mike Gipson, Rob Francis, Damon Isles, Jasuan Boone, Rhom Erskine, Kobie Smith, Simeon Woods, Drew Shropshire, Kahil Cole, Dave Talbert, Robert Barrett, Alvondo Smith, Berlin Onumonu, Dwight Bailey, Kerry Sims, Marc Germain, Keith Donaldson, Lemar Slater, Jarvone Dolby, Hassan Grant, Malcolm Turnquest, Tony Clark, Arika Easley, Jennyfer Holmes
Roomed with: Robert Barrett of San Antonio, TX
Fashion: Tommy Hilfiger, Banana Republic, bow ties ( a Howard throwback for me)
Always seen with: Someone from fourth floor Mays Hall
Fads: Sneaking beer into the dorm, horrifying the RA, pipes, videotaping our escapades, Madden 97, NBA Live 97
Dated: Amber Francisco, Devon Hosey, Melissa Haydel
Crushes: Keshia from Abby, Ivy Redd, Jessica Page, Jennyfer Holmes, Linda from Clark, Charlice Noble

Nas - It Was Written

Time: Summer 1996

Feeling: This album was a phenomenal sophomore effort despite what Jay Z says. With songs like 'Street Dreams', 'Affirmative Action', 'I Gave You Power' and the summertime street anthem 'If I Ruled the World', Nas showed that for a brief second it would be alright if he did in fact rule the world, and could do it in style. The songs were tight, the beats were live and the message once again was very penetrating.

"Black diamonds and pearls, If I ruled the world..." - Nas

OutKast - ATLiens
Okay, I got to Atlanta in August of 1996. The song 'Elevators' was as hot as Texas in July. So when I got to Atlanta, Planet 'Kast, that hotness was simply magnified. I walked from my dorm at Mays Hall through the proverbial hood to the Mall at West End to purchase 'ATLiens' from Peppermint Music. I've never laid down $18 and been more supremely satisfied in my life. From the jump, this album is a classic. It makes you laugh, cry, think, drink, dance, wiggle, shake...do any and everything to keep the music going on inside of you. Dre and Big Boi grew up after they blew up and songs like...man I can't even break it down song by song because they are all brilliant. My favorite however is 'Mainstream.'

"I'm in the house like, like..." - Andre Benjamin

Maxwell - Urban Hang Suite
Truly the smoothest album I'd ever heard at the time. Nothing more to say other than this album more than any other album during this time period was so very important to me. From the beginning of school that year, to many quiet nights in the dorm, to visiting Howard for Spring Break in '97 and beyond, I played this CD. This CD never left my roommate Robert's stereo. CD number 2 and my favorite song is 'Whenever, Wherever, Whatever.'

"Lead me on girl if you must, take my heart and my love" - Maxwell

Mackavelli - The Don Kuluminatti
Feeling: On an unseasonably cool Monday night at 11:30pm, four of my friends and I embarked on a journey to be among the first to purchase this landmark album. We rode to Buckhead to buy the album from Tower Records. The nice staff at Tower wouldn't let us in saying that all of the albums had been sold out. Dejected, we rolled down Peachtree and pulled up next to a car full of Caucasian girls from Emory who were very loudly bumping the CD that had alluded us. We asked them where to buy it, and they told us 'Media Play, duh!' We took quick right, past the Rock Bottom Brewery and the staff at Media Play was more than accomodating. We rode off back to SW Atlanta listening to the sweet sounds of Tupac and our lives were never the same. I listened to this album for most of my first year at Morehouse, and though none of the music particularly spoke to me profoundly, I loved every minute of this seminal work in music history.

"Felonies be like prophecies beggin' me to stop"

New Edition - Home Again

Feeling: There's nothing quite like a reunion album. I fondly remember the mass hysteria surrounding these guys during the mid 1980's, and the fact that every little girl I knew was in love with these guys helped me to have my first feeling of hatred towards a performer or performers. However, when this album came out, not only was I older and more mature, I took a trip to Howard University in the spring of 1997, that was the equivalent of going home again.

"People who know, say you can't go, home again. But if you ask me, I'm happy to be, home again..."

Babyface - The Day
Feeling: Admittedly, I wasn't a fan of Babyface before this album. However, drawing off of the maturity that I mentioned previously, this album truly spoke to me. I loved this album. This was a time in my life when R&B was very important, or becoming more important to me than rap music, and Babyface, was leading the charge with beautiful songs on this album. I've always said that the day that my wife calls me and tells me that she's expecting, that I will call my best friends and blast the song, "The Day." A beautiful album indeed, I played it on many a night in my room when I thought no one was listening.

"Everytime I close my eyes I thank the Lord that I've got you..."

Goodie Mobb - Soul Food
Feeling: Along with OutKast, there has been no group to truly crystallize the experience of living or growing up in Atlanta like Goodie Mobb. Soul Food is a rap classic. The live music and instruments only add to the legendary lyrics from the beginning to the end of this disc. Granted I was a year late, but songs like 'Cell Therapy' and 'Soul Food' were the perfect tonic for my soul as I was adjusting to life in the New World Order in Atlanta in 1996.

"A heaping helping of friend chicken macaroni and cheese with collard greens to big to hold my jeans..."

Notorious B.I.G. - Life After Death
Master P - Ice Cream Man
Ghostface Killa - Ironman
Camp Lo - Luccini
A Tribe Called Quest - Beats Rhymes and Life
De La Soul - Stakes Is High

The Soundtrack of My Life: 1994-95

SOPHOMORE YEAR: August 1994 - Late June 1995

Resident of: The Howard Hotel - August 1994/The Howard Plaza Towers West Apt. 620
Hung Out With: Dorian Daggs, James Jones, Jr., Ben Dyson, Jeff Lyles, Mike Bridgeman, Braedan Trotman, Marcel Hillie, Ahmad Lockett, Tom Joyner, Jr., Eugene Young, IV, Willie Ray Taylor
Roomed With: Seth Patterson of Phoenix, Arizona and Queens, New York
Fashion: The Gap, Calvin Klein Jeans, Abercrombie & Fitch, Tommy Hilfiger, Timberland, Carhartt
Always Seen With: Dorian, Jimmy or Tom and an empty backpack
Fad: Drinking, Georgetown, Tommy Hilfiger, Road trips
Dated: A beautiful young lady from Delaware (name escapes me), Danielle Boyd, Tralonne Shorter, Heather Adams, Lauren LaShawnn Jones
Crushes: Denise Alexander, Lauren LaShawnn Jones, Heather Adams, Cassandra, Nicole Frazier, Charlice Noble, Danette Greenwood, Tangelica Sneed, Yvette Drake, Christi Fletcher and any woman who visited Christi and Lucci

Boyz II Men - II
Time: September 1994 - November 1994
Feeling: This CD was the sum total of the time that I was pursuing a young lady during my second year at Howard. The first single released 'I'll Make Love to You' was the hottest thing in the country when she and I first hung out. As each song was released, and as each song got sadder and sadder, so went my fortunes with her. 'Down on Bended Knee' was big during our first date. 'Water Runs Dry' was big when the window seemed to be closing...forever. And 'Yesterday' was huge when this quick but serious crush was over in dramatic fashion in the Moorland-Spingarn Reading Room at Howard University's Founders Library. That evening was filled with inuendo and questions and so much more that I should have said. I still love this album though because it reminds me of good times and bad times, but it keeps me realizing that nothing was nearly as big a deal as we made it. Beautiful songs, beautiful memories.

"We'll make the biggest mistake of our lives, don't do it baby..." - Boyz II Men

Common Sense - The Resurrection
Time: November 1994 - March 1995
Feeling: I had never heard rap music like this before. Common was deep on every line. He never wasted a rhyme, a thought, a word, everything meant something. More importantly he was so insightful when you least expected it. There's nothing left to write about this album other than these next few words...'I Used to Love H.E.R.'...

"I met this girl when I was nine years old, and what I like most is she had so much soul..." - Common Sense

The Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die
Time: August 1994 - June 1995
Feeling: Sublime. This music crystallized the inner city experience for me and did so in a way that you could smell the oppression. Not as dirty as the Wu, but smoothed out with Biggie's Brooklyn bass voice. So infinitely superior in fact that this album is easily regarded as one of the best Rap albums ever made, and perhaps one of the best albums in music history. My favorite tracks are 'Big Poppa', 'Warning', 'Gimme the Loot' and 'Me and My Bitch.' We miss you Big. I can fondly remember listening to this album in the home of Ben Dyson and Braedan Trotman while getting one of those free (but horrible) haircuts from Braedan in the bathroom. This was the music of homecoming '94, and was so popular that it was the one CD that you had to have for the whole school year.

"Spread love it's the Brooklyn way..." - Biggie

The Roots - Do You Want More?
Time: January 1995 - May 1995
Feeling: Live instruments in rap music make it sound better. Nothing too difficult or overly profound about that. It works, well. The Roots showed that with this brilliant sophomore effort that knocked the socks off of anyone who listened. This album was a perfect daily soundtrack for the inner city blight that I witnessed daily while being a student at Howard. This music was also the perfect background for my burgeoning experimentation with alcohol and listening to music to truly hear it. My favorite song was 'Proceed.'

"I shall proceed and continue to rock the mic..." - Blaq Thought

TLC - Crazy + Sexy + Cool
Time: November 1994 - June 1995
Feeling: A TLC album is always a constant surprise. You dig it because the production is tight and the music is beautiful. You dig it because the members are beautiful in their own individual ways. And this album didn't disappoint. The same album whose first release was the carefree, "Creep" would later be known for the brilliant "Waterfalls" which would take the group to heights unknown. This album got me through many a night.

"Don't go chasing waterfalls, please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to..." - TLC

Method Man - Tical
Time: November 1994
Feeling: This album was that good old Wu Tang feeling with a more piercing sound from one of my personal faves, Method Man. The album is funny, entertaining, sound, a true hip hop classic. For the first Wu solo effort, this album definitely gets an 'A' and helped me through many an angry night.

"When I first stepped on the scene, ni**as was petrified..." - Method Man

Mary J. Blige - My Life
Time: Fall semester 1994
Feeling: The thing to get you through the nights. Nothing else needs to be said.

"When you look in my life and see what I see..." - Mary J. Blige