Didn\u2019t I promise to do one of these each week? And now this is my first entry in a month. It\u2019s not for a lack of effort, I promise. I\u2019ve started probably ten of these in the last month. Apparently I\u2019m starting the wrong ones, though, because I can\u2019t seem to finish any. As I said back in the beginning, music often elicits very specific memories for me. Play a song; I lock into a distinct time and place. Spending time in the Bay Area a week ago brought back one of those memories<\/p>\n
When I moved to California in late 1986, hip-hop was making its first tentative steps into the mainstream. RUN-DMC\u2019s \u201cWalk This Way\u201d had been THE song of the previous summer. The Beastie Boys were everywhere. As I discovered when I started classes at San Leandro High School, there was a whole new world of music that hadn\u2019t made it to the Midwest yet. Through home-made mix tapes and swap-meet bootlegs traded like members of a resistance movement, I learned about new groups such as LL Cool J, the LA Dream Team, and CIA, Ice Cube\u2019s first group. I also discovered a program on the Stanford student station that played nothing but hip-hop each Sunday afternoon. Although I could barely receive it, I managed to tape each week\u2019s show on my single-track tape recorder and listen to it over-and-over during the week. Through this show, I discovered the phenomenal Eric. B & Rakim.<\/p>\n
Eric B & Rakim\u2019s Paid in Full<\/em> was the first album I had discovered on my own and bought without consulting anyone else. From the moment I bought the tape, I listened to it constantly. Rakim\u2019s distinctive voice and style were intoxicating. Eric B. was a master of the scratch and full of obscure beats. For a format that was in its most basic form, this was revolutionary stuff. The title track is one of the true masterpieces of the early days of hip-hop, and one of the few songs of which I\u2019ll probably never forget all the lyrics.<\/p>\n Paid in Full<\/em> also made me famous, well semi-famous. When someone bought a tape that was supposed to be good, word got out. You became the source for other people to discover new music. People would ask for a copy, or to borrow yours overnight so they could dub their own. Guys I barely knew would call across the hall to me between classes, \u201cHey, I hear you got the Eric B. and Rakim tape?!\u201d Suddenly, I was becoming moderately popular, and all because of my addiction to a college radio station. Ironically, this new notoriety came as we were preparing to move back to Kansas City, so it was bittersweet (In other words, we left before I could parlay this musical knowledge into any dates).<\/p>\n Three weeks before I moved, I let my friend Charlie Terrell borrow the tape. Charlie lived in Oakland. Straight out of a bad sitcom, the poor black kid from the projects and the middle class white kid from Kansas became friends. We had two classes together, including science, where we would generally go to the back of the lab and talk about music or sports, then use Charlie\u2019s charisma to get the results for the experiments we didn\u2019t do from girls in the class. Charlie promised he would dub my tape quickly, and get it back to me. Two days went by, no tape. Four days. Seven days. \u201cI\u2019ll get it to you, man, don\u2019t worry,\u201d he would assure me. Finally, the Monday before I was to leave SLHS, when I asked, he said, \u201cMan, I don\u2019t know if I can get it back to you. My cousin took it and I don\u2019t know what he did with it.\u201d<\/p>\n On my last day of school at SLHS, we had a substitute teacher in science class. Charlie walked up to the sub, who was a rather small man, and said, \u201cIt\u2019s D’s\u00a0last day here, so were just going to go in the back of the lab and talk.\u201d And back we went. Midway through class, when the teaching assistant came around to collect the attendance slips, our TA (who being short and dark had always attracted my attention, but I couldn\u2019t bring myself to talk to her, no matter how much Mr. Smooth Terrell badgered me about it) gave a small envelope to the substitute. For both sentimental reasons and the fact it\u2019s a phenomenal album, I still have that tape. I bought the 10th anniversary, remastered CD three years ago, but couldn\u2019t bring myself to throw the tape out. It was a reminder of my exploration to discover new music, my efforts to meet people in a strange environment, and of a friend I lost touch with when I moved away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Didn\u2019t I promise to do one of these each week? And now this is my first entry in a month. It\u2019s not for a lack of effort, I promise. I\u2019ve started probably ten of these in the last month. Apparently I\u2019m starting the wrong ones, though, because I can\u2019t seem to finish any. As I said back in the beginning, music often elicits very specific memories for me. Play a song; I lock into a distinct time and place. Spending time in the Bay Area a week ago brought back one of those memories When I moved to California in late 1986, hip-hop was making its first tentative steps into the mainstream. RUN-DMC\u2019s \u201cWalk This Way\u201d had been THE song of the previous summer. The Beastie Boys were everywhere. As I discovered when I started classes at San Leandro High School, there was a whole new world of music that hadn\u2019t made it to the Midwest yet. Through home-made mix tapes and swap-meet bootlegs traded like members of a resistance movement, I learned about new groups such as LL Cool J, the LA Dream Team, and CIA, Ice Cube\u2019s first group. I also discovered a program on the Stanford student station that played nothing but hip-hop each Sunday afternoon. Although I could barely receive it, I managed to tape each week\u2019s show on my single-track tape recorder and listen to it over-and-over during the week. Through this show, I discovered the phenomenal Eric. B & Rakim. Eric B & Rakim\u2019s Paid in Full was the first album I had discovered on my own and bought without consulting anyone else. From the moment I bought the tape, I listened to it constantly. Rakim\u2019s distinctive voice and style were intoxicating. Eric B. was a master of the scratch and full of obscure beats. For a format that was in its most basic form, this was revolutionary stuff. The title track is one of the true masterpieces of the early days of hip-hop, and one of the few songs of which I\u2019ll probably never forget all the lyrics. Paid in Full also made me famous, well semi-famous. When someone bought a tape that was supposed to be good, word got out. You became the source for other people to discover new music. People would ask for a copy, or to borrow yours overnight so they could dub their own. Guys I barely knew would call across the hall to me between classes, \u201cHey, I hear you got the Eric B. and Rakim tape?!\u201d Suddenly, I was becoming moderately popular, and all because of my addiction to a college radio station. Ironically, this new notoriety came as we were preparing to move back to Kansas City, so it was bittersweet (In other words, we left before I could parlay this musical knowledge into any dates). Three weeks before I moved, I let my friend Charlie Terrell borrow the tape. Charlie lived in Oakland. Straight out of a bad sitcom, the poor black kid from the projects and the middle class white kid from Kansas became friends. We had two classes together, including science, where we would generally go to the back of the lab and talk about music or sports, then use Charlie\u2019s charisma to get the results for the experiments we didn\u2019t do from girls in the class. Charlie promised he would dub my tape quickly, and get it back to me. Two days went by, no tape. Four days. Seven days. \u201cI\u2019ll get it to you, man, don\u2019t worry,\u201d he would assure me. Finally, the Monday before I was to leave SLHS, when I asked, he said, \u201cMan, I don\u2019t know if I can get it back to you. My cousin took it and I don\u2019t know what he did with it.\u201d On my last day of school at SLHS, we had a substitute teacher in science class. Charlie walked up to the sub, who was a rather small man, and said, \u201cIt\u2019s D’s\u00a0last day here, so were just going to go in the back of the lab and talk.\u201d And back we went. Midway through class, when the teaching assistant came around to collect the attendance slips, our TA (who being short and dark had always attracted my attention, but I couldn\u2019t bring myself to talk to her, no matter how much Mr. Smooth Terrell badgered me about it) gave a small envelope to the substitute. \u201cUm, is there a Charles Terrell?\u201d the sub asked. \u201cYeah, that\u2019s me.\u201d \u201cHere, this is for you.\u201d Charlie walked up and grabbed the envelope. He ripped it open, and pulled out a note. Then he handed the envelope to me. I looked inside and there was my Paid in Full tape. \u201cI called my mom this morning and she brought it down. I couldn\u2019t let you move back to Kansas without taking your tape with you.\u201d We slapped hands and gave each other what was probably my first bro hug. For both sentimental reasons and the fact it\u2019s a phenomenal album, I still have that tape. I bought the 10th anniversary, remastered CD three years ago, but couldn\u2019t bring myself to throw the tape out. It was a reminder of my exploration to discover new music, my efforts to meet people in a strange environment, and of a friend I lost touch with when I moved away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-music"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10122,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions\/10122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cUm, is there a Charles Terrell?\u201d the sub asked.
\n\u201cYeah, that\u2019s me.\u201d
\n\u201cHere, this is for you.\u201d
\nCharlie walked up and grabbed the envelope. He ripped it open, and pulled out a note. Then he handed the envelope to me. I looked inside and there was my Paid in Full<\/em> tape. \u201cI called my mom this morning and she brought it down. I couldn\u2019t let you move back to Kansas without taking your tape with you.\u201d We slapped hands and gave each other what was probably my first bro hug.<\/p>\n