Blow the Whistle

I was going to put up the music video for Too $hort, "Blow The Whistle" but iTunes encrypted that shit, so I can't share the love.

My love for hip hop is weighted on a heavy bass line. I feel every reverberation and it makes me want to get down on my knees and pray (sometimes I just want to freak). In my room, growing up, I was afraid to turn my music loud. My dad would say, "Bam, why don't you play it a little louder?" And I would just shake my head and shut the door. Then came punk, and all of that changed. But as the years progressed, I sought out more and more musical styles, and mainly the ones that bumped and rhymed. I like the feeling of that heavy bass as it sinks low and buzzes under my feet. It makes me think of a scene in Mr. Holland's Opus when Richard Dreyfuss is sitting with his deaf son and his deaf son is sitting on an amp. They're both enjoying the music, one fully listening and the other simply feeling it. That's the way I feel when a good bass line drops. I feel it.

I have little respect for radio acts, but I praise their producers. Too Short falls somewhere in-between hip hop and radio, in my mind, so I give him props on both sides. He's a bit ridiculous. Take for instance, this line from the aforementioned track: "Pretty girls in the VIP, They came to drink, They don't need ID, Blow the whistle." Right. Everybody wants to get their freak on. I get that. Sometimes his lyrics get downright corny. He raps about Kelis in her "Bossy" track, saying "She's fine and she's pretty." So? I can't really get with that. Besides all that, though, Too Short is a pimp. He is catchy as fuck and this song makes me want to get on my feet and go dumb. He says he's from "East Oakland, where the youngsters get hyphy." I'm all for that. Count me in, Too Short.

A side story I heard the other day:
A friend of a friend lives in the Bay and sometimes wears a dress. I should clarify: This is a dude who sometimes wears dresses and I believe he also wears makeup. The dude's on the bus one day, just doing his exhibitionist thing, not giving a fuck. There are two other dudes in the back of the bus poking fun and basically talking shit. The dude with the dress turns around, and who could it be? Too Short and one of his cronies. Now, take into account that this is 1994-ish, sometime in the height of Too Short's rise to regional fame and recognition. So here he is, riding the bus, making fun of some dude in a dress. The cross-dressing dude turns around, sees who it is, and calls him out. As in: "What? Are you Too Short? Yeah, right. How could you be making fun of me when you're the one still riding the bus?!" Daaammmmnnnn. Yeah, that's right. Too Short, big pimpin, at the height of his new fame, rapping about all the riches he's getting, and he's still taking public transportation.

Shit.

Now go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUVfDvIP2EQ