12/22/2021
One of the biggest events in my Hip Hop childhood was when Roxanne started trending. Yeah. When making a Roxanne response got you an insta-audience. This is well before trolling or viral content. You couldn’t do a search for the newest response. You had to patiently scour the dial and shake down your trusted sources. Kiss. WBLS. College radio. Video Music Box.
No matter the response you caught, they all stem from the original song as performed by UTFO.
I can’t front like I liked that Big Beat break back then or now. What I can say is, that was the first song that exemplified the power of a hook for me. Adults that didn’t give a damn about Hip Hop would say it…b/c it was catchy. It was a Pop song on the low. Understandable seeing as though UTFO were background dancers for Whodini, a group that made crossover joints that never felt unnatural…also the 2nd source of my rap moniker. Same group, had a young Jermaine Dupree as a dancer…which may explain why he seemed to have no problem producing mainstream hits. All of the above can be seen, in the opening credits of Video Music Box…w/ Whodini’s 5 Minutes of Funk playing…
Can you feel the fondness in these memories? Can you see the striped tube socks and karate shoes? Can you see the trucker hat w/ the bent ear Pl***oy bunny and Asian lettering? Can you see the dollar chains from the flea market? Yo…I feel like all that is disintegrating. Stardust floating through a vacuum I have to leave this body to follow. I still got work to do down here though. It seems like I spent any semblance of free time telling ancestors I love them through poetry and portrait. That’s just Hip Hop though right? Popular…even in pain. Sharing our lives…that other ppl price and sell. Odd commodities in the hands of the Prodigies of probably. Still subtly communicating through the God in WE.
I should say something about colon cancer, how it disproportionately affects and kills black men and why it is imperative to do early checks as uncomfortable and undiscussed as they are BUT…I would rather stay on a high frequency and say Rest In Power to our Brother the Kangol Kid and will him a paradise beyond. F**k cancer.
