whats your history of rap/music?

[Acgrundy]

in terms of listening, not playing/rapping/singing/writing/etc.

I never really listened to a whole lot of music growing up when I was real young.  when I was 12/13 is my memories of when I started getting into music.  that was in 92/93.  I never owned any music at all at first, and before then I never watched mtv.  but I knew songs like vanilla ice - ice ice baby, and mc hammers - don't touch this.  Still to this day, have never heard either one of their albums.  but other songs that stick out in my head, during this time I started watching mtv: onyx - slam, cypress hill - insane in the membrane, Tag Team - whoop there it is, ll cool j - mamma said knock you out, there is more, but I can't remember.  So I liked all those songs.  Then one day I was at a friends house and he had a Weird Al Yankovic tape, and I thought the shit was hella funny and I reallly liked it.  So the first tapes I can remember getting were dubs of Onyx - bacdafucup, and Weird Al - Alapalooza.  Then I graduated 8th grade and my parents bought me a boombox, with a radio/tape/cd player.  (my first cd player, and basically stereo)

My first cd I bought a couple days later was the weird al I had on tape, and that same day my friend bought MTV Party to go Vol. 3 (I think it was vol 3)  So I made a dub of that.  It had dr. dre- let me ride, 2Pac (which I thought was pronounced 2 Pack) - I get around (I literally thought the song was about him like driving all around the place, like being all over town.  tag team - whoop there it is, Snow with some song, and basically a whole bunch of rap and r&b hits from 92/93 that I can't remember.  Obviously the ones that really influenced my musical taste were dr. dre and pac.

Now I was starting to get lots of mixtapes, and steal a few from my brother.  like some public enemy and judgement night ost.  and now about this time, Regulate was HUGE on mtv.  I luved that song.  So warren g's album was my 2nd cd ever.  bought it off a dude at school for like $7 my freshmen year of highschool.  it was the clean version, but I didn't give a fuck, I luved it.  bumped the hell out of it.  there were times I must have listened to regulate 10+ times in a row.  shortly after I got that cd, I got a dub of The Chronic.  Luved it.  Didn't know who any of them were except for dre and snoop, thanks to mtv.  Not too long after that I got Above the Rim ost.  Boy I sure was really liking this whole deathrow/doggpound thing.  Now it was like 95.  I dunno if I had doggystyle yet, I don't think so, but I seen all of snoops videos on mtv.  Now they were playing the Murder was the case video a whole bunch on mtv.  I luved that song.  I wanted that ost so much.  but I was only a freshmen in college, and I had no money.  So I had to ask and ask around for months, finally I got a dub of it.  LOL, for probably the first week of having it, I didn't listen to one song besides murder was the case rmx.  I'd play it, rwd it, play it, rwd, repeat.  I have listened to that song well over a thousand times, maybe more than anyother song.  when I finally did let it go past the song, I was amazed.  I luved NBK.  honestly I didn't like What would you do (one of my fav dpg songs these days). Fucking luved the shit outta, and still do, of 21 jumpstreet.  was so damn impressed with tray deee, and from the jump I luved his style.  arguably today he is my fav rapper.  I luved the nate dogg song, and thought wow, this guy is amazing.  really liked who got some gangsta shit, but didn't know who anyone was besides snoop (and didn't have a quarter of the appreciation I have today for it), luved the sam sneed song.  didn't like the michelle and jewel songs, and always fastforwarded them.  LUVED Dolllars and sense.  Had no clue who quik was dissing, but luved the song.  really liked the cpo song, never listened to a song past that.  Man I was loving this deathrow shit!

then came the friday ost, with Dre's keep their heads ringin.  wanted that one so bad, I actually got some money together somehow and bought the cd.  played the SHIT out of this one.  I luved it.  Got me into E-A-Ski, yep I was a Ski fan back in 95.  Blast if I have to was one of my fav songs on the album.  Then I joined a music club.  got doggystyle, cypress hill, naughty by nature, juice ost, bad boys ost, coolio, and more.  My first Pac album, Me against the world, shortly followed up by Strictly 4 my niggaz and then 2pacalypse now.  Never really got into 2pacalypse now, and I would say I liked strictly 4 my niggaz best.  But I sure knew, I really liked Pac.  Then came my introduction to E-40, with In a Major way.  I never liked it to much back then (today I consider it hands down classic), but I listened to it.  back then man, I listened to everything I had.  Somehow I could find a way to enjoy practically every single song, on everysingle album.  but anyways, then I started getting into Sicwidit Records (a fucking 90's dynasty in rap for all yall that ain't knowin!)  gettin b-legit, the click, celly cel, spice 1 (dunno if he was on sicwidit).  I luved that shit.  I luved the bay music.

anyways this is way too long, and its only the first 2-3 years of my history.  to put it to a quik end:  I really luved the bay music.  Luniz - operation stakola, oh I bumped the fucking shit outta that album.  Got dogg pound for christmas the year it was released, luved the shit out of it.  funny how my opinion on tracks has changed over the years tho.  didn't give a fuck bought where people were from, really didn't even know.  didn't know shit about hip hop beefs.  didn't know shit as a matter of fact, just luved the music.  at first I thought eazy e was dre and snoops friend and they were just fucking around with him on the chronic.  when eazy died of aids, I had never heard his music yet, nor NWA's.  then cali love comes out on mtv.  I love the song, gotta get it.  so february of 96 I got the album, on my birthday.  16 years old.  I luved it.  Now I had major love for Deathrow.  Loved them all.  So much and so stupidly that I said fuck eastcoast rap.  I liked biggie before.  but I said fuck him and all the east coast rap.  I said fuck eazy e.  after a couple months tho, I had been hearing Eazy's It's On tape being played a lot at parties, mostly Real Muthafuckin Gz.  Finally I had to admit to myself, damn this shit is dope.  so I borrowed the tape and made a dub.  I luved it.  I was like ah ok, fuck eazy e but he got a dope tape.  I still was like fuck the eastcoast tho.  then you know, pac dies, that really sucks.  makaveli drops and the doggfather drop within like a week of each other.  the doggfather was probably my most anticipated album ever.  I even went on my lunchbreak from school to get it the day it came out.  Boy was I dissapointed!  Like I said, funny how time can change your opinion, because I say today it is a pretty solid album.  Then wsc comes out.  I get into all them.  then my senor year of school I had money from workin and I was buyin a new album every 2 to 3 weeks.  Many of which I had never ever heard a song on them (imagine that today!)  and I would always listen to them all the way through, and somehow find out a way to appreciate damn near every single song.  still loved deathrow and pac and dpg and dre the most at that time.  dre was off deathrow now.  my other fav's were luniz, celly cel, rappin 4 tay, spice 1, mack 10, mac dre wc, bone thugs, b-legit, e-40, even was into some master p and no limit, and some others.  then internet comes along.  check out snoops doggpound, the utlimate deathrow page, many more I can't remember.  find all this news.  find out about mp3's.  start getting these songs I had never heard before.  It would take like an hour to d/l 1 song.  but damn I luved these songs, like Let me ride rmx w/ snoop and daz, I got 5 on it rmx and more.  started buying mixtapes off the deathrow sites of unrealesed pac tapes and unreleased deathrow songs which I luved.  couple years later get high speed net, and napster, right when napster was at its highlight.  IMO napster was the best ever engine for finding songs, not full albums, but songs.  I literally found everysingle song I wanted.  I raped napster for all it was worth.  it got me into so many rappers.  I got so much rare and unreleased music.  I was checking these rap news sites everyday.  finally come along to wcc.  I would read it a couple times a week for months, but never cared to register, I would just come and read news.  finally after months of reading I was in the anything goes section, stoned off my ass, and there was a weed smoking thread.  So I registered to share a weed experience.  It was within the first year wcc was up, probably in the springtime, so however many months it had been up by early to mid spring of its first year.  my name was budsmokeronly.  I rarely ever posted and I was definately way more positive about the music.  Now I got so much damn music, I haven't even heard quite a good chunk of it.  I'm dissapointed with nearly everytihing that comes out these days.  Many times I won't even make it through a whole album for the first time, before I decide that I am bored with it.  Many get one listen and that is it.  I mainly listen to old stuff nowadays, while mixing in getting a taste of the new stuff.  but like I said new stuff usually never stays in rotation more than its first week of release.  I own almost 300 rap albums, and I have at least 400 more on my computer, 90% of which is westcoast.  I ain't on that whole hating of the east anymore, or any region.  I luv biggie, and his first album is classic.  but I got tru luv for the west.  it gets nearly all my attention.  I can't even keep up with listening to all my westcoast shit, so the east and south don't get much listening time at all.  so in a nutshell missing some details thats my rap music history.  sorry it was so long, hope it was interesting if you did read it.

[We Fly High]

great topic. i remember first getting into rap.. i guess it was probably like cypress hill black sunday in third grade... insane in the brain, that was the jam.. i had to get it at the wherehouse store nearby. so my mom took me and i bought the black sunday cassette tape. i bumped the shit out of it, but none of it really made sense to me at the time... "when the shit goes down you gotta be pretty"... when i was a kid i always thought it was just in reference to looking good when taking a shit, i took it for its literal meaning. and all those "hits from the bong" references... i didnt even know what it meaned back then.. (but i guess all that music had permeated my brain at a young age, and when i smoke ten times a day now and listen to black sunday, i just laught at myself) and i remember listening to the dre day single and whats my name single at my friends house during like 4th grade or some shit. he had his older brothers cds and we were listenisng to them.  damn that shit straight blew my mind. "whats my name.. snoop doggy dogggy dogg" that'll never leave my head.. i'll alway remember that moment. i went to  wherehouse the next day and asked for a "Dr. Gray" cassette tape, and the worker was like "you mean dr. dre?" ...  ...

i had a strictly bay area phase where i was bumpin only bay shit.. JT, ill mannered players, luniz,  all those bay are indy compilations... cougnut was probably my favorite. i remember hearing him on scandalous.. his voice blew my mind, straight grimy. that one compilation 18 wit a bullet? i think... that shit was sick.

and then i started getting into underground hip hop in like 97-99.. like the roots, blackstar, dj shadow, mos def and all that shit, ....... mos def black on both sides was definitely my favorite cd that i discovered during this period of time. i was prob the only kid bumpin it at school.

and then one weekend during my senior year of high school i made a mix titled "Two One Three", and we played that cd nonstop all the way from the bay to tahoe, and soon i became addicted to only west coast music. partly in fact of also attending the up in smoke tour. i started only listening to west coast music for a few years. this is when i discovered WCC forum, in 2001. and this was also when i was living in Long Beach. man i was strictly west coast, i would like go thru my napster weekly and delete all my east coast songs cos i wanted to keep my library clean of east coast.. this is when i got into like foesum,mausberg,suga free, lime block, and all those straight west coast cats.. but after awhile.. after the dogg pound broke up and shit, and snoop started softening his music up, and just a general lack of activity on the west coast, i kinda stopped paying attention to the west coast, and started listening to all types of east coast shit...

and nowadays, im pretty picky with my music, and i guess ive really fine tuned my taste to good music. i sometimes buy new cds now, but usually just mixtapes to get a feel for whats out on the scene, but when i pick up real albums i usually only get classics to fill up my catalog.

[Acgrundy]

lol, man its funny how when you are younger you had different meanings for the lyrics.  That interpretation for cypress hill is hella funny.

I remember I had cypress hill's first 2 albums and I really liked them.  I had only smoked weed one time, and pretty much had no idea what a bong was.  then one night I was at a friends house and I hit a bong.  I go home the next day and I'm chillin listening to black sunday.  It gets to hits from the bong.  I sittin there listening and I hear the bong noises in the song and it tripped me out, cuz I had no idea what those noises were before.  That was pretty funny.