Big day today! This marks a full year of perfect updating. That’s 1,825 songs, plus a few duplicates (which I don’t say much about). I write a little paragraph for each of these things, most of the time. Sometimes a throwaway, sometimes a bit more, but let’s say that I wrote about 60 words for each song. That’s something on the order of 100,000 words I’ve written about music over the past year. And not a damn bit of it useful! And if you compiled it in one go, it’s a novel’s worth of garbage.
[Read More]Five Songs, 7/31/2018
Buck-O-Nine, “Voice In My Head”
We like to mock the third wave of ska here at Funf Songs, because it’s eminently mockable. But, there’s a reason why we have so much of the damn stuff, and that’s that when it’s done well, it’s sprightly and charming and summer-y. In the winter, it reminds of long, bright, warm days. In the summer, it just ups the mood to another level. Buck-O-Nine weren’t amazing, but they were pleasant and good and it’s worthwhile to just listen to some pleasant and good things sometimes.
[Read More]Five Songs, 7/22/2018
Ice Cube, “No Vaseline”
One of the most famous diss tracks in hip-hop history, “No Vaseline”, the closer to Death Certificate, laid bare how rancorous the split between Ice Cube and N.W.A truly was. Those who were paying attention to the press knew, but after the release of this song, everybody knew. And the song was savage - calling N.W.A out in every possible way. While the homophobia makes me cringe now, Cube’s creativity in dragging his former bandmates is still super impressive. N.W.A never really responded to the track. MC Ren says that it’s because they broke up, but honestly, there was no coming back from this.
[Read More]Five Songs, 6/10/2017
Will I figure out how to schedule posts for this, a Saturday post written ahead of time? Probably not! At least music doesn’t really expire.
Ice Cube, “Record Company Pimpin'”
At his peak, Ice Cube was the best. Lyrical content aside, his rhymes were amazing, and his first three solo albums (and the Kill At Will EP) are all essentials. Things fell off pretty fast for Cube, though, with essentially everything from Lethal Injection on being skippable. This is a late-period track, with an interesting message, but is otherwise a pedestrian song.
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