Nothing Was The Same

My beloved T-Rex says Grown Man Bars is something you gotta deal with.

If you don’t know where this is from, then this is not the post for you at all. Music is the soundtrack to my life is the most cliche thing I’ve ever heard but there’s nothing more true. There is something special about hearing lyrics to a song that makes your heart feel something different. The ability of an artist to use instruments, lyricism, and melody to remind everyone that we live on the same planet and often experience the same things in different bodies is something truly special and a talent not innate to many.

Many people say that music saved their life. Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was unanimously acclaimed as the album of the decade because of the impact it had on many people. That album inspired many people to pursue music be it on the artist side or on the production side. There are many people that say that they were going through a dark time and it made them feel heard in a time when no one else did. Now I won’t say that it was that drastic for me but it did make me pay more attention to the art of album making especially on the production end because no other album in my opinion experimented that much with sound and made it work with great rapping accompanying it.

On November 15, 2011, Drake released Take Care, his Grammy nominate album, for the world to consume. Prior to this, I was always a big music fan and a big Drake fan but this changed the way I viewed music. They say the consumption of music is different for everyone because of the factors that play a part in when and where you hear a song. When this released, I was young, impressionable, and going through the roller coaster of emotions that came with being a high school teenager which made this album very important to me. This really instilled the fact that music is spoken art to reflect the life you live and everyone should find their way of expression.

My favorite R&B project of 2019 had to be Chixtape V. It’s crazy because living in the south now, not too many people are familiar with Tory Lanez or the Chixtape series. I felt like I was introducing them to a whole new wave of music whenever I mentioned it. The music was amazing, the transitions between songs was magnificent, and the skits were always Tory’s strong point. I listen to that album to this day and still feel like it wasn’t given the respect it deserved. The thing about this one though is that he got the artists to do the songs with him. Outside of the wonderful music they are making, this means he would make practically no money from the sales because of publishing and sample clearances but he made this for the fans that truly appreciate it and that kind of dedication must be respected.

I can go on and on about music but to keep it short, there is not a moment of my day that I am not doing something music related. Be it listening to music at work or at the gym or at home or listening to a music based podcast such as The Joe Budden Podcast or Stay Busy with Armon Sadler to get my daily music intake. I love debating new music in different genres and being introduced to the great up and coming musicians especially rappers that focus less on the popularity and more of the art like Griselda , Jacques Laine, and Asoh Black.

So feel free to tell me your songs of the month and why?