Life changing Albums

-HumanityCritic

For the last couple of months on twitter, I've posted a wide array of Hip Hop related questions that have gotten an overwhelming response from people kind enough to follow an insufferable prick such as myself. Things like "Who is the Greatest Rapper of All Time?", "What is your favorite DJ Premier track?", and "What is the greatest Hip Hop group of all time?" But before my brain could even send the message to my hand that would allow me to pat myself on my back, @SkyyhookRadio asked a question that literally rocked my feeble little world. She asked, "What is the Hip Hop album that changed your life?" She may as well have dropped the microphone and walked off stage. Dunked on me at my home court. Beat my ass in the front yard of my own house. It's such an amazing question that it makes everything that I've asked so far pale in comparison. Respect to you ma'am. With all that said, let me answer the very question that I've been heaping so much praise upon.

For me it wasn't one album in particular, it was three albums - and the only reason why I don't consider naming three albums as cheating is because I received them all at precisely the same time. See, my cousins from New York had come down for a visit around labor day of 1988. I love my cousins dearly, but hanging with them was a double edge sword: While we would have the time of our lives hanging around each other, my jealousy about their particular proximity to some of my favorite rappers was overwhelming. I mean, being from Virginia Beach where I had to create my own Hip Hop reality, I didn't have any "..and then the DJ plugged his equipment to the light pole" stories to speak of - and hearing about Run DMC walking down their block or how they played Atari in LL Cool J's grandmother's basement just made me wanted them to die slowly in a fire. But this particular visit was different. This particular visit just happened to change my life.

I still remember it like it was yesterday. My Aunt, Uncle, and cousins slowly rolling their ancient beater into our driveway - Peter and Brendon racing out of their parents car like it was on fire just to greet their favorite cousin - and then Peter handing me a bag and saying, "Happy Belated Birthday Motherfucker!" The contents of the bag: Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to hold us back", Big Daddy Kane's "Long Live the Kane", and EPMD's "Strictly Business". Even though I'm sure their time in Virginia included other activities, the one vivid memory that I have is the three of us listening to those albums on a continuous loop without saying a word to each other. So much so that by the end of their stay we damn near knew all three classic albums by heart. Having those three pieces of remarkable art at the same time was akin to a starving man standing in front of a buffet table, or having three rather shapely porn stars laying in your bed - you simply don't know where in the fuck to start. Losing my virginity was quite the embarrassing endeavor where I literally kept missing the target. My first love ripped my beating heart out of my chest, grinned, and then proceeded to show it to me. My Prom date danced with everyone but me, then invited a boyfriend that I didn't even know she had to my after party. So you can see why receiving those three tapes easily trumps all of those experiences.

It's not as if I didn't love Hip Hop before that particular point in time, just that Labor day was when I started committing my very existence to it. Flaws and all. Those records, if I'm being honest, were both a gift and a curse: A gift because it made me want to accept nothing but excellence in Hip Hop from that point forward - a curse for the very same reason, sometimes I admit that I put the bar so high that it can't be seen by mere mortals. Like that High School quarterback whose time on the gridiron was unfortunately the pinnacle of his life. Those dudes who compare every future prospect to their mothers only to leave a relationship battlefield littered with less than stellar women. Either way, "It Takes a Nation of Millions to hold us back", Big Daddy Kane's "Long Live the Kane", and EPMD's "Strictly Business" created a sea change in me like nothing before and nothing since. There, I said it.