Amplified Q-Tip
Tape Decks Archive CD
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The first CD my parents helped me purchase goes back to 1992, Dr. Dre's debut on Death Row Records. I was entering 7th grade and already asked for their help to walk me through the check out line at the military base post exchange for the cassette a few weeks before. The CD was for my friend's birthday. A birthday gift his parents made him return a week after I gave it to him. He dropped by with his mom and told me he wasn't allowed to listen to it. I told him I'd hold onto it and give it back someday. I placed it on the top shelf where Dad kept his stereo system, record player, and vinyl below. He'd later buy a system with a CD function that skipped too much for me to mess with. I placed the Dre CD with two other CDs my friends gave me, Warren G's debut Regulate...G Funk Era and Tupac's follow up to 2Pacalypse Now. I wouldn't have the ability to play CDs until years later. I was all cassette with my Sony tape walkman listening to bootlegs my Dad brought home from Desert Storm. When I got an AIWA boombox in 97' and my first CD player walkman I started stacking CDs. Especially CDs I'd always wanted watching Yo MTV Raps and BET's Rap City throughout most of the decade. I spent money I made during the summer setting up garage sales, birthday money, and some funds I saved running the clock while my Dad ref'd the local men's basketball league. Some CDs I got through mailing services like BMG and Columbia and others from the local flea market, Discount Mall, CD Warehouse, or the music shop at the military post post exchange. Since then, I've accumulated a lot of music. Especially years later hosting college radio receiving new CDs and vinyl frequently. I still spent money on records I wanted though, following all my favorites from childhood into the turn of the millennium.
In 2018, I realized I would no longer have a slot in the ride or laptop to insert a CD. These days I'm rarely purchasing batteries either since I got my compact disc player in storage. Mid way into the year I realized I haven't purchased a CD since 2017. Looking at a stack of what's gotta be more than a couple thousand CDs, I felt like reflecting. I'm a big waxpoetics fan and love books like Check the Technique and wax fact liner notes like Rakim Told Me. More than listening I love learning about the details of music...the whys & hows that made them. There's a lot of records I've always wanted to revisit or just spend some extra time listening to and researching. More than CDs I also got crates of vinyl and boxes of cassettes I haven't checked out in years. A lot of stories I'd like to explore to take a break from the speed of streaming one record to the next.
I've been thinking about this for a while and decided to start with Q-Tip's Amplified. I set up a hashtag on Twitter linked from the field in a Tape Decks Archive file I set up. The plan is to take some time to dig into the music that played a purpose in my life's soundtrack and to document it. Music's always played a role in everything I do, whether its at work, exercise, the classroom, etc. I just feel it would be cool to keep a file of the music I kept. Uncover some stuff I didn't know about these records and take time to appreciate them while I can. A look into my library, my catalogue, my soundtrack...the metaphor of what the cassettes I played yesterday have become today, streaming invisible tape.
Here's a few notes on Q-Tip's Amplified at #AmplifiedqTIP.
I love thinking about Dilla and Slum Village listening to this record. About what Detroit means to Hip Hop and what its always meant to the Soul of music in general.
Something was happening in 99'...it was a big transition for us. It was definitely amplified. Real loud. Technology gave new meaning to the term fast forward...especially in retrospect 20 years later.
