Jackin' Jill by Substantial

Jackin' Jill is my no. 2 favorite album of 2013 so far with Akbar's Planet X still at the top of my latest listens.  A top 10 is included on the side panel... see to the left below.  Check out more on this masterpiece and the story behind the audio at Mello Music Group: click here 

((A Child is Born 74'))

 

Searching for this record.

((Demo Tape / Nasty Nas))

Recently, caught eye of a Nasty Nas demo tape 91' pre-Illmatic off datpiff.com.  I've heard most the tracks but don't have them on file so I downloaded the mixtape.  A few tracks were coming up as error or missing so I decided to pull some other audios from YouTube and assemble the tracklist below for my own listening.  This by no means is a credible track list or official anything.   Just background to the audio years of my youth.  I found the cover above searching the net.  Represents the good feeling of the music.  Illmatic memories.

01 Understanding

02 Life is a Dice Game

03 Just Another Day in the Projects

04 The World is Yours (Demo Mix)

05 Deja Vu

06 Back to the Grill

07 Everything is Real

08 I'm a Villain

09 Memory Lane (Demo Mix)

10 Number One with a Bullet

11 On the Real

12 Represent

13 Live at the Barbeque

14 Nas Will Prevail

15 91' Stretch & Bobbito

16 93' Stretch & Bobbito

Christopher Cross by mcZoo

"For Mrs. & Mr. DeSenso (1979)"

A Christopher Cross CD cover of the LP that was audioscribed for Jus's mother & father.  Artwork by my youngest brother, MC Zoo.

Child of the 80s

A lot was going on when I decided to put this mix together in 08'.  The concept I had been thinking about for a while was inspired by "Audiobiography" (off the Razah's Ladder album) which I planned on putting together through a series of mixtapes that for me, starts with the 80s.  The first few moments of my life that I could remember were spent overseas in Rockenhuasen, Germany, where my father was stationed.  My earliest recollection of music began with MJ's Thriller LP.  Early on, I watched music videos like most children watched cartoons.  While my mother or father cooked or cleaned up around the apartment, to keep me occupied, the music video channel was usually their first choice.  It was one of the reasons I loved 'The World is Yours' video by Nas years later.  As an adult, it reminded me of my time as a child in front of the television set mesmerized by the 'music video'.  

The Child of the 80s mixtape explores the period in between 1980-89.  Some tracks, such as A-Ha's "Take on Me" & Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" I can attach to specific memories.  Others, I recall either through my time in the backseat of my mother or father's Plymouth & Hyundai listening to the radio as they drove around El Paso/Ciudad Juarez.  Some songs stand out from Steve Crosno's Studio 14.  Other tracks I'd discover later on in life when I started digging in Northern New Mexico and through the availability of the world wide web. When it comes to 80s music, thats the category I label it under, whether Soft Rock, House, Punk, Garage, Techno... I just call it 80s (a sound that seemed to influence many others or vice versa, from the most soulful eg. Aretha Franklin/Willie Hutch to jazz giants like Miles Davis/Herbie Hancock).  

Like most radio programs and mixtapes/podcast I've hosted, there are several clips of miscellaneous subject matter scattered throughout Child of the 80s, that again, are specific to the 1980-89 era.  I started the tape's background off with Ronald Reagan's inauguration, for a number of reasons.  One of those, I attribute to my 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Barkeley at Parkland Elementary, who's teaching style had a major impact on my life years after.  That year, I won an MLK Day Award that was presented to me at the Chamizal Theater.  Afterwards, during the last few days of school, she congratulated me again, and as an added reward for the MLK prize, passed me a text of all the presidents with Ronald Reagan on the cover.  The book was titled Mr. President, A Book of U.S. Presidents by George Sullivan. 

In planning the mixtape, I felt that as an intro to the 80s and reference to the political nightmares of our time, Reagan's inauguration was an appropriate start.  It also complimented part of what I was hoping to accomplish, which was to create a tape that flickered with memories of very specific scenes during the 80s, such as the scene from the film Colors, Karate Kid, Stand & Deliver, Iron Eagle, Bad Boys, etc.  As a film junkie, the 80s blessed my childhood with multiple references, including the infamous Scarface film which I recall watching at around the age of seven or eight years old.  I remember the VHS dub included Conan the Barbarian, which after watching a film like Scarface felt like a waste of time...Needless to say, films of all types, especially martial arts films of the 80s are scattered throughout this tape, playing the background in subliminal tone.

This is the 1st Chapter.  I'm currently listening to a track by the Cure called "A Forest" which I've stored for Chapter 2.  In addition, multiple covers for Child of the 80s have been designed for people that submit their 80s pictures (cover images will be posted soon).   

On a side note, much thanks to the individuals at KRUX 91.5 fm that hosted an 80s platform during the weekdays around 06', 07', taking request for tracks like Joe Esposito's "You're the Best Around".  It was a show I use to imagine and wish I had the 80s catalog to host. 

An online program I listen to from time to time these days is 1980s.FM

Til' the next chapter... 

            

In memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I arranged a radio broadcast January 19, 2004 on KRUX 91.5 FM.  My approach to these type of programs which would later carry the title... "A Session of..." was all about timing.  If I'm not mistaken, 'A Session of King' was the first of these shows, which would later include sessions dedicated to Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, Huey P. Newton, James Brown, Chicano/a musicians and others.  I recall about a week or two prior discovering a cassette collection of Dr. King's speeches at the Thomas Branigan Memorial Library in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  Before that, I wasn't sure how I was going to put the show together, I just knew I wanted to do it.  Especially since it would be one of our first programs back on air from the winter break to kick off the Spring semester.  In discovering the cassette tapes at the public library, they had just about everything I felt I needed.  I stayed up late nights shuffling through wax, tracks and downloads searching for the background music that I felt captured the message, tone and time of Dr. King.  The tapes also included dialogue from several other notable figures which I included as 'interludes' to give listeners that sense that it was just as much an audiobiography of Dr. King as it was a session of his microphone mastery.

My radio slot broadcasted from 2 to 5 pm, Fridays that semester.  Although, I noticed that I had also documented a Session of King from 1 to 2 am that same night with Hip Hop rotation.  I haven't been able to locate the recording (each show was dubbed) but have included the playlist below. 

In revisiting the 91.5 playlist years, I felt noting A Session of King would be perfect today, January 17, 2011.  A celebration & ode to the late, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Session of King
January 19, 2004 | 2-4 PM

Congressman John Louis ((intro))
Joe Sample & The Crusaders - "Southern Comfort"
Joe Sample - "Free Yourself"
The Crusaders - "Rainy Night In Georgia"

Timothy McNealey - "Sagittarius Black"

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Selma to Montgomery
Cymande - "One More"
War - "Walking to War"
Gap Mangione - "Free Again"
John Coltrane - "Alabama"
Curtis Mayfield - "If There's a Hell Below"
Santana - "Every Step of the Way"
Grant Green - "The Selma March"

Rev. Fred Shuddlesworth
Ornette Coleman - "Peace"

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Four Innocent Girls
Grover Washington Jr. - "Moonstreams"
Cal Tjader - "Triste"

Idris Muhammad - "Sudan"

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Africa
Enno Morricone - "The Ecstasy of Gold"
John Mayer - Double Quintet - "Raga Megha"
Marvin Gaye - "Cleo's Apartment"
John Carpenter - "Theme Song"
John Barry - "A Man Alone"
Yusef Lateef - "1st and 2nd Movement"
Wes Montgomery - "Scarborough Fair"


A Session of King
January 19, 2004 | 1-2 AM

Andrew Young - I've been to the Mountain Top ((intro))
Tariq L - "Stereo Freak"
Fat Jon - "Feel the Void"
Goodie Mob - "Black Ice"

Martin Luther King Jr. - I've Been to the Mountain Top
Pete Rock - "Soul Brother Beats"
Schoolz of Thought - "One of Those Days"
Talib Kweli - "Get By"
The Hemisphere - "Blacked Out"
The Hemisphere - "King of Kingz"
The Roots - "Concerto of the Desperado"
Madlib - "Young Warrior"
Micranots - "Glorious"
Outkast - "Ms. Jackson"
Outkast - "Aquemini"
Outkast - "Babylon"

Mos Def - "May to December"

Dorothy Height - I Have a Dream ((intro))
BK Associates - "Where I Was"
Fat Jon - "At the Bar"

Martin Luther King Jr. - I Have a Dream
Blackstar - "Thieves in the Night"
Algorithms - "Nocturnal"
Outkast - "Liberation"


Remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968)*

INSTRUMENTALS (4 My Blood Brother):

I. Slum Village - "Tainted"
Afu-Ra - "Whirldwind Thru Cities"
A Tribe Called Quest - "Electric Relaxation"
AZ (LES) - "Sugar Hill"
Common (No ID) - "I Used to Love HER"
DJ Jazzy Jeff (Kev Brown) - "For Da Love of the Game"
DJ Jazzy Jeff (Kev Brown) - "Muzik Lounge"
Hi-Tek - "1999"
Hi-Tek - "Respiration"
Souls of Mischief - "93' Til' Infinity"
Irv Gotti (Isaac Hayes) - "Can I Live"
Jay Dee (Dilla) - "Climax"
Outkast ((Organized Noize))
Pete Rock - "The World is Yours"
The RZA - "America"
Ski - "Dead Presidents"
Ski - "Feelin' It"
XVIII. Slum Village - "La, La"

This evening got together with my second to the youngest brother who was reminding me about all the cassette tapes I use to make him back when. We went through one of the external drives and scrolled through a list of beats. The track list above is the result of his selections.

For a lil' while now I've been thinking about re-posting all the playlists that were documented from back when during my time at 91.5 fm including the earlier programs that were dubbed on tape.  The idea is part of the Tape Decks (Audiobiography) that will be posted online someday.

In no particular order as far as date goes, I'll be posting those playlists on this blog site, including the mixtapes I've been putting together lately and some of the assembled CDs. This will also date back to the very first tape I dubbed of the Street Beat program out at UNM during the summer of 2000 (when it all started).  Props to Garret & Leo.

On occasion posts will also include images, fliers, thoughts and sometimes digitized audio from the cassettes that are boxed up in storage. To 91.5, 2000-2008, before and after.