Tag Archives: Music

#NaturalHair – The Soundtrack

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the soundtrack to our curls. (all pictures from last.fm)

I love stereotypes. After reading that sentence, you may be giving me the o_O face, but I genuinely do. I love them because I love getting the chance to break them. (Or maybe I’m a masochist, who knows?) Now there are a million and one stereotypes out there about us girls that have decided to go natural. Everything from we’re all militant feminists, to we’re all vegan, to we could never dare be friends with ANY woman who could even remotely think of putting a perm in her hair.

(._.)

One of the BEST (and absolutely hilarious) stereotypes is that girls with natural hair only listen to “conscious” music. No Southern rap, no booty shakin’ music, and DEFINITELY nothing outside the genres of R&B/approved hip-hop.

 

precisely what my face looked like.

 

My good friends Peebz and Alise that brought this assertion to my attention, and I got confused. Real confused. So what they’re saying is, the minute I chopped all of the perm out of my hair, I forfeited the right to listen to such great (and sometimes ratchet as all hell) artists such as UGK, Project Pat, and Gucci Mane? Oh. Ok. What am I supposed to listen to on the way to the bar? I mean, right now, I’ll listen to Racks on Racks, or Rack City, or The Motto (YOLO!) but am I supposed to be listening to Next Lifetime, Golden, or Doo Wop (That Thing) instead? And all because I have baby locs in my hair? NO MA’AM, NO SIR. I liked my ratchet music when I had a perm, and I might like it even more now because I get to shake these locs to it!

Don’t get me wrong, I love every song that I just named at the end of that sentence, but I feel like my selection of music shouldn’t be expected to change SOLELY because I don’t perm my hair anymore. Sometimes the world needs a little ratchet music. My iTunes isn’t indicative of what anyone else listens to but me. Hmph.

That being said, it was only fitting that I came up with a playlist of music that is #NaturalHair tried, tested, and approved. Here is a sneak peek into some of what will  help all of my natural-haired sisters through those long bouts of detangling, co-washing, re-twisting, Bantu knotting, and deep conditioning.

Sister Jill...

 

Because I am *not* my hair.

Queen Mother Chaka! (And ATCQ)

See? All vetted through the #NaturalHair Committee on Musical Selections.

The playlist can be found on my Spotify, and the more than 200 songs should prove to be your new go-to track list on your hair days, or any other day that you want to get a dose of approved music. :-)

To my readers, I come asking you for your help. If you have any suggestions on songs that could be added to the playlist (and that are #NaturalHair friendly), please toss them into the comments, and I’ll add them to my ever-growing list of songs. Happy co-washing and conscious music listening!

 

2011 – A Year In Review

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I’ve been tossing around the idea of doing a “Year in Review” post for the last couple of weeks, and until recently, I had no idea of how I wanted to write it. Now that I know how to write it, it’s high time I get this thing out and in the open. It’s truly hard to believe that 2011 is winding down to a close. I feel like I was just surrounded by my friends, sipping champagne, and watching the ball drop. Now here I am, in the last week of the year, blessed to have gotten to this point, and amazed at how awesome of a year I had. The best way for me for me to remember my year, and to take you along for the ride with me is to give you the Top 10 (in no particular order) Moments of 2011. Here we go!

10. In April of this year, I decided that I no longer wanted to perm my hair…mostly because it was costing me too much money on a biweekly basis to keep it up. I went to the hair salon one day, asked my stylist to chop all of the perm out, and haven’t looked back since. Having a tiny fro (which then became a medium fro) was such an awesome thing – I gained some self confidence, got to play around with products, got some cool accessories, and really started coming into my own. A little less than a month ago, I decided to start the process of locking my hair, and I’m definitely excited to see where it is by the time I write a post like this in 2012!

9. I left the nest! In September of this year, I did what I had wanted to do since I graduated from college – move out of Mom Dukes’ house. Now, anybody that knows me knows that that wasn’t because we had a bad relationship or because she tried to dictate my life, because she didn’t, but it was time for me to spread my wings. I feel like my relationship with her is now stronger than ever, AND I have two of the best roommates a girl could ask for. Win-win!

8. This July, I took my first trip to Canada and descended on the city of Toronto for its annual Caribbean celebration, Caribana. I had the time. of. my. life. From the epic dinner I had with my friends upon getting into the city, to the parade, to the hype-as-hell Sunday night party, I had a ball up there. I’m sure I’m going back next year.

7. I’m a smaller version of myself than I was a year ago at this time. In December of 2010, I weighed 210 easy. Nowadays, I’m teetering around the 190 pound mark. I haven’t lost a pant size yet, and I need to get back into the gym/back into exercising and revamping my diet, but I’m making progress. 2011 showed me just how important it is to be fit, and to physically feel good about yourself, and that’s something I’m definitely taking into 2012.

6. I thought that 2010 was the year of meeting people from the internet. Nope, 2011 took the crown and took the crown early. From the now infamous Three Deez VSB Weekend in DC in April to the DMV Tweetup Cookout in June and all of the random encounters in between and beyond, I have met a lot of people from Twitter this year. Some of them have turned out to be really great friends, and I’ve shared some amazing experiences with a lot of the people I met this year. If you’re reading this and you were introduced into my life in 2011, I am so glad to have met you and I hope that 2012 tops how awesome this year was for all of the social happenings, and I hope we create even more memories next year.

5. I started this blog this year! I’d had a blog for a while, but I actually sat down and took the time to buy a dot com and start an adjoining Twitter account for my little corner of the internet in 2011. I haven’t posted like I wanted to, but I’m proud of myself for taking a chance on this, and so thankful to each of you reading this right now. You push me to continue honing my craft, and apparently, you care somewhat about what I have to say – that means the world to me.

4. 2011 was the year I got back to my roots, and rediscovered my dormant love and appreciation for photography. From taking photos to editing photos to looking at photos, I love everything about being behind the lens of a camera. 2012 is sure to bring a host of updates and progression in this area of my life, and if you want to follow my challenge to myself to take 1 picture a day for all of 2012, you can do so here.

3. Three words: The Foreign Exchange. If you’ve spent any time with me ever in life, you already know how I feel about them. So it’s only fitting that 2011 was the year that I first saw them in concert (3 times- Falls Church, VA, Baltimore, MD, and Charlotte, NC), and the year that I made it my mission to expose everyone I could to their music. If seeing them in concert and getting to meet them wasn’t awesome enough, they also have a picture I took from the Charlotte show as their Twitter avatar. *squeals* :-)

2. In the vein of music, 2011 was the year that I chose not to deny myself from seeing any and every concert I wanted to see. From Eric Roberson to Sade and John Legend; Jill Scott to The Foreign Exchange; Phonte and 9th Wonder to Rebirth Brass Band; to Jay Z/Kanye West and The Roots this coming Friday, I’ve exposed myself to a wide array of music, and have had experiences that I can’t put a price on. I have to keep that going next year…

1. I turned 25 back in October, and as cliché as it may sound, I really do feel like my life took a drastic change that day. It was that day I decided to cut out toxic people from my life, to focus on honing my God-given talents of writing and photography, to appreciate my family and friends more than I ever had before, to chase my dreams no matter how unrealistic they might currently seem, to open my mind to the idea of new ways of thinking, to take time to treat myself better than ever, and to simply have fun and chase my happiness down no matter what it took.

If you’ve made it this far, you’ll see that 2011 was a year of great change, great triumph, amazing discoveries, and life-changing experiences. Yes, there were negative experiences throughout the year, but they don’t really have a place in this post. The last year has taught me many valuable lessons about myself, and I am grateful for every experience I’ve had, whether it was viewed as positive or negative at the time. I hope that 2012 is an even better year for me, and equally as amazing for you, my readers. I appreciate you all, and Happy New Year!

Feature Fridays – Picture Perfect

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Hey ya’ll! I’m back again with another installment of Feature Fridays, and this time, it’s to talk about two of my favorite artists out right now. If you hadn’t noticed, I’m a bit of an Eric Roberson fan, and a bit of a Foreign Exchange fan. Who knew? Well, much to my enjoyment, the newest single off of Erro’s forthcoming album is called “Picture Perfect” and it features Phonte.  Now, I might be a little bit biased, but I actually don’t think that either one of them could ever make anything less than awesome music. I remember hearing the song for the first time when I was off from work, and Erro decided to do a ustream. Granted, we didn’t get to hear the whole song on the stream, but I knew from the little bit I heard that it would be a hit. Eric Roberson and Phonte on the same track? How could you go wrong with this?

To be honest, I’m a sucker for love songs. Maybe it’s the Libra in me, maybe it’s the hopeless romantic in me, or maybe it’s just that I’m generally a fan of songs about love. Either way, a good love song will have me in such a good mood, and just really introspective and really relaxed. This song definitely does not disappoint. Not only is it a great love song, it’s a song that can make a woman feel good about herself. I mean, how often do you hear that you’re picture perfect? Who wouldn’t swoon over that? I think I especially swoon over it because of my love of photography…let a man tell me I’m picture perfect, you’ll see this light skinned chick blush all over the place. ;-)

Eric Roberson feat. Phonte – Picture Perfect

One of the things I love most about the song is how smooth it is. From Eric’s singing down to when Phonte hops in with his verse and then starts singing, the entire vibe of the song is extremely smooth. It’s almost like I should be listening to this song while driving into the city for a date, or while sitting at a café table with a glass of wine and a plate of appetizers.  At the end of the song when Erro goes into what he’s jealous of, and why he’s jealous? *insert epic amount of swoonage here* It’s just such a sweet song, so smooth, so well-written, and just amazing all around.

Needless to say, I am too hype for his album to come out.  Whenever one of my favorite artists is gearing up for the release of their new project, I find myself extremely hype along with them. This fall is shaping up to be a great one music-wise! To my readers, what songs do you know that are just extremely smooth and sexy? This is definitely at the top of my list for now…

Until next time, folks…

Feature Fridays – Sometimes

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*body rolls into the post*

Howdy, folks! I’m happy right now…you know why? It’s Friday — my 2nd favorite work day of the week (with the first being the Monday that I have off), and it’s also payday Friday, which makes today doubly awesome. I’m extra excited to get my weekend going because on Sunday night, I’m taking one of my best friends to see Jill Scott, Anthony Hamilton, Doug E Fresh, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Mint Condition at the Verizon Center. Can we say hype? I’ve been waiting for this concert ever since I heard it announced, and I’m too excited to be club level for what is sure to be an amazing show.

Now, one would think that in order to get ready for the concert, I’d blog about a Jill Scott song. Well, I kinda already did that not too long ago. Instead of focusing on Miss Jill (even though I love her dearly), I’m going to focus on the group that I’ve loved since I was a kid, but have never seen live. That’s right — Mint Condition. Ever since the first time I heard them, I knew I would be a fan for life. From Pretty Brown Eyes to U Send Me Swingin to If You Love Me…they have hits for days, and I’m eager to here what they pull out on Sunday.

The song I’ve picked for this week’s Feature is a song that I’ve been obsessed with for 6 years now. My boyfriend at the time decided to play this for me one night riding around DC in his car, and since he was a percussionist, he was enamored with the song, but I fell in love with it for so many different reasons. From the relevance of the words to the instruments in the song to the breakdown near the end, I’ve literally broken this song down hundreds of times and have never gotten tired of it. The song I’m talking about is “Sometimes” off of their Definition of a Band CD.

Mint Condition – Sometimes (Live in Atlanta)

The video I’ve linked here is a live rendition of the song, which is of course different from their studio version, but it is epic nonetheless. I urge you, if you don’t have Definition of a Band, please go get it because it is a classic, and then you’ll be able to hear the studio rendition of the song, and get the full effect of why I fell in love with it so long ago.

To all of my readers, what is your favorite Mint Condition song? If you were going to see them live, what would you absolutely have to hear them play to be satisfied? Talk to me about it in the comments! Have a fantastic weekend!

Until next time, folks…

Feature Fridays – Le BOOM Vent Suite

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Howdy folks! Welcome back to Feature Fridays, and today I have a pretty personal song chosen. I know it’s the Friday before a holiday, and everyone is amped to get their long weekend started (I KNOW I am), but I decided I needed to share this song with you all since it’s been on constant rotation for the last week.

It always feels like Christmas to me when an artist that I love releases new music. With every track that passes, it’s like ripping another piece of wrapping paper off of the biggest gift under the tree. When Jill Scott released her new album, “The Light of the Sun,” it was no different for me. Her music has been a soundtrack for me in both sad and happy times, so I was eager to see what direction she took this new album in. As with most new music I buy, I bought it on my iPod, so I pulled my headphones in while at my desk at work and began to listen. 1 got to track 5 and immediately stopped in my tracks.

http://youtu.be/I3szlTzmJ3c

“Le Boom Vent Suite” seems to speak to every corner of my life. It’s almost as if Jill took a trip to DC, asked me what was going on, and wrote a song about it. The beginning of the song is completely empowering for me, and inspires me to make some changes in my own life, while the end reminds me that it’s sometimes easier said than done. That balance between believing that someone doesn’t want you and you deciding that it’s time to leave with the realization that maybe they do want you if you stick it out, coupled with your realization that you completely want them and you feel that they’d benefit your life if they’d just get it together? Man. It’s like she knows me. It’s so beautifully painful for me to listen to that I can’t seem to turn away from it whenever it comes on. As if you couldn’t already tell, I relate best to music, but it’s especially gripping for me when I’m going through something or trying to get to a place that’s described in a particular song. Whenever I feel strongly about a song, I tend to listen to it over and over, and that’s exactly what I’ve done with this song this week.

If you haven’t done so already, please go buy her album! It’s a work of art from start to finish in my opinion, and as a woman, there are a few songs on there that I completely relate to and that I feel very strongly about, with “Le Boom Vent Suite” taking the lead for the one I feel the most about. Are there any songs that you all have that seem to just kick you in the chest because it most accurately describes your life at a certain point? Let’s chat about them in the comments! Until next time, folks…

Feature Fridays: Summertime (So Hot)

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Ah, the smell of burgers and dogs on the grill, the sight of girls in sundresses and sandals and guys in Polos, shorts, and their best pair of kicks, the blazing hot sun burning on the back of your neck…there’s no season like summer, and I’ve always loved it. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always associated some of my happiest memories with summer, and all of those memories involve music. Now that summer has officially hit, I would be remiss not to do a summertime song for this week’s feature. The all-time summertime anthem is now, and forever will be, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith’s Summertime, but I think this song I’m featuring here will become a close second, at least for me. This week’s Feature Friday is “Summertime (So Hot)” by Eric Roberson featuring Chubb Rock. Now, I had actually heard part of this song maybe about a month and a half ago when Eric did a Ustream that I was able to catch because I was off work, and ever since then, I was hoping I’d be able to hear it again. Lucky for me, Eric decided to release the song for download a couple of weeks ago.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsHqSXCDzn0]

Now that you’ve listened to it, try and tell me that you don’t hear summertime all up and through it! It’s almost as if they peeked into the future and captured the very essence of summertime and laid it on a track. As soon as the beat drops, I’m ready to stop whatever I’m doing and either a) 2 step around the room, b) go to the nearest car wash and clean my car, or c) drive down the highway with the sunroof open and this blasting from my speakers. It’s such a smooth, fun song, and I am absolutely in love with it. It conveys the spirit of summertime perfectly, and a smile can’t help but to spread across my face when I hear it. The song just makes me want to gather some friends, have a cookout, and sit and just enjoy each other from the daylight until dusk (and of course get up and dance with this comes on). I make a lot of playlists for general purposes, but I have to create a Summer 2011 playlist just to add this song to it.

After listening to it, and reading how I feel about it, I hope that you go download the song (it’s free), and that you add it to your cookout playlists. Speaking of summertime tunes, what other songs do you quickly associate with summer? I have an entire arsenal of songs that remind me of my favorite season, but I’ve done enough talking. Leave me some good songs in the comments, and I’ll see you all next week!

Feature Fridays: Greatest Weapon of All Time

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Hey ya’ll! It’s been a while since I’ve been here…a long while, and in my opinion, way too long. In order to interact with you all more, and to keep the place looking like something, I came up with the idea of starting a weekly series. I came up with an idea for a series to do two things: 1) it’ll get me in a consistent writing/posting habit (which is key as a writer), and 2) it’ll give you all out there an idea of where my head is on at least a weekly basis. I win, you win, all we do is win (x3). Khaled.

The name of this new series is called Feature Fridays. In the series, I’ve decided to showcase one song per week, give you the audio of the song, and also discuss why the song was so vital to my week, what the song means to me, and then give you a chance to maybe discover some new music and to learn something about me along the way. If you’ve been following me for some time, or you know me in real life, you know that I’m always surrounded by music. When I go to work in the mornings, I have my iPod in my ears, when I’m at work, I’m on YouTube for the music, and when I come home, I have music on in the car, and on my computer while I’m doing work. It, in a nutshell, is my life. What better way to dig deeper than to see what I have in constant rotation?

Without further adieu, I present to you the first Feature Fridays track: Zo! Feat. Sy Smith – Greatest Weapon of All Time

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWRbEojOywY?rel=0&w=425&h=349]

We all know how I feel about The Foreign Exchange and any and everything that comes off of their label, so it’s no surprise that my first song comes from an artist on their label. This song was vital to my week for a couple of very distinct reasons. For starters, I’ve been in a bit of a rut when it comes to my writing. It’s always been a dream of mine to not only write, but to publish a novel. I struggle with the thought that what I write isn’t up to par with what else is out there on the market, so instead of trying to write more to get better, I clam up and write sporadically (as we can se by how I tend to this blog). Needless to say, that’s completely counterproductive to what I’m trying to do, and I’ve gotten to the point where I need to change that if I ever want to see my dream come to fruition. There’s a line in the song where Sy Smith says “Don’t ever underestimate/the power/of your heart and soul/cuz they might write the greatest/love story that’s/ever been told.” Now I know I’ve heard this song countless times before this week, but for whatever reason, that line has been on repeat non-stop in my head! It’s almost like it’s exactly what I needed to hear in order to get some inspiration. Within the last seven days, I’ve done research on what is needed to create a successful story, read a book about how to properly set yourself up to write, and created a skeletal plot outline. Talk about motivation.

The song has also helped me on a more personal note. I have my days where I feel like I live the cookie-cutter life: get up, get dressed, go to work, come home, work out, play on the computer, shower, eat somewhere within the day, sleep, rinse, and repeat. It’s not a hard life to live in terms of work, but it’s pretty difficult to live such a structured life when I used to thrive on freedom, which allowed me to do the things I wanted/needed to do without becoming an insomniac. After listening to this song on repeat a few (read: many) times, it dawned on me that I still have the freedom to do exactly what it is that I want and feel like I need to do – I just have to be a bit more creative in how I approach it, and if I want it bad enough, I’ll have to make the time to do it. It starts within my mind, and telling myself that I actually can achieve the things that I want to do, and to stop underestimating myself and what I’m capable of and destined for. As someone who spends a lot of time in internal reflection rather than projecting feelings outward, it’s been a difficult task to convince myself that I have what it takes to be successful. Whenever I feel like I’m not cut out for my dreams, I cut this song on, close my eyes if I can, and envision myself living out the life that I feel inclined to live. It’s an amazing feeling to see yourself in situations that you never imagined possible before.

For those of you that have heard this song, do you see where I’m coming from? Have you ever had a song that gave you the right mix of inspiration and motivation to get you to where you wanted to go, even if it was a very short journey to get there? For those of you that haven’t heard the song, check it out above, leave some of your thoughts and comments, and be sure to follow Zo! and Sy Smith on Twitter to keep up with them! Until next time, folks…

I Wanna Be She…

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Unlike a lot of people in my circle of friends, I got introduced to certain amazing music pretty late in the game. It wasn’t until last summer that I was introduced to the amazing, talented, and gifted Eric Roberson. And let me just say that the first time I heard his music, I was completely blown away. Now, I’m not ashamed to admit, it took me a while to buy his album Music Fan First. I don’t know what the hell took me so long to get it, but once I did, I was pleasantly surprised, taken aback, and almost immediately fell in love with the album. As on any album, there is typically one song that stands completely out to me, and becomes my favorite track on the disc. In this case, the song off of his album is “She.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOiBNGCyv00]

This song is just…beautiful. I don’t think that there is another word that adequately describes the song. It’s simple, it’s poignant, it’s direct, and it spoke directly to my soul. I’ve known since the first time I heard it that it was a special song to me, but it wasn’t until I was driving home from Baltimore on Friday night that it really resonated with me why the song was so special to me. Mind you, I have listened to this song countless times, have listened and processed the words of the song, and have committed most of the song to memory, but it never really hit me why I was so in love with the song. It dawned on me that I want to be “she.” In every single line of the song, I long to be that woman to someone (who deserves it from me). For the first time in a very long time, I actually think I’m capable of being “she” to someone, which is taking some getting used to on my end. Once I came to that realization, I also noticed that it’s the simplest yet most powerful declaration of love I’ve heard laid over music in a very long time, and I can see myself in every note, melody, and rhythm of the song.

What does this mean to me at this very moment? It’s hard to tell…I know that I do desire something meaningful at this point in life. As I said above, I also recognize that I’m capable of providing support, love, and companionship to someone. I desire someone that likes me, wants to get to know me, and respects and cherishes me, but I know that that process takes time to get to and through. Am I in a particular rush? Not necessarily. I do think it would be nice, and every time I hear this song, I feel a little twinge of hope that it can happen for me some day.

I know I can’t be the only one out here who relates to a song on a deep emotional level. What song is it for you, and how does it make you feel? If this song spoke to you, what did it say? Leave me some thoughts in the comments.

Until next time, folks…