July’s tbtotm, biiig tune, produced by the big neptizzle. (actual video here cuz I can’t embed) If you do comparisons between Timbo and The Neptunes for late 99/00, you can see between them they both put out a lot of bangers. I’d have to go with Neptunes in 00 though.. I have a soft spot for that Ray-J beat. ANND Southern Hospitality. Anyway, I remember hearing this song on the radio for the first time and being completely entranced by Mya’s voice. (Likely not the first or last time that happens regarding Mya’s voice.) I didn’t even know there was a video to it, and she looks gorgeous in it. This song was on the charts for 11 weeks, and topped out at a modest #24. Good job Beenie Man! (If Beenie Man’s accomplishments were great enough to warrant a biopic, I would hope that Don Cheadle shows up to get cast. so serious.)

+ Lately I’ve been kinda into the idea of the girl roll call in rap/r&b. Anytime actual names get used in lyrics or songnames, it makes it more memorable, probably 100x moreso if it actually is your name. What I thought was a more common occurrence turned out to be.. a rarity? Maybe I’m just not thinking hard enough/remembering enough songs. The ones that pop into mind with the quickness are:

• LL Cool J – Around The Way Girl (Lisa, Angela, Pamela, Renee)
• The Dream – Shawty Is A Ten (Keisha, Sonya, Tanya, Monique, Nece, Keke, etc)
• Petey Pablo – Freek-A-Leek (Shameka, Keisha, Tara, Shonda, Sabrina, Crysta, Daronda, etc)
• Slum Village – Selfish (The whole 3rd verse: Whatup Pam, how yo little man doin in New Jersey)

additions:

• Boyz II Men – All Around The World (Keisha, Kelly, Tanya, Stacy, Mica, and LaShaun)
• Blackstreet – No Diggity (Jackie, Lisa, Nicky, Tameka in full effect)
• Big Tymers – Project Bitch (This is for Deshawn, Eshlawn, Lil Mama and her friends, Lisa, Teresa, Maria, Tia, Lia and Kim)
• Wordsworth & Punchline – Mistress (Theresa, Ingrid, Shirelle verses)
• Too $hort – Freaky Tales (Joan, Denise, Lori, Lisa, etc)
• Portrait – Can I Call You (Lisa, Sharon, Vanessa, Karen, Patricia, Vicky, Ramona)
• Biz Markie – Just A Friend (Agnes, Agatha, Germaine, Jacq)

And that’s all I could come up with. As with my other compendium, I’ve got to set some rules, but this one’s pretty easy: Has to have the girl roll call. Meaning, it can’t be focused on a single girl. So no Sheilas or Sallys. Please help me find the diamonds in the rough, or if I’m just overlooking obvious choices, the diamonds in a stack of diamonds. (sidenote: of the four songs I chose to use as examples, Keisha shows up in two of them. Girllll you get around.)

+ Some older mixes I did (and probably posted about) earlier this year, the mini WFMU mix and the Midnight Snacks mix. One is chill, one is booty bass/bmore. Figure it out.

+ I’ve moved my whole design site to Cargo, which is honestly one of the easiest and friendliest CMS’s out there. I used to think that sticking with WordPress would be fine, but I just got bored of hacking wp so much – plus all that knowledge is slowly getting depreciated, and I’m much (MUCH) too lazy to learn a new piece of software just to show off work. This is one advent of web 2.0 (shouldn’t this be like web 3.0? web 4 beta? web 2010 for workgroups) that I will gladly embrace.

after getting reminded of this video, i wanted to find other b&w hip hop vids. things just look a lot more classy in b&w. i originally only thought there would be a few, but after we did some youtube research we found a lot lot, esp ones i forgot about. (youtube is really good at that) any more and i’ll post them in comments. my criteria is that it has to be fully b&w, no color scenes involved. a tribe video failed this test, also the monstars – hit em high video fails because of the cartoon cuts. (edit: big daddy kane removed from list cuz it has color in it!)

in no particular order:
craig mack – flava in ya ear remix
e-40 – tell me when to go
snoop – drop it like its hot
cypress hill – real estate
ll cool j – mama said knock you out (it’s sepia toned, so does that count?)
ll cool j – goin back to cali
atcq – electric relaxation
atcq – jazz (we’ve got)
nas – the world is yours
jay-z – 99 problems
d-nice – crumbs on the table
busta rhymes – fire it up
ice cube – dead homiez
redman – tonight’s da night

* i was watching the special delivery remix video because i was watching the hi hater remix vid. damn mya.

an interesting observation: old school videos were all 4:3 aspect ratio, and were made 16:9 to look cinematic. now, videos are made 2.35:1 to look cinematic, because 16:9 is almost standard. this leads me to believe:

+ 2.35:1 monitors will be the hot shit in a few years
+ people will start to film in 16:9 to achieve a vintage, old school feel
+ don’t listen to anything i say