A followup, sort of...

Alright, looked like I was one and done there for a bit but guess what, I'm not. I saw that my last post was in June and that's just not acceptable is it. I partly just wanted to wait until I felt I had something interesting or relevant to say because I value your friendship and I don't want to waste your time, because baby, I love you. But mostly I was just lazy about it.

ANYWAYS....

My last post was about hip hop and soul and this is sort of a follow up. I've been wanting to create beats for sometime now and not too long ago I started to attempt doing so. I took some grooves I've been working on and put them up on a last.fm page. Unfortunately, I'm not an MC and don't know anyone who really is so they are rhyme-free. However, if you or someone you know is looking for a collaborator don't hesitate to get in contact. Until next time....

Click here for a listen.

What happened to all the soul singers of the world?

I know you're out there, Sharon Jones is out there. I've always loved hip-hop, especially the beats. The first truly influential hip-hop record I had was probably Atmosphere's God Loves Ugly. Being a teenager I was easily enthralled by Slug's melodramatic lyrics, that's not to say I'm not anymore because I am. But the thing that really got me hooked were the beats. I believe Ant produced most if not all of those beats and has continued to do so for a lot of Rhymesayers albums. Ant has an incredible ability at taking soul samples and re-creating them into whole new pieces of music, music that many times is significantly different than the original tune, that's one reason hip hop is so amazing to me.

Anyways, within the last couple years I've began exploring those old soul songs. After all, if I can feel it in a hip hop beat I should certainly be able to feel it in its original form. My conclusion: SOUL MUSIC IS THE SHIT. It's hard to say any one genre of music is better than any other and in fact it's just not right to say that. But soul music of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, to me, is second to none at provoking emotion, which is what music is supposed to do, right? Right! Artists like Aretha Franklin and Curtis Mayfield among many many others have that special ability to make you feel their heartache and their joy, and to make you feel like they are actually experiencing those emotions as they sing. What gets my goad is that they've all seemed to disappear. Genres live and die and some die rightfully (I'm looking at you 80's synth pop) but soul music just feels timeless to me, it's not gimmicky, it feels like it's actually in touch with the human spirit... and yet instead of listening to the reincarnation of Nina Simone on the radio we get pro-tooled out Lady fucking Gaga and her stupid haircuts. Mainstream radio's best impersonation of soul music is whatever new ballad American Idol decides to shit out that month, and it's not even close at all, AT ALL. Of course, soul is not what they're trying to do, why I don't know. So, this was my first real post, wanted to get it off my chest. But for real, you might really really like soul music if you immerse yourself a bit, I know I do. I'll leave you with a Nina Simone tune that breaks my heart every time I listen to it.

First post to the internets...

I've been interested in the idea of starting a blog for a long time now and well, here it is. I'm doing this for a couple reasons. First off, I like to write, simple as that. Sadly, I haven't been doing it in a way that's satisfying since I graduated college. Second, I think this will be a good way to share all sorts of interesting things happening in my life, the world, the universe (probably not the universe) and so on. So... tune in?

Love,

Jon