10 Random Songs Wednesday

If you have not been paying attention, every Wednesday I put my MP3 player on random, see what pops up, and I write about why I have it on there.

Do You Feel Me (Remix) by Anthony Hamilton & Ghostface Killa
This song is from the American Gangster original soundtrack and it sounds like a soul song from the 70's. I'm pretty sure Ghost jumped on this, the same way he jumped on Beyonce's Summertime several years back.

Definition by Black Star
How the hell does it happen that in the 11 years since the release of their self titled debut that there has been no follow up record. This record is a Hip-Hop staple, and if you don't have it in your Serato, you need to get it together.

Borderline by Madonna
This song has one of the best melodies of any 80's pop song. I'm not really a fan of much of her stuff that came out after she stopped working with Nile Rodgers, but this is a great song.

Devil In A New Dress by Kanye West feat. Rick Ross
This one of the only songs on his new record that he did not produce. Bink! pimped the hell of a Smokey Robinson sample to make this beat. Even people who hate Rick Ross like his verse on this track.

I Got a Love by Pete Rock & CL Smooth
This was the first single off of their second LP The Main Ingredient. Pete Rock built most of this beat around The Ambassadors "Ain't Got The Love" which is an incredible song in it's own right. CL Smooth was always dope as emcee to me because he could always show love to the ladies in his rhymes on some grown man shit without being corny.

Slow Down (original) by David Banner & 9th Wonder
I bought Their new record Death Of The Popstar and I really dig it, except that they changed the arrangement of "Slow Down" for the album version. Either they could not clear the vocal sample or they decided it would be cheaper to have someone re sing it. Either way I dislike the the album version enough that I always skip it.

Somebody For Me by Heavy D & The Boyz feat. Al B Sure
I can't stress to people enough how under rated Heavy D is. This was the second single from their second album Big Tyme. This is when Hip-Hop was still so much fun. Shortly after this single came out you, light skinned dudes were not in style anymore and you could not have two of them on one song.

Everyday Struggle by The Notorious BIG
This is my favorite song by Biggie. It is easily his most honest record because it makes selling crack seem like the most miserable thing in the world. What he accomplished in this song seems to be lost on the current generation of Hip-Hop artists who rap about the street life. My friend DJ 2 Deep has the record by Dave Grusin where the sample for this song comes, and it is incredible how such a hard core beat can come out of a smooth jazz song.

Good by Ghostface Killa
Most of the time, I am not quite sure what Ghost is talking about. This doesn't stop me from putting him at the top of my favorite emcees list. This song is off of the More Fish. I really wish I had an instrumental for this.

My Secret by New Edition
This song was on the same album as "Mr. Telephone Man". I saw the video a little while ago and I can see why the rest of the group did not eff with Ralph from time to time. The plot of the video involves New Edition going to a Los Angeles Lakers game and with the game on the line, Pat Reilly sees Ralph in the stands and puts him in the game. Ralph's street clothes turn into a Laker uniform, he gets an ally-oop pass from Magic Johnson and the Lakers win the game. This actually turns out to be some sort of daydream, but while Ralph is outside the stadium walking away looking all dejected, Magic Johnson comes up to him outside of the stadium and gives him a high five like that shit happened for real completely ignoring Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky and Mike. Aside from all of this what really bothered me is that the whole group is from Boston. They must have caught hell for this video when they went home because the Lakers & Celtics were fighting wars on the court when this song was out. This is the last New Edition video Bobby Brown was in until 1995.

Here is some useless trivia, the actress that played Ricky and Doughboy's mother in Boyz N' The Hood is in this video. She is one of the girls on the street watching New Edition dance before they go to the Lakers' game.