“Scenario” by Tribe Called Quest (Video linked in post)
It was so hard to pick the track to represent the next era of my life. Like really fucking hard. For me the genre has to be 90s Hip-Hop, because I was listening to so much and seeing a lot of shows during the late 90s, early 2000s. But which group out of all of the groups I was listening to takes this spot on my list? Which song? There are songs that pay homage to past groundbreakers in Hip-Hop like Common’s “Love of my Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)” featuring Eryka Badu, who I listened to so much during this time. It would have been one and done. Boom!
Although I like the song, it isn’t the song.
There are a lot of reasons people love Hip-Hop, but for me, it boils down to two. One: Hip-Hop tells a story encapsulated in time. If you can encapsulate history in time you can learn from it and never be doomed to repeat it. Not only do these song talk about what is happening in pop culture, but is social-political criticism. They do more to hold a mirror to society, not just the seriousness but language use, nods to pop culture, the rules of what you can and can’t say on the radio. Even what people can see you say in your music videos as shown with the blurred out mouths in some videos during the 90s.
The second is that it is a choose-your-own-adventure in music history by way of samples. I have discovered so many songs and artists through researching samples.
“You Got (What I Need)” by Freddie Scott sampled in “You Got What I Need” by Biz Markie.
“It was a Good Day” from Ice Cube led me to the Isley Brothers’ “Footsteps in the Dark.”
Tribe Called Quest used “Walk on the Wild Side” by Lou Reed for “Can I Kick it?”
And so on..
Hip-Hop was as influential as any friend was in helping me find new music to listen to. So which song for my third pick?
The third song came to me in a very L.A. fashion. I was at an industry party for a certain movie that came out a couple summers ago. Nas was there, Ray Parker Jr. was there, there were beautiful people, there were tiny Hi-C boxes of Ecto Cooler. The DJ was playing a lot of 90s Hip-Hop which I was bopping my head and speaking along to most of words. Then “Scenario” by Tribe Called Quest came on and I still knew every word. The thing was, I noticed that there were only a few of us that did. The DJ and I had a moment during the Busta Rhymes section, but other than that there were a lot of young, beautiful people there who obviously had never heard it before. They had never heard Tribe before and I thought that was sad. I realized that I was at a party with a bunch of people who did not remember the 90s at all.
“Scenario” encapsulates the 90s very well. Let’s take a moment to watch the video.
First of all, those graphics! Very early PC and early Nintendo.
There are nods to Troll dolls and the Taco Bell tagline “Run for the Border,” which is several taglines ago.
There are nods and cameos by people who were well known in the 90s.
The lyrics start with “Bo knows this, and Bo knows that, but you don’t know jack cause Bo can’t rap.” Referring to Bo Jackson who was popular at the time for playing both professional baseball and football. Cameos and features by Hip-Hop legends De La Soul and a 19 year old Busta Rhymes, who became legend after that. Spike Lee is in there and Fab Five Freddy who launched Yo! MTV Raps. (You may remember his name in Blondie’s “Rapture” when she starts nonsensically rapping and drops his name.)
This song reminds me of middle school and high school when I would go to my friend Senait’s house and watch Yo! after school with her. She was the one who told me about the Minnesota Center for Arts Education (Now Perpich Center for Arts Education) where I spent my last two years of high school. This is how I left my small town to become a writer. Thank you Yo!
By the way, I put together a little playlist of original songs and songs that sampled them. You can listen to it here. Do not shuffle and listen to it in order or it doesn’t make as much sense.
TOMORROW..I want to thank you for being a jerk.