Annnd as DLT90s gets closer and closer to its one-year anniversary (June 1st, mark it down), I introduce another lil’ feature I plan to do more of in the future: DanjLovesTheAlbums. Of course, there’s some ’90s albums that I’ve already covered in depth, and there’ll be be more. DLTAlbums will be for some of the others that made me tick during the decade, and whether or not I still feel the same way about ‘em today as I did then.
13 Comments | 
Classic Material, DanjLovesTheAlbums, DanjLovesTheR&B, New Jack Swing | Tagged: 1990, BBD, JOHNNY GILL, NEW EDITION, RALPH TRESVANT | 
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In the timeless words of Ghostface, “his shape-up was ALL fucked up!” And with that, I begin the Winter Six- my own photographic memory along with six of my favorite songs from each year, which will be featured here every Friday until March. Checkitouuut:
16 Comments | DanjLovesTheHipHop, DanjLovesTheR&B, My Life, New Jack Swing, Winter Six, Young Youth | Tagged: 1990, BABYFACE, BIG DADDY KANE, BIZ, DANJLOVESTHE90S, LL COOL J, TEVIN CAMPBELL, WinterSix | Permalink
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So… I’m on Twitter the other day wastin’ time like I always do, and I caught an interesting Hip-Hop Confession by the great Jazzy Jeff. As fate would have it, he and Will Smith were the intended stars of House Party. Clearly, their decision not to do the movie didn’t affect their careers (and definitely not Will’s film opportunities), but Kid-N-Play prob’ly love them for that decision.
No dis to K-N-P, but House Party is BY FAR the high point of their six-year run. To their credit, they had their own lane in the game for a hot minute. Whether or not the more hardcore crowd was diggin’ it, the youngins were rollin’ with Kid-N-Play kinda hard. We tried to do the dances, and if it wasn’t that, we definitely tried to do that jump-thru-the-leg shit. So once it debuted in March of ’90, this was the movie we all wanted to see. After everybody saw it, of course we were either trying to learn the whole K-N-P routine or repeating the lines like “we’re gonna kick your fuckin’ aaaaaass!“
Before us black folk just started coming out with all kinds of half-ass comedies near the end of the decade, House Party was notable for featuring some legitimately comedic muh’fuckas. Robin Harris, Martin Lawrence, and Full Force brought the majority of the funny parts, but there were also lots of small bit characters and quotes that kept it rollin’ for the whole ride. Even things like the recurring commercials for the Hey Love compilation album were humorous- especially for those who remember how much that shit really did use to come on TV.
Like a number of teen-aimed comedies that start off on a good note (Revenge Of The Nerds, Porky’s, American Pie), House Party ended up going waaay downhill as a series. It even got to a point where, like the others, there ended up being a straight-to-DVD sequel that’s related to the original by name only. If you’ve ever been unfortunate enough to be watching BET and witness the “Black Star Power” that is House Party 4, you know what I’m gettin’ at.
Regardless of those, the first party is almost 20 years old and still appealing. I know kids who weren’t even alive in 1990, but like this movie. Likewise, there’s a lot of flicks I liked at 10 that I wouldn’t dare watch now, yet I still pop the DVD in every few months or so. Whether it’s Full Force with the quotables, “Chill” bumping into the table over and over, Tisha Campbell and A.J. Johnson lookin’ all wavy, Robin Harris clownin’ the other A.J. Johnson’s Jheri curl (“follow the drip!”), or K-N-P’s battle- House Party is still a solid 90 minutes that’s one of the most fun movies I’ve seen.
MUSIC FROM House Party:
Kid-N-Play “Kid Vs. Play (The Battle)”
Full Force “Ain’t My Type Of Hype”
Today “Why You Gettin’ Funky On Me”
Public Enemy “Can’t Do Nuttin’ For Ya Man”
-D!
9 Comments | DanjLovesTheMovies | Tagged: 1990, KID-N-PLAY | Permalink
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So… I’m the only one who used to listen to the slow jam show at night? Nah, y’all listened to it too. Truthfully, I spent a good part of my teenage years being more interested in “GTD-ing” than bein’ in love and all that ol’ bullshit. But of course, there’d be those times where so-called “love” would take over and I’d be in my tight-ass room with the radio on at 10 p.m., checkin’ out the Love Zone.
All of these songs that I usually wouldn’t listen to would suddenly make all kinds of sense. I’d be sittin’ there really feelin’ these niggas’ plights, even though you couldn’t have forced me to listen to three hours of slow joints the week before. It was especially serious when it’d be a song that spoke specifically to the situation that was goin’ on. I’d be noddin’ along with the song and agreeing, on some “yeah, why she can’t see that?” shit.
But you KNEW it was serious when you’d call and do an on-air dedication. I’ll admit, I did a couple before. When you think about it, there’s always a song for just about any situation. Allow me… and as usual, if you want ‘em, click ‘em:
For That Time You Were Just Tryin’ To Impress Her… TROOP “All I Do Is Think Of You” (1990): You prob’ly had other shit on your mind, but she didn’t know that. It was very ego-catering to believe she was all you thought of, so you really couldn’t lose with this one. If you really did happen to look forward to seein’ her in school everyday (hopefully in a non-stalker way), this helped get that across. Also, yet another reason why The ’90s Loved Michael Jackson.
For That Time You Just Wanted To “GTD” Her… H-Town “Knockin’ Da Boots” (1993): Or “KDB”, either/or. This was that undeniable one right here: it was smooth enough to be a slow joint, but still ig’nant enough to say “I’m tryna take that”. I learned in time that blatant is just the way to go sometimes. I took a hot minute to realize this, but better late than never I guess.
For That Friend You Liked Who Was Bein’ Mistreated By The Dude She Was With… Shai “Comforter” (1993): Not that you were preyin’ on her vulnerability, but you really liked this got-damn girl. This could only go one of two ways. She was either gonna end up fallin’ for you the more she confided in you (possible), or she was gonna completely miss the hint and continue to be with the dude she cried to you about (likely). And on the off-chance that she did get with you, she wasn’t gonna take half the shit from you that she accepted from him. But hey… it’s a good song.
For That Time You Actually Had A Chance Of Pullin’ Someone Who Was Taken… Joe “All The Things Your Man Won’t Do” (1996): Realistically, you weren’t gonna do anything that much different from her man, but it sounded like some true stuff to say. And with Joe, these “tryna pull another dude’s girl” songs don’t just stop here. I’ll never forget the “I Wanna Know” video- the girl was havin’ an argument with her man, and this nigga Joe couldn’t even wait ’til it was over before he was already headin’ towards her, talkin’ bout “ya man givin’ you trouble?” But uh, yeah!
For The Time When It Was Over And You Were Sad As Shit… Aaron Hall “I Miss You” (1994): We’re all adults here, right? It’s OK to admit it. You put on a front in public, you told ya mans n’nem that you weren’t sweatin’ it cause you don’t luh dem hoes, you mighta even told her you weren’t gonna miss her ass. But when you got home and her number wasn’t poppin’ up on that Caller ID anymore, you heard this song and shit got REAL.
And there’s definitely more. I’m not done with these, as I’ll surely be adding on to this topic at least a few more times in the future. I used to think love songs were all the same, but as I’ve gotten older, I realize that it’s a lot more complex than it gets credit for sometimes. In the meantime, stay tuned… and feel free to add your own here.
-D!
6 Comments | DanjLovesTheR&B, GTD, HA!, Love Movement | Tagged: 1990, 1993, 1994, 1996, AARON HALL, GTD, H-TOWN, JOE, LOVE ZONE, SHAI, TROOP | Permalink
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What up, gangstas? This is the start of a weekly series I’ll be doing here on DanjLovesThe90s throughout the next couple months. I’ll be covering the summer of each year in the ’90s, in addition to throwing in seven of what were my favorite songs during that time. Charge it to my keen memory or whatever-have-you, but these are just a few accounts of what were my coming-of-age years. And of course, in the event that you don’t give a damn about my life, there’s music as well so you can’t be too mad at it. Here we go!
For me, ’90 was the last year that I was really a kid. I would spend the following years tryin’ to be older than I was, but by this point, I was just getting out of elementary school. I was still into video games, cartoons, watching wrestling, and playing with my WWF action figures. When it wasn’t that, I liked going to the movies with either my mother or my aunt and uncle. In fact, I thought Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the best movie I was ever gonna see in my life- a feeling that has since subsided, of course.
’90 was the year that I really started getting into music even more than I had been prior to that. Whereas before, I’d mostly listen to the radio or whatever tapes my brother or sisters had, I was now starting to want tapes of my own. I didn’t have cable, but every time I’d visit my father’s house, I made sure to carry a blank tape with me to record as many new videos as I could.
I was staying at my uncle’s house for the summer and attending the Arena Playhouse five days a week. There, I learned dance, acting, art, and creative writing. It was an enjoyable experience, at least until I got kicked out for throwing milk on another one of the kids. It was in response to him (purposely) spilling milk on my shoe, but because I “overreacted” and completely splashed him, I was the one who got thrown out of the program. So I spent the rest of the summer in the house, eating snacks and listening to my uncle’s AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted tape whenever I could sneak a listen.
At the end of that summer, I was heading into middle school. I was a little heartbroken because I had a crush on my 16-year-old neighbor Joy, only to find out she had a boyfriend (like I had a chance). More than anything, though, I was still being a typical 10-year-old doing 10-year-old shit.
The Danj! Summer Seven of 1990 (in no particular order):
A Tribe Called Quest “Bonita Applebum”: Q-Tip and co. officially enter my ears with this lil’ catchy three-minute jingle. I didn’t know what “crazy prophylactics” were, but I was feelin’ this song pretty hard.
Bell Biv Devoe “Do Me!”: Fresh off “Poison”, the three backgrounders of New Edition keep stepping to the forefront- smackin’ it up, flippin’ it, and rubbin’ it down.
Kwame & A New Beginning “Ownlee Eue”: A few years before he and “them fuckin’ polka dots” were rendered irrelevant, Kwame was doin’ his thing.
Keith Sweat “Make You Sweat”: I swear, this dude caught a lot of jokes for being of the whiniest singers ever, but he made some solid-ass songs- this being one of my favorites to this day.
Klymaxx “Good Love”: The ’80s were good to Klymaxx… the ’90s? Not so much. But before the party ended, they slid with one last hit for the New Jack era.
Ice Cube “A Gangsta’s Fairytale”: The song that drew me to Cube’s debut solo joint, as O’Shea schools us on what Cinderella is really up to when the clock strikes 12.
Tony! Toni! Tone! “Feels Good”: The hits keep comin’ for the T3, and I was dancin’ my ass off to this one. Pac’s brother was right- Tony! Toni! Tone! had done it again.
Until Wednesday…
-D!
12 Comments | Classic Material, DanjLovesTheHipHop, DanjLovesTheR&B, My Life, New Jack Swing, Summer Seven Series | Tagged: 1990, 90s, ATCQ, BBD, DANJLOVESTHE90S, DanjLovesTheR&B, ICE CUBE, KEITH SWEAT, NEW EDITION, RAP, TONY! TONI! TONE! | Permalink
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Since I’ve already had the audacity to put that 6th grade pic up for my first post, I may as well continue the self-deprecation by admitting to something. It’s something that most self-respecting hip-hoppers wouldn’t admit although there’s a 50% chance that they did it too. Yes… there was a time between September and December 1990… that I actually liked Vanilla Ice. Don’t judge.
“Ice Ice Baby”, for all intents and purposes, wasn’t that bad of a song. I can think of many songs that were worse, some of which I’ll be talking about in the future. It’s clearly his biggest record ever, and maybe that’s why it gets all the hatred that it does- it’s the thing most commonly connected to the overall fuckery that was/is Vanilla Ice. However, for anyone unfortunate enough to hear some of his OTHER output, that’s nothing. “Ice Ice…” sounds like fukkin’ “Straight Outta Compton” when compared to a few of his other disasterpieces. Stop, collaborate, and listen…
Take for instance, “I Love You” (click to hear). Here, the Iceman melts with desire and shows us the real Rob Van Winkle. Channeling his inner LL, he salutes his girl’s “devastating body and sweet profile”, then invites her to wine and dine with him. He goes on to promise that he’d buy her everything… “yes, girl- even diamond rings!” After the verses and a sax solo, Rob gets on the phone and lets us all hear him confess to his woman that he looooves her. CLEARLY, if there’s somethin’ besides “Ice Ice Baby” to joke on, this fake-ass “I Need Love” could be a top candidate. It’s worth noting, though, that while Vanilla half-assed it, whoever played the sax on this shit WENT HARD.
Ice sold a gang of records with his To the Extreme album, and as a result, he was a superstar. He got to make a movie, had his own action figure, and even got to hit off Madonna. But better than all that, he got a cameo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze. In “Ninja Rap”, he hits us with burning questions like “have you ever seen a turtle get down?” He also breaks new ground in lyricism by being the first and only MC to rhyme “turtle” with “level”. Then there’s the hook: “Ninja, Ninja- RAP!” coupled with a classic refrain: “Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!” How does this song (that was actually a hit) fly under the radar of all things wack about Vanilla Ice? Hmmm… maybe that’s the Secret of the Ooze.
After being exposed as a fraud and becoming the ass of a million jokes, Ice felt the backlash. He practically disappeared after ’91 and wasn’t seen again until early-’94. There was half a chance that he’d taken nearly three years off to get focused and silence his critics with his follow-up album, Mind Blowin’. BUT- being Vanilla Ice, he managed to become MORE of a joke. Much like his pop-rap counterpart MC Hammer, Vanilla opted to come back “hard” for ’94, complete with blonde dreads and hockey jerseys. His single “The Wrath” saw him threatening to either start slittin’ rappers’ throats or using his Magnum on ‘em (pause). He even utilized gunshot sound effects and mentioned how he carries his “striz-ap to bust a ciz-ap”. The response to this newer, harder Ice was a resounding “nigga, please.”
But fuck all that: in the long run, Vanilla has nothin’ to be ashamed of. Sure, he became the personification of what it was to be wack in the ‘90s. Sure, he is now forced to perform a song he hates, just to keep his lights on. OK, maybe he did get his ass beat by Todd Bridges on Celebrity Boxing. And of course, there’s that time Suge may or may not have hung him upside down off the hotel balcony. Still, even Rob would have to admit- those six months of relevance between ’90 and ’91 were PROB’LY a lot of fun. Word To Ya Mutha.
-D!
11 Comments | DanjHatesThe90s, DanjLovesTheHipHop, Guilty...Next Case, Hatin' On You, Here Today/Gone Today, SMH, Wiggedy-Wack | Tagged: 1990, platinum?, that shit's ridiculous, Vanilla Ice | Permalink
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“Whatever music you was listenin’ to when you first started gettin’ laid is always gonna be your favorite music!“- Chris Rock
I wish I could start off by telling some elaborate story of how I contemplated and formulated some grand idea for this blog. Closer to the truth, I suddenly decided that I’d create one and then wondered what in the hell I could base it around. After giving it (very) brief thought, I decided that the thing I’m best at talking about is the thing I love most: the music I grew up on.
Props to movies and TV (which I’ll also be covering), but music was THE thing for me, first and foremost. As a child in B-More, I grew up in a house where the radio STAYED on. At 8:02 a.m., I got dressed for school with music in the background. At 3:57 p.m., I’d come home and hear it before I got in the door. At 7:45 p.m., I came in from playing outside to the sounds of whatever song V103 was playing. As a result, it was only a formality for me to become hooked on music myself. By ’87, I’d taped so many videos, my upstairs neighbor referred to me as “Video King”.
I loved (and still love) a lot of ’80s music of all genres, but I REALLY got locked in during the ’90s. It was the decade in which I not only listened to music… I also made it, spun it at parties, read about it, wrote about it in my school newspaper, talked about it, and simply LIVED it. I woke up and went to sleep to it. I got smoked out and intoxicated to it. And YEP, I even got laid to it. There’s music of other genres that occasionally struck me, but the Hip-Hop and R&B of that decade was (as they say) the soundtrack of my life during the coming-of-age stage.
I’ll be quick to admit, I’m not as crazy about it as I once was. I’ve long ago reached that point that most adults eventually reach, when they’re nowhere near the fans they were at say, 15 or so. I do feel like there are some things SORELY missing from today’s Urban music that shouldn’t be. On the other hand, I’m not as concerned with “mourning the death” as are many who prefer to ride the lame-ass “Hip-Hop Is Dead” train. If it is, in fact, dead- I’d rather do just as they implore us to do at funerals: celebrate the life.
Annnnd so, here is DanjLovesThe90s. I hope that you find it entertaining, reflective, celebratory, critical, comical, and anything else it happens to be depending on the entry. Whether you were a Hip-Hop Head or an R&B Swinger, a pre-teen or an adult, East Coast or West Coast… this is for those who either remember the decade fondly or are curious as to what was so great. I plan to chronicle not only my youth, but that of many others like myself who experienced some of these things firsthand. From calling up videos on The Box to seeing Menace II Society in the theater, I will be speakin’ on it.
In honor of the jumpoff, here’s 10 to grow on (if you want ‘em, click ‘em). For the record, I coulda gone a lot harder than this, which I will in many coming entries. Butt In The Meantiiiime…
LL Cool J “Around The Way Girl” (1990)
The Notorious B.I.G. “Guaranteed Raw” (1991)
Mary J. Blige feat. Grand Puba “What’s The 411?” (1992)
Snoop Doggy Dogg “G’z Up, Hoes Down” (1993)
Aaliyah feat. R. Kelly “At Your Best” (Remix) (1994)
Faith Evans feat. Puff Daddy “You Used To Love Me” (Remix) (1995)
Crucial Conflict “Hay (Smokin’ On)” (1996)
Christion “Full Of Smoke” (1997)
Mya feat. SisQo “It’s All About Me” (1998)
DMX feat. Drag-On, Jadakiss, Styles, & Eve “Ruff Ryders Anthem” (Remix) (1999)
13 Comments | DanjLovesTheHipHop, DanjLovesTheR&B, Fun Facts, My Life, Random | Tagged: 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, DANJLOVESTHE90S, INTRO | Permalink
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