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!
Posted by Danj! 
