For the longest time I have held the United States Postal Service in the highest regards as one of the premier employers this country has to offer. Great benefits, good hours and a starting pay of close to $20 hr. It's the type of place we should all aspire to work for.
Lately though, I'm not feeling as positive about the post office as I once did. Infact, I am feeling downright pissed off!
It occured to me recently that I never even check my mail anymore, there's no reason too. I correspond with friends and family through email or text message. Bills are automatically deducted out of my checking account, etc.
When I finally do get around to weeding through the mountain of paper cramped into my mail box, I discover nothing but coupons. So basically, the only rational purpose for the post office to even still be in business is to deliver junk mail. Great.
Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of government jobs, mainly because the private sector is so greedy when it comes to fair wages. It just seems a little outrageous to me that at a time when most Americans are struggling to find any sort of job, let alone one that pays a livable wage, these employee's are living in a recession free bubble doing a job that can be handled just as efficiently by a Fedex or UPS. I mean, what makes the clerk in the post office that much more valuable then the person working customer service in a grocery store?
Maybe I am wrong, maybe America needs it's Hungry Howies coupons by mail and I am underappreciating the importance of paying somebody $20 hr (starting pay!) to sort through and deliver it to our homes.
And yes, I do realize that Cosmo Kramer made this long before I did.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
I love this picture!
I snapped this photo roughly a year ago in a dirty Ybor City alley way. At the time it just seemed like a cool picture.
Now days though I see this picture in my head every morning when I wake up, reminding me to make the most of my day, to value every second so that no moment is wasted.
Thought I'd share.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Big Daddy Kane visits Jannus Landing!
Photos
- Big Daddy Kane performing
- Jannus Marquee
- Me with Big Daddy Kane
- Me with Dynasty aka The Femcee
I'll admit that throughout the years I have sort of neglected the work of Big Daddy Kane. I've never listened to any of his albums and couldn't really recite word for word any of his big singles.
It's nothing personal, just never got around to it.
Strangest thing is that Big Daddy Kanes verse on Public Enemy's "Burn Hollywood Burn" is one of my all time favorites. The line at the end of the song where he says, "aye yo I got Black Caesar back at the crib, ya'll wanna go check that out" kills me everytime.
Feeling as though I had been missing out, catching his show last Friday night at Jannus Landing seemed like a good place to start catching up.
Doors opened at 7 but the show technically didn't start til about 9:30. Which is fine by me, when I finally rolled in around 9 on a sugar high from Starbucks I found a spot in the back and chilled out to the wide variety of classic hip hop records being spun from the stage by DJ Sandman. Which to me is the best part of these old school shows. Sandman can always be counted on to set up the perfect vibe when waiting for a show to start.
The opening act was a local talent transplanted from New York (like everyone else here) named Dynasty who I had been hearing an awful lot about lately. Initially I had blown her off as another local backpack rapper yuppy trying to re-live the golden era artist that are a dime a dozen around here.
But a few things are different about Dynasty that peaked my interest, one is her DJ is Sandman, whose taste is good enough that I trust he wouldn't stand behind anything thats whack. And two, she has been garnering support by the likes of DJ Premier by getting spins on his radio show. A major accomplishment.
When I heard her rhyme I was actually sort of blown away by how raw her style was. This chick
could flat out rap. In fact, I will go so far as to say she is exactly what the mainstream hip hop scene is in desperate need of. Not only does she have the abilities to make it, she is naturally likable in a way that other female emcee's aren't. Almost like a Lauren Hill but meaner on the microphone.
Following the highly enjoyable set by Dynasty, the crowd was left in a state of confusion by the performance of Loyal. I have no idea of who Loyal is or where they came from or who they paid for the stage time, but they were worth seeing just for the experience of witnessing the akwardness of their performance.
They basically spent twenty minutes not rapping or rapping other peoples hit songs, then dancing provocatively on their male dancers. None of whom looked over 16 years old. The crowd was left looking confused and nobody really knew what to make of it.
Eventually around 11-ish Big Daddy Kane arrived and immediatly launched into a furious performance. I found it amazing that here is a man probably in his mid to late fourties rhyming three times faster and harder then guys half his age. Incredible!
Thankfully ticket prices for the show were only $15 because after about 25minutes Big Daddy Kane through down a couple of dance moves (which were quite impressive I must say) and abruptly ended his set before coming back out for a brief encore. Needless to say there were more then a handful of disappointed fans in the audience.
Ok, so normally this is were a person would end a concert review. But those of you that know me know how I like to take shit to the next level when I hit up a hip hop show.
Rather then go chase skirts on the streets of downtown St. Pete like a normal 26 yr old guy on a Friday night after a concert, I chose instead to wait for the security guard to turn his head and sneak backstage for photos.
What I got was something a little bit more special. After a few minutes of standing around outside of a door waiting for Kane to walk out, I was approached by none other then DJ Sandman who graciously introduced himself and invited me into the dressing room.
Inside the room standing around a table were Big Daddy Kane and none other then DJ Charlie Chase co-founder of the pioneering hip hop group The Cold Crush Brothers (Havn't ya'll ever seen Wild Style?!?). I basically just stood to the back, discussed hip hop fandom with a kid who's name unfortunatly escapes me at the moment and chilled out listening to the stories being told by Kane and Charlie Chase. It was crazy.
Just when I thought that things had died down, the kid who I was having the conversation with asked Kane to spit 16 bars for him. Kane obliged, spitting a mesmorizing politically tinged rhyme that wow'd the room. He then challenged the kid to spit 16, he accepted and laid down a nice verse. It was a little bit over 16 bars, prompting Kane to make a joke comparing the kid to Kool G Rap (what an honor to even be mentioned in the same sentence). Then Dynasty laid down some rhymes and I guess it must have been contagious because next thing I knew it seemed like the whole room was going in. Quite the experience to witness.
After that everybody said there goodbyes, I snapped some pics (unfortunatly not with Charlie Chase, but I'm sure there will be other chances) and escaped into the downtown night life.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Cult Film Review - Petey Wheatstraw: The Devil's Son In Law!
Any movie that starts out with a impoverished black mother giving birth to a watermelon, followed by a new born baby with the body of a twelve year old has to be good. In fact, all of these hack directors trying to bring us exploitative homage's of exploitation films need to give Petey Wheatstraw: The Devils Son In Law a spin and take notes on the difference between funny for the sake of being funny and being crude as means of offending people solely to offend them.
Comedic legend Rudy Ray Moore (Dolemite, The Human Tornado) stars as Petey Wheatstraw. Born during a south Florida tropical storm and trained in the art of self defense by a wise old man from his neighborhood, Petey grows into a popular night club act. But not everybody is fond of this funny mans show. His competition, Leroy and Skillet want him dead!
Eager to get their show off the ground, Leroy and Skillet borrow a large sum of money from the devious Mr. White (an actual white guy) and have no choice but to return a profit on his investment. Problem is, Petey Wheatstraw is opening his show only a few days after they do and threatens to put their event out of business. It isn't long before words turn into actions and in the words of Petey Wheatstraw himself, the shit is about to hit the fan!
Leroy and Skillets goons take to the streets to harass and intimidate Petey's crew, eventually going so far as to kill a little boy by mistake. This leads up to a scene that I really did not see coming. At the little boys funeral, a group of thugs armed with Tommy Guns shows up to assassinate Petey Wheatstraw. Boy, do they do so with a vengeance, I mean wow, this scene stands out even when compared side by side to better gangster films.
Following this massacre a sharply dressed older man approaches the corpse of Petey Wheatstraw and hands over his business card, turns out he is the devil himself and has a intriguing proposal to offer the comedian. The two conversate in hell for a little while, a dark place with poor red lighting that makes for a disturbing atmosphere. The devil as it turns out has a problem, his daughter is quite atrocious in appearance and desires a husband. In exchange for Petey's hand in marriage, the devil will allow the comedian to walk the earth until he exacts revenge upon Leroy and Skillet for his murder. Hijinks ensue.
There isn't really much to dislike about this film. The acting is awful, the story is silly and the bad guys costumes are really just cheap tights. In these types of movies its the heart that counts and this one delivers in spades (no pun intended). Even sites and sounds that would normally be used as a means to offend the viewer and demean the actors seem harmless in this film. I imagine that this movie holds some type of record for the most watermelons ever used on camera.
Even though Moore's gigantic ego is on full display in this film (including an awesome sex scene where he bangs like 10 demon chicks and leaves them passed out from pleasure) I will go so far as to say that he may have been slightly outshined this go around by his real life opening act of Leroy and Skillet. They perform in this awesome silent film style of over the top body movements with a little bit of minstrel show goodness added in.
If your out for a few laughs I highly recommend this fundamental piece of exploitation gold. Although my copy comes from the Rudy Ray Moore box set collection, the film can currently be found on the shelves of your local Wal-Mart for some reason. So, grab it before it's gone!
Interview With The Projectionist Part 1
This is an interview I did with renegade projectionist John Petrey. Infamous for his late night underground showings of classic films (horror or otherwise) in the theaters he worked in after hours.
John Miller: I guess my first question would be. What got you into cinema, where did this all begin?
John Petrey: When I was about 6 years old my Mother was going through a tough time with the divorce from my father. She had to take 2 jobs just to support us and would get various weirdos to babysit us. So this one night she had my cousin Larry and his stoner friends volunteered to take us to the movies. I remember sitting in the back seat on the way to the Drive-In Theatre and would see marquee after marquee go by. They were all Disney titles like The Love Bug.
Well, we pulled into the South Park Drive-In (No I'm not making that name up) and the first thing I noticed was the ALL NIGHT TRAUMA-RAMA sign along with the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD poster. We pulled into the front row and Larry immediately jumped into the back seat with his friends. While they doing each other I started becoming aware what was unfolding on the big screen. None of that stuff they were eating in NOTLD looked remotely familiar with my happy meals. So I was rushed out of the Drive-In painting the car's interior with puke. I shook all night while staring at the bedroom door.
Two weeks later they send me out with my father and his friends to see BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES at the Kenwood Drive-In. Well, back in those days the trailers were not regulated so when Intermission rolled around I was on my way back to the car with my Co2 soda and Mounds candy bar. Yeech! I sat down to look at the previews and the trailer that started up was THE WIZARD OF GORE. Damn! Talk about not being able to win, this trailer alone has tongue removal, disemboweling, decapitation, etc. Screamed my ass off to get out of that place with everyone yelling “It's just ketchup and macaroni'! That didn't help so it was therapy time for a while. After that I stuck to movies like glue, especially Horror! Go figure that one out.
JM: You've spent a lot of time over the years hanging around movie theaters. What is the strangest thing you have witnessed inside of one?
JP: When I was manager of the Britton Theatre in 1991 there was a woman who was, get ready for this....a theatre manager groupie! She actually got off hanging around different theatres, hugging the managers and rambling about Hollywood. I had to get rid of her by going up on to the roof and hiding out one night. She knew I was there so she got the hint and she was never seen again.
JM: As a fan has there ever been a film you felt compelled not to show audiences? I don't think I could sleep at night after showing a Tom Hanks or Tim Allen movie. If I did I'd probably have to pull a Tyler Durden and splice the reel with pornography.
JP: HA! We've joked about splicing in 35MM porno frames in to our features. No, but seriously, as bad as I have hated a film we've run over the years, I can't think of one that I didn't want to run for the audience. I guess it goes along with my movie collecting theory at home. If I don't care for it, I'll still collect it because someone else may like it.
JM: Speaking of Tyler Durden splicing kids movies with porn. What type of hijinks take place behind the scenes of movie theaters that audiences are oblivious too?
JP: Let's just say a good number of children were conceived behind the screens, in the booths, offices, etc. The theatre office has a restroom that doesn't work however we noticed that under the sink you could look in to the Ladies room. We sealed it up with “Great Stuff” Also riding the motorcycle around the hallway upstairs in the projection booth. Dropping TVs, VCRs and anything that would bust in to a lot of pieces off the roof!
JM: How many years did you spend working for the Britton?
JP: Off and mostly on about 20 yrs.
JM: It has been said that the Britton is haunted. I remember going to see Hostel 2 in the middle of the day and sitting in the theater almost a half hour before the film by myself and kept hearing a bunch of weird sounds. In retrospect I think it may have just been rats. What are your thoughts / experiences with hauntings at the Britton?
JP: You probably heard the building crumbling apart, just kidding. When I first started working at the Britton January 1988, a woman named Edith had died in the Ladies restroom. Some female co-workers over the years swear the stall that Edith passed away in always has the door swinging open. I have never experienced that on the many nights I did maintenance in there. While I'm not big on ghosts and the like, there are two extraordinary things that happened to me at the Britton. One was while I was showing EVIL DEAD on DVD upon the screen at about 1AM and a ceiling tile started flipping like crazy. I had just started eating my lunch and it pissed me off so I screamed at it to stop! It did and I resumed my showing.
The wildest thing that happened was when I and a co-worker were watching “1408” late at night and right when John Cusack puts a bat through a picture with the sea in it, water started pouring down right in between us on to the aisle carpet. Any other time in the film would have been like "whatever", but that was some crazy timing, LOL!
JM: To me you are a legend for your underground after hour showings of classic films and movies that fans would otherwise never witness on the big screen. First allow me to say thank you for this, watching Suspiria at an abandoned Britton is a memory I will always cherish. When did you start doing these shows?
JP: A Legend? That's very kind of you. I'd have to say Fall 2006 was the first of the after hours DVD showings. I've always been a showman or a low budget entertainer, starting with Super 8mm. I just want to make people happy with my movies OR whatever they wanted to watch. I'm very saddened that the project I had started recently involving a piece of property and building secured to view our movies whenever has been hit with roadblocks. You as well as everyone else that made it to the showing of SUSPIRIA are very welcome. I'm glad I was able to help create your moment/memory of seeing that on a big screen in an abandoned 50+ yr. old theatre. What people don't see when they are viewing one of my presentations is the tear or tears that well up in my eyes some times because I feel like I'm creating a type of magic. Every time a theatre screen plays a different movie it's like being in a different world for me. It's pure satisfaction. When POLTERGEIST was ran in October of 2007, I ran the DVD upstairs for everyone.
Probably about 35 people showed up for that one. THE LOST BOYS also was a blast, especially since we cranked it full blast!!
JM: You're notorious for walking around armed with your gun. I'm sure you have used cardboard cut-outs and promotional materials from crappy movies as target practice. Any films or actors in particular you thoroughly enjoyed blasting to smithereens?
JP: In 2000 Eddie Murphy came out with the KLUMPS. All 4 of his characters were sitting on a couch in a huge standee. The district manager wanted it displayed near the office so when the regional manager came by it would look good. I decided to drag it upstairs the night before and a buddy of mine brought his Glock, (which shook my wrist to pieces) I had my Colt .380 and we laid in to that standee because it had good, clean head shots!
Well, the next morning I had a phone call from the manager telling me I was fired and she wanted to know why I shot up the standee because the District manager now wanted me in jail. I told her it was all politics. The District manager wanted to date me and was in her 40's at the time, I was dating a concession girl and I didn't want the chicken that had sat out under the heat lamp, I wanted my meat fresh. Anyway getting back to the question. We've brought shotguns, pistols of all sorts and I think we may have just about taken that load-bearing wall out, ha ha!
John Miller: I guess my first question would be. What got you into cinema, where did this all begin?
John Petrey: When I was about 6 years old my Mother was going through a tough time with the divorce from my father. She had to take 2 jobs just to support us and would get various weirdos to babysit us. So this one night she had my cousin Larry and his stoner friends volunteered to take us to the movies. I remember sitting in the back seat on the way to the Drive-In Theatre and would see marquee after marquee go by. They were all Disney titles like The Love Bug.
Well, we pulled into the South Park Drive-In (No I'm not making that name up) and the first thing I noticed was the ALL NIGHT TRAUMA-RAMA sign along with the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD poster. We pulled into the front row and Larry immediately jumped into the back seat with his friends. While they doing each other I started becoming aware what was unfolding on the big screen. None of that stuff they were eating in NOTLD looked remotely familiar with my happy meals. So I was rushed out of the Drive-In painting the car's interior with puke. I shook all night while staring at the bedroom door.
Two weeks later they send me out with my father and his friends to see BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES at the Kenwood Drive-In. Well, back in those days the trailers were not regulated so when Intermission rolled around I was on my way back to the car with my Co2 soda and Mounds candy bar. Yeech! I sat down to look at the previews and the trailer that started up was THE WIZARD OF GORE. Damn! Talk about not being able to win, this trailer alone has tongue removal, disemboweling, decapitation, etc. Screamed my ass off to get out of that place with everyone yelling “It's just ketchup and macaroni'! That didn't help so it was therapy time for a while. After that I stuck to movies like glue, especially Horror! Go figure that one out.
JM: You've spent a lot of time over the years hanging around movie theaters. What is the strangest thing you have witnessed inside of one?
JP: When I was manager of the Britton Theatre in 1991 there was a woman who was, get ready for this....a theatre manager groupie! She actually got off hanging around different theatres, hugging the managers and rambling about Hollywood. I had to get rid of her by going up on to the roof and hiding out one night. She knew I was there so she got the hint and she was never seen again.
JM: As a fan has there ever been a film you felt compelled not to show audiences? I don't think I could sleep at night after showing a Tom Hanks or Tim Allen movie. If I did I'd probably have to pull a Tyler Durden and splice the reel with pornography.
JP: HA! We've joked about splicing in 35MM porno frames in to our features. No, but seriously, as bad as I have hated a film we've run over the years, I can't think of one that I didn't want to run for the audience. I guess it goes along with my movie collecting theory at home. If I don't care for it, I'll still collect it because someone else may like it.
JM: Speaking of Tyler Durden splicing kids movies with porn. What type of hijinks take place behind the scenes of movie theaters that audiences are oblivious too?
JP: Let's just say a good number of children were conceived behind the screens, in the booths, offices, etc. The theatre office has a restroom that doesn't work however we noticed that under the sink you could look in to the Ladies room. We sealed it up with “Great Stuff” Also riding the motorcycle around the hallway upstairs in the projection booth. Dropping TVs, VCRs and anything that would bust in to a lot of pieces off the roof!
JM: How many years did you spend working for the Britton?
JP: Off and mostly on about 20 yrs.
JM: It has been said that the Britton is haunted. I remember going to see Hostel 2 in the middle of the day and sitting in the theater almost a half hour before the film by myself and kept hearing a bunch of weird sounds. In retrospect I think it may have just been rats. What are your thoughts / experiences with hauntings at the Britton?
JP: You probably heard the building crumbling apart, just kidding. When I first started working at the Britton January 1988, a woman named Edith had died in the Ladies restroom. Some female co-workers over the years swear the stall that Edith passed away in always has the door swinging open. I have never experienced that on the many nights I did maintenance in there. While I'm not big on ghosts and the like, there are two extraordinary things that happened to me at the Britton. One was while I was showing EVIL DEAD on DVD upon the screen at about 1AM and a ceiling tile started flipping like crazy. I had just started eating my lunch and it pissed me off so I screamed at it to stop! It did and I resumed my showing.
The wildest thing that happened was when I and a co-worker were watching “1408” late at night and right when John Cusack puts a bat through a picture with the sea in it, water started pouring down right in between us on to the aisle carpet. Any other time in the film would have been like "whatever", but that was some crazy timing, LOL!
JM: To me you are a legend for your underground after hour showings of classic films and movies that fans would otherwise never witness on the big screen. First allow me to say thank you for this, watching Suspiria at an abandoned Britton is a memory I will always cherish. When did you start doing these shows?
JP: A Legend? That's very kind of you. I'd have to say Fall 2006 was the first of the after hours DVD showings. I've always been a showman or a low budget entertainer, starting with Super 8mm. I just want to make people happy with my movies OR whatever they wanted to watch. I'm very saddened that the project I had started recently involving a piece of property and building secured to view our movies whenever has been hit with roadblocks. You as well as everyone else that made it to the showing of SUSPIRIA are very welcome. I'm glad I was able to help create your moment/memory of seeing that on a big screen in an abandoned 50+ yr. old theatre. What people don't see when they are viewing one of my presentations is the tear or tears that well up in my eyes some times because I feel like I'm creating a type of magic. Every time a theatre screen plays a different movie it's like being in a different world for me. It's pure satisfaction. When POLTERGEIST was ran in October of 2007, I ran the DVD upstairs for everyone.
Probably about 35 people showed up for that one. THE LOST BOYS also was a blast, especially since we cranked it full blast!!
JM: You're notorious for walking around armed with your gun. I'm sure you have used cardboard cut-outs and promotional materials from crappy movies as target practice. Any films or actors in particular you thoroughly enjoyed blasting to smithereens?
JP: In 2000 Eddie Murphy came out with the KLUMPS. All 4 of his characters were sitting on a couch in a huge standee. The district manager wanted it displayed near the office so when the regional manager came by it would look good. I decided to drag it upstairs the night before and a buddy of mine brought his Glock, (which shook my wrist to pieces) I had my Colt .380 and we laid in to that standee because it had good, clean head shots!
Well, the next morning I had a phone call from the manager telling me I was fired and she wanted to know why I shot up the standee because the District manager now wanted me in jail. I told her it was all politics. The District manager wanted to date me and was in her 40's at the time, I was dating a concession girl and I didn't want the chicken that had sat out under the heat lamp, I wanted my meat fresh. Anyway getting back to the question. We've brought shotguns, pistols of all sorts and I think we may have just about taken that load-bearing wall out, ha ha!
Price for CottonNet Supreme T's skyrockets!
I walked inside the local corner store this afternoon and was startled to stumble upon the clerk washing his feet in the rest room sink, then even more stunned to see the cost of a solid color CottonNet Supreme T-shirt had soared from a mere $4.99 to $5.99!
For those that are unaware, CottonNet Supremes are quite literally the greatest solid color shirts ever invented and available on the cheap at almost any convenient store in your neighborhood.
They are popular for any number of reasons, a few being length (sizes 1x-5x), price, convenience (since they are so widely available) and most of all comfort. A CottonNet Supreme can make a man feel like a million dollars when he opens up that package and throws on a fresh white shirt (or any color).
I've always been ofthe belief that you could take any man off the street, give him a clean pair of sneakers and fresh white tee from CottonNet Supreme, unleash him in a room full of chumps in overpriced expensive name brand clothes and he would still be the sharpest dressed man in the building. There is just nothing that can beat it.
Which is I guess why this modest raise in price bothers me so much. At a time when it seems so many of us are struggling to stretch our dollars to the max, brands like CottonNet Supreme have been there for us. By us I mean males in their teens to mid thirties of modest means living the ""urban"" lifestyle. Growing up alot of us were stuck with hand me downs or clearance store goodies, these shirts because of their affordable price offer a huge boost to ones self esteem and are worn with great pride. Almost like a street uniform.
I guess what I am trying to get at is, these shirts are the most easiest and most affordable instant confidence booster alot of us have. Their popularity is in part based upon the price. Although only a dollar more, it seems a bit steep and maybe even dulls the brands appeal a little. Especially when it seems stores are doing little more then capitalizing on the success of the brand. Something that I promise won't last if prices jump any further.
For those that are unaware, CottonNet Supremes are quite literally the greatest solid color shirts ever invented and available on the cheap at almost any convenient store in your neighborhood.
They are popular for any number of reasons, a few being length (sizes 1x-5x), price, convenience (since they are so widely available) and most of all comfort. A CottonNet Supreme can make a man feel like a million dollars when he opens up that package and throws on a fresh white shirt (or any color).
I've always been ofthe belief that you could take any man off the street, give him a clean pair of sneakers and fresh white tee from CottonNet Supreme, unleash him in a room full of chumps in overpriced expensive name brand clothes and he would still be the sharpest dressed man in the building. There is just nothing that can beat it.
Which is I guess why this modest raise in price bothers me so much. At a time when it seems so many of us are struggling to stretch our dollars to the max, brands like CottonNet Supreme have been there for us. By us I mean males in their teens to mid thirties of modest means living the ""urban"" lifestyle. Growing up alot of us were stuck with hand me downs or clearance store goodies, these shirts because of their affordable price offer a huge boost to ones self esteem and are worn with great pride. Almost like a street uniform.
I guess what I am trying to get at is, these shirts are the most easiest and most affordable instant confidence booster alot of us have. Their popularity is in part based upon the price. Although only a dollar more, it seems a bit steep and maybe even dulls the brands appeal a little. Especially when it seems stores are doing little more then capitalizing on the success of the brand. Something that I promise won't last if prices jump any further.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Happy 15th Birthday to The Purple Tape!
(above is a shirt I had made with the album cover on it)I've always read that this album is what they call a "grower", meaning it takes a few listens for the listener to truely appreciate what they are hearing. I can certainly attest to that. In my case it took roughly a half decade to recognize Raekwons "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx" as the masterpiece it is.
The story begins sometime around 2001 after I had prematurely retired my career as a high school basketball player, bored, unfocused and newly without any sense of a self identity. I discovered the tail end of the Wu-Tang Clans "Can't Go To Sleep" video on MTV 2. The soulfull samples, the witty consciousness of the rhymes, I was hooked. My collection of Wu-Tang albums steadily grew over the coming weeks and months, grabbing cd's anyway I could.
Back in the day there was a pawnshop my father used to frequent that had a whole wall of the store devoted to used CD's. They ran a deal that was three disc for fifteen bucks and if memory serves my purchases that day were the GZA's "Beneath The Surface" (which I think is better then people give it credit), something else and Raekwons "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx" which had almost zero appeal to me that day and was really only bought out of curiousity thanks to the hype surrounding it.
At the time the narrative of the album and the dark, overly gritty atmosphere were completely lost on me. My mind and ears just weren't ready for it. First of all because the street slang and five percent nation talk sounds like a foreign language until you catch a grasp of what they are actually talking about.
Anyways, there the album sat in my collection getting a few listens here and there until about 2006. Around that time I had delved further into my love of old cult flicks from the 70's and developed a insatiable appetite for ugly entertainment filled with profanity, violence and most of all, I do stress most importantly, it must look or sound dirty. Not dirty as in perverted, I mean dirty like scratchy. When I play a record I want it to sound like the speakers are burning and filled with dirt, the way vinyl makes a sound or old film crack on the screen. Only Built 4 Cuban Linx on that scale delivered in spades. The album is so grimy that every time I listen I feel the need to shower and rinse off a layer of filth. When this album finally clicked in my head and hit me, it hit hard like a smack to the face by a shovel.
As they say, the rest is history. Cuban Linx has recieved so many spins from me since 2006 that I had to replace my original copy with a new one because it had become unplayable. Next to Public Enemy's It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, this is the most intricately perfect hip hop album ever produced (IMO). It is the standard by which I hold all other albums (hip hop or other) accountable too. Hell, it may even be the standard I hold most movies too. Easily the greatest gangster flick ever put on wax.
By far the most influential piece of art in my own personal life. To say that I love this album is an understatement. It is a testament to the greatness of the Wu-Tang Clan (In this case mainly Raekwon and Ghostface) and the genius of the Rza that 15 years later fans still celebrate the release of the album.
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