Jukebox XVIII

Well, as they say, New Year's resolutions are made to be broken! This year's ill-fated resolution was that I wanted to participate in 8 triathlons in 2012. Here I sit just a couple days short of June 1, which appears like the half way point of the year...alright, it is a month short of half...41.7% of the year to be exact. This means I need to be 3 TRIs into my goal to be on pace. Well, as usual, life happened and I am still sitting on a giant goose egg. This does not mean that I can't begin to work out and try to shave 20 pounds and still try to jam 8 TRIs into the next 215 days! Anyway, that is the goal, to begin training, which means that I will be listening to my iPod a  lot more frequently. Therefore, I am bringing back one of my favorite posts...the jukebox!

1. You Remind Me Mary J Blige

When this CD came out, it was completely OK to put your stereo up to the radio and record a song straight from the radio. This was done quite a few times during my high school career. My buddy Daniel and I loved to listen to 92.3 the Beat, 99.1 KGGI and Power 106 (105.9). One day, You Remind Me by Mary J came on and I asked Daniel if he had that song. He said, I have the CD...I wanted to listen to it. He told me that I could record it but I couldn't keep it over night because "he needed him some Mary J Blige" before bed.

2. The Best of Me Jason Aldean

A love gone wrong song. One of my favorite Aldean songs. 


3. Kush Dr Dre (feat. Snoop Dogg and Akon)

The first song released off the infamous Detox Dr Dre album. Dre and Snoop doing their thing. Snoops line, "still I am, tighter than the pants on Will.I.Am" is great. Anyway, I remember Dre and Snoop from their Deep Cover days, from their Nuthing But A "G" Thang days...I got to believe that Dre is embarrassed that Snoop is on a Katy Perry track, I know I am!

4. 2 of Americaz Most Wanted Tupac (feat. Snoop Dogg)

All Eyes On Me was a phenomenal CD. How Do You Want It featuring K-Ci and JoJo was great. I Ain't Mad At Cha featuring Danny Boy was awesome. California Love featuring Dr Dre was off the hook too. But, this song was without a doubt the best track from this album. "Ain't nuthin but a gangsta party"

5. Venus vs Mars Jay-Z

The Blueprint 3 is a great album. One of my buddies keeps telling me that rap/hip hop are dead and for the most part, I agree. Having said that, The Blueprint 3 (and Recovery by Eminem) is a great album. This album has high end pop songs (Empire State of Mind with Alicia Keys and Run This Town with Rhianna and Kanye West), as well as some other great cuts (Reminder, D.O.A.) and then there is Venus vs Mars. A good but not great song from this album. The last line "My dollars was down, she left me for some Euro’s, took my whole flavor, I call her coke zero, co-MVP like Kobe and Shaq, left me for the Heat, we were winning back to back, said I partied too much, shawty got fed up, shawty got Britney shaved her whole head up, we used to make out, kissing each others face off, fell for the ponzi scheme, damn shawty just Made-off."

6. Dear John Taylor Swift

Alright, as much as it pains me...this is actually a decent song! I am going to pretend that it isn't about some bitter public celebrity relationship! I just actually like most parts of this song. And, she doesn't seem so bitter, just young and naive.

7. You Can't Tell Me Nothing Kanye West

I can go either way with Kanye. Typically, he falls into the "hip hop music is terrible" category. But, occasionally, he has a good song...and this is one of those songs! I love this song. It has some very funny lines. "So if the Devil wears Prada, Adam and Eve wear nada, I'm somewhere in the middle but way more fresher". As funny as that line is, there is nothing funnier than Zach Galifianakis' take!

8. Lighters Bad Meets Evil (feat. Bruno Mars)

I just mentioned above that I think that Recovery and The Blueprint 3 are the best hip-hop albums released lately. I also think it is quite interesting that Eminem and Jay-Z are following a similar path (I realize that they have a few differences). They both had amazing albums that had great collaborative work. Part of that collaborative work included a pop song that featured Rhianna (Love the Way You Lie and Run This Town). They both followed up their solo albums by doing a collaborative album (Watch the Throne by Jay Z and Kanye West, Hell the Sequel Bad Meets Evil - Eminem and 5'9" Royce). Anyway, I'm not a huge Mars fan but this song is sick. If you listen to Em and 5'9" it's amazing how they mirror each others flow in this song!

9. More Bounce (in California) Soul Kid

This song screams The OC...loved the show (well, season 1 for sure, season 2 was good too...but it definitely jumped the shark in the season finale of season 2), like the song!