My son is in love for the first time. Not with a girl or a
boy, though he has mentioned a young lady that he admires greatly. He smiles
when he mentions her, but I can’t divulge more because he would be mad if I
did. What I mean is that we share our first love together. He loves it and so
do I. I’m talking about hip-hop.
As I sit playing the instrumental to this classic, I can’t help but feel
nostalgic and somewhat emotional. He actually likes it.
How do I know he’s in love? (I’ve written about him rocking
out before, because he was about that “Twisted Sister” life for real) I know
because he has an uncanny ear for memorizing songs, lyrics, and melodies
quickly. When I play records, and I play them a lot I know he’s listening
closely because he’ll ask to hear this or that again. I took certain records
like “The Message”, “The Biz Mark”, and “Sucker Mc’s” down from the higher
shelf so he could play them and look at the covers. And he did! He picked out
LL’s “I Can’t Live w/out My Radio” and put it on. He took out “King of Rock”
and put that on. The other day, I put on a record…I can’t even remember which
one. But I felt so much pride seeing him just nod his head to the beat. I mean,
he’s playing with his lego’s and setting up an imaginative battle scene from the
“D-Day Invasion” (yes , he’s that specific about them) and I put it on and he
just starts nodding his head. I look at him and smile, he smiles back, and goes
back to what he was doing.
I don’t want to overwhelm him, but I have so freaking much I want to show him and tell him. This music and this culture the sounds,
attitudes, codes, rules, herstory, past, present, future. agggh! There’s so
much. I mean, I’m giving him little pieces right now of “Ladies First” and
“Kriss Kross”, but I cannot wait to play him “Nautilus” or “ You Must learn”
when he’s ready to really hear it, you know what I mean? Right now, its all the
catchy choruses which is fine, because I used to buy an LP and listen to the
single over and over. He loves the
songs he hears on commercials, video games, and at Warriors games so I have to
tell him who this or that person is, while at the same time playing old funk ,
jazz, or boogaloo records too. There is so much knowledge, wisdom, and beauty
in the music and culture that got me through tough times, decisions, cross
roads, failure, happiness, and triumph. I know there are plumbers, nail
technicians, and veterinarians somewhere that are passing down knowledge and
love to their little ones. What do you absolutely love that you hope your child
appreciates when s/he is grown? Holler in the comments.
This is great Robert. I feel you on that 'hard to hold back'. There is so much good stuff i want to expose my kids to. Movies, art, books, and music, music, music. Hip-hop, ska, punk, post punk, Brit invasion. I drop it in dribs and drabs, but have to be careful not to hella geek out. I compiled a list of 11 important albums for my eldests 11 th birthday. It was the hardest musical project I've ever done. Music that covers a range off style, was representative of women, covers a range of time, and most importantly speaks to where she is at. I so wanted to include baduizm in the list. A female friend was like, nah you better wait till she's old enough to feel " Tyrone"
ReplyDeleteAww, thanks for the response. Yeah , she'll be ready for tyrone in about 10 years i think. I have soooo many things i want to share. But i say we keep dropping little hints here and there-a drop of water for an entire ocean!
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