Essential Rap and Hip-Hop Songs

This guy wants to know what rap and hip-hop songs are essential listening. Here is my list of tracks, in rough chronological order from the late 70s to today, that represents the best and most influential songs and artists in rap. Together, they form a pretty concise history of hip hop (and would make an awesome three-disc set). Obviously some great songs and artists are left off of this list, but I think this is a good start.

"Rapper's Delight" - Sugar Hill Gang
"The Breaks" - Kurtis Blow
"The Message" - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
"The Show" - Doug E. Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew
"It's Like That" - Run-DMC
"Peter Piper" - Run-DMC
"Paid in Full" - Erik B. & Rakim
"Raw" - Big Daddy Kane
"South Bronx" - Boogie Down Productions
"You Gots to Chill" - EPMD
"Hey Ladies" - Beastie Boys
"Children's Story" - Slick Rick
"Me Myself and I" - Del La Soul
"Check The Rhime" - A Tribe Called Quest
"Fuck Tha Police" - NWA
"Fight the Power" - Public Enemy
"Insane In the Brain" - Cypress Hill
"It Ain't Hard to Tell" - Nas
"Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" - Digable Planets
"Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang" - Dr. Dre
"All Eyez On Me" - 2Pac
"Who Am I? (What's My Name?)" - Snoop Doggy Dogg
"Definition" - Black Star
"Big Poppa" - Notorious B.I.G.
"Rosa Parks" - OutKast
"Hip Hop" - Dead Prez
"C.R.E.A.M." - Wu Tang Clan
"Everything is Everything" - Lauryn Hill
"My Name Is" - Eminem
"Hard Knock Life" - Jay-Z
"Country Grammar" - Nelly
"Quality Control" - Jurassic 5
"In Da Club" - 50 Cent
"Through the Wire" - Kanye West

Time Killers

As a public service for the bored, I offer the following links to websites guaranteed to entertain.

The Gallery of Regrettable Food, a collection of hideous recipes and food photos from the 1940s-1970s, with hilarious commentary. Also available in book form.

The Hoax Photo Test; can you tell the difference between the real photos and the hoax photos? Re-visit every famous photo emailed to you in the last 10 years!

Classic 80s Video Games, including Pac-Man and Tetris. You may never work again.

Who Needs ACL Fest?

The annual Voodoo Music Experience, normally held in New Orleans, is instead coming to Austin on Halloween weekend (October 29-30). The festival will now serve as a fundraiser for Katrina victims. The existing lineup includes the Foo Fighters, the Flaming Lips, Queens of the Stone Age, and the New York Dolls, though I guess some of the bands might drop out due to change of venue. Tickets are $60 for the weekend, and previously purchased tickets will be honored, so if you're an Austinite and you trust E!Online as a news source, buy tickets now before it sells out. Considering how much cheaper these tickets are than ACL Fest ($50/day), and considering how much cooler the weather should be, I'd like to go (even if the line-up is not as good). Hooray for music!

UPDATE (9/23): Looks like Memphis will be the host. Bastards.

Who Doesn't Like Delicious Pie?

If you live in Austin, do yourself a favor and drive down to Kyle, Texas, and get yourself some pie. Also, white bread sandwiches like your mama used to make for you when you were a kid. But mostly, eat the pie.

Hey, You! Volunteer! Donate! Now!

Katrina victims in Austin and elsewhere still need our help, especially now that people are growing bored with the story and turning their attention to football and television and football on television. The City of Austin has a nice centralized list of resources and information for those that want to help. Do it now. My people thank you. And remember: the more you help, the sooner you can get your ass back to N'awlins for food and booze and fun. (But seriously: enough with the year-round Mardi Gras beads; that shit is played out.)

Adios, AstroWorld

A childhood landmark of mine will soon vanish: AstroWorld officials announced that the theme park will close at the end of this season (Sunday, October 30).

As a young kid growing up in Southwest Louisiana, AstroWorld was an annual vacation destination for my middle-class family in the late 70's and early 80's. Every year, we'd load up the car, spend a few days in Houston and overpay for concession stand food. It was always hot and the lines for rides were always long, but I loved it. My first real rollercoaster ride was on the Texas Cyclone, at the time the largest wooden rollercoaster in the country. That first time was terrifying, and I was forced to ride it twice in a row, because the ride operator didn't make it down to my end of the train to release the lap bar holding us in. Greezed Lighting was much better, because of all of the girls lined up to ride it.

My last visit to AstroWorld was in college, and I realized then how much it sucked. It had become pretty dirty and run-down (maybe it always was and I just never noticed as a kid or teenager). Of course, it didn't help that on that last visit I lost a contact lense on the way into the park and spent the whole day walking around with one blind eye.

In any case, thanks for the memories, AstroWorld. And thanks for the giant foam cowboy hat.

Topics Covered by This Blog Will Include: Food

At the risk of making this blog too Austin-centric and self-absorbed (unlike every other blog), I thought I would treat my reader(s) to a short list of some of my favorite dishes from restaurants here in Austin:

Mueller's BBQ - Chopped Beef Sandwich and Potato Salad (inexplicably, chopped beef might be my favorite form of barbecue; this sandwich is both sweet and spicy, and the potato sald is the way I like it: heavy on the mayo and whipped almost to the consistency of mashed potatoes)

Habana - Tres Leches Cake (in a town full of good Mexican food, this is the best version of the traditional three milk cake that I have found)

Hoover's - Mustard Greens (I grew up eating Southern soul food and this dish is my very favorite thing at one of my very favorite restaurants)

Gene's/Evangeline Cafe - Shrimp Po-Boy (I also grew up eating Cajun food, and Gene's and Evangeline Cafe make the most authentic po-boys in town, with French bread that is the perfect combination of flaky and chewy)

Vespaio - Risotto (everything at Vespaio is top-notch, but the risotto floating in a pool of butter makes me want to weep)

Hai Ky - Vermicelli Bowl with Eggroll and Grilled Pork (Vietnamese classic done very well - always fresh and yummy)

El Chile - Mole Enchiladas (my search for the perfect mole enchiladas may have ended here)

As Promised

Some upcoming concerts in Austin that I plan to see:

Friday, September 23: Arcade Fire and The Black Keys at Stubb's
(The Arcade Fire are overhyped, but are supposed to put on a really great live show, and The Black Keys are an incredible pair of white boys from Ohio that play blues and rock originals that I can't stop listening to lately.)

Saturday, October 8: The Gossip at Emo's
(Raw garage punk band fronted by a woman who sings like a 1960's soul singer.)

Tuesday, October 11: Architecture in Helsinki at Emo's
(Incredibly charming band from Australia. I saw them play a free show at SXSW a couple of years ago and they blew me away. The band consists of 8 or so members, and between songs, they rotate instruments, which range from guitars to trumpets to elementary school percussion instruments.)


Friday, October 28: Gogol Bordello at Emo's
(Their performance at SXSW this year was simply one of the best live shows I've ever seen. Amazing mix of punk and traditional Eastern European music, played with ferocious energy, led by a maniacal gypsy lead singer, complete with acrobats/dancers/drum majors. Totally nuts. Nearly brought me to tears.)

Topics Covered by This Blog Will Include: Music

Here is a photo of me as a young boy (not really). As you can see, I enjoy music (really). During the life of this blog, I'll be forcing my musical tastes on you, dear reader. For that, you can thank me later. Oh, you'll thank me.

Entry The First

Testing, testing, 1-2-3.

Welcome aboard. I hope this is the first of many boring blog posts.