>That beat man

Sometimes I just listen to the intro before the rapping starts over and over. And then I'm finally ready to take it in all over again.

This feeling is unmatched...

I spent a decent amount of time 'explaining' this album to my mama. Of course, gkmc was an easy sell as was his stuff before it.

Tpab didn't work on her immediately. Gkmc gave her wild expectations...

My uncle/her brother had just gotten killed when tpab came out. And my moms wasn't doing great about it. I was and still am at least slightly fucked off over it too.

But. I matter what's going on, I always try to lace her with the best of the best music. I mean shit, it's my mama, my dog, my friend. She's great and she deserves the good feelings that good music can bring you.

Sometimes I get her and other times...not so much. Ie: she loves Outkast but only kinda 'appeases me' about Van Hunt. She's in the middle on Bilal and D'Angelo. She's down with Maxwell when he shows up. And Jill is her girl forever. She feels like she 'owes' it to me that she knows about any of this. I put her onto the full Marvin Gaye discography and blew her mind.

But tpab... she wasn't 'getting it'. That's what she said anyway. I understood but I was almost mad at her cuz she was trying too hard but not hard enough at the same time. But I wanted her to hear what I was hearing so I kept picking away at her about it. Off and on of course but I wasn't giving up on her.

The poem throughout was the roadmap. I sold her on that first. I got her in on the dark hilarity of For Sale. But momma is what got my mama...

Momma is the song I leaned on the hardest to sell her on the album as a whole. Every verse. Every lyric. Every everything about it. It's the song that most clearly explained to me what Kendrick was up against after gkmc hit like it did. To me, it's the centerpiece of the album even tho alright is the anthem.

And it hit me like a Jadakiss refrigerator.

It's my favorite song on the whole thing in a walk. The 2nd verse is my favorite in a loooooong time. And once I got her to 'hear' that, she was in too.

So of course I think of all of that and more when I hear this song. Good music has a power to it. I swear it does.