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Topic subjectThe first time I heard…
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=13438277
13438277, The first time I heard…
Posted by legsdiamond, Wed Jul-28-21 08:07 AM
this post is about the first time you heard a song that changed your life or hit you in that special place.

Like the first time I heard Egyptian Lover.

I fucking bugged out and stood next to the DJ for 30 minutes at the pool asking him to play it again. Dude was annoyed af but I didn’t care. That shit was like a drug and I needed another hit.

13438278, 93 til Infinity
Posted by legsdiamond, Wed Jul-28-21 08:10 AM
As soon as that song started my mind was blown

What is this? Who are these dudes? Cali? Nah.. can’t be.

13438327, It was so East Coast sounding, I remember it on NY Undercover, LOL
Posted by Sleepy300, Wed Jul-28-21 11:11 AM
I think I heard it 102 Jamz for the first time and my mind was blown.

That's one of those cross generational songs, my 13 year old son knows about that one.
13438467, Sophomore year of college...
Posted by Marbles, Thu Jul-29-21 10:54 AM

Same as you, their flows blew my mind. But for me, I think one of the biggest things was that they were rappin' about the same stuff me and my cats go through. They were mad relatable to me and that was a big thing for me.

Still probably one of my top 10 (if not top 5) albums ever.
13438279, Me, Myself and I
Posted by legsdiamond, Wed Jul-28-21 08:10 AM
13438299, Beyonce?
Posted by Trinity444, Wed Jul-28-21 09:24 AM
13438321, Both.
Posted by legsdiamond, Wed Jul-28-21 10:51 AM
I was thinking De La but that is also my favorite Beyonce song of all time.

De La had me just like their skits. “What are they saying? I don’t get it but I like it”

Beyonce’s song was just sexy af. I always liked looking at Beyonce but this was the so that made me pause and really give her the attention she deserved. That shit is like silk.
13438604, Shoutout to Scott Storch!
Posted by Bambino Grande, Fri Jul-30-21 04:04 AM
13438281, Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)
Posted by luminous, Wed Jul-28-21 08:16 AM
13438285, This is a good one
Posted by legsdiamond, Wed Jul-28-21 08:49 AM
I was in college and heard people saying the hook but hadn’t heard it yet.

When that bass line hit it was magic.

Felt like they made this group just for me.

I went to NYC for the summer when the album dropped and just walked the city while playing it in my headphones.
13438287, SpottieOttieDopaliscious
Posted by Tiger Woods, Wed Jul-28-21 08:53 AM
CDepot in College Park MD...listening to a used copy on one of their demo systems...it was like someone had pulled a gun on me

I remember thinking "they aren't really rapping, but I need to listen to this again once its over"
13438329, Freshman in college
Posted by Sleepy300, Wed Jul-28-21 11:14 AM
It just fit the whole vibe of what being a freshman was at that time. Trying to adjust, drinking and taking trips to the Record Exchange, lol.

'98 was a hell of a year, my goodness lol.
13438289, Pink + White (Frank Ocean)
Posted by Tiger Woods, Wed Jul-28-21 08:57 AM
I was camping. I had listened to the album once through on the way to the campsite, but driving and listening to something for the first time isn't ideal. I had been distracted.

What was technically the second time hearing it was an almost "out of body" experience. I was in one of those soccer mom folding chairs, was about 30 minutes into a gummy, and I just mellllllted. Closest I've ever come to crying at hearing a song for the first time. I really did IMMEDIATELY see the scenes Frank was describing, and I knew on the spot that was Beyonce in the background at the end.
13438319, My, God…what an amazing song…
Posted by Dstl1, Wed Jul-28-21 10:43 AM
I’ve had periods where I play this song on a loop for hours. I don’t have any previous experience with Frank Oceans music, either. I heard it on Insecure and sought it out.
13438297, International Players Anthem (I Choose You)
Posted by double negative, Wed Jul-28-21 09:12 AM
I was in the middle of a heated conversation with my girlfriend at the time in her car and suddenly Andre 3000 was talking a million miles an hour along side us with the blaring horns

we just stopped talking because we were confused, no beat/no drum rapping wasn't mainstream at that point and was hard to tell/hear what words were ours and what words were his. The song also builds anticipation for the beat really well so we had to stop and listen. When the beat dropped we were floored.


13438300, The Chronic
Posted by double negative, Wed Jul-28-21 09:30 AM
I lived in North Long Beach in the same neighborhood Snoop was from and I even went to the same jr high school he attended about 8 or 10 years after him.

I vividly remember living through that incredible run of foundational g-funk albums from The Chronic to Doggystyle to Warren G and The Twinz

I was 11 when The Chronic dropped, my neighbor had the tape and I would listen to it every chance I had. It was loud, sexualized, raunchy, angry, violent, defiant. That shit blew my mind - I already knew about hip hop and NWA, but The Chronic's sharp execution and hard impact brought the art to a new level. I got the same feeling when I first heard Kendrick's 'The Blacker the Berry'


Many other albums did a similar thing, but I wasn't living in the environment that created the work.
13438317, The Chronic was my lifechanging moment too.
Posted by Brew, Wed Jul-28-21 10:40 AM
Very similar story, too. I was maybe 8 ? And my two slightly older neighbors had the tape, and I dubbed it and couldn't stop listening to it. Set me on my path to hip-hop obsession which continues to this day.
13438366, my mom is a big parliment/funkadelic fan
Posted by tomjohn29, Wed Jul-28-21 02:21 PM
We watching TV one day and Dre is on YoMtvraps and talking about his love for George Clinton
She asked my sister who is that
She said Dr Dre and he just had an album come out
My mom proceeds to buy and bring it home
We played it on the big stereo in the house
all of our jaws dropped
My moms dropped because of the subject matter
My sisters because my mom was actually playing this in the house
Mines dropped because I was hearing my child hood music in a different way

My mom ended up being a Snoop groupie later in life
even got on the tour bus a couple times
full circle
13438420, RE: The Chronic
Posted by JFrost1117, Wed Jul-28-21 09:52 PM
Even at 8, hearing “1, 2, 3 and to the fo’”, I was like this shit was made for me.
13438308, One Word - Tony Williams Lifetime
Posted by c71, Wed Jul-28-21 10:03 AM
Walking up to the top floor at Tower Records (4th and Broadway - village NYC - ODB's brother Ramsey Will Jones, long-time drummer of the band Funkface also worked there during my time there)

Anyway, probably about to go to the break room, but I heard screaming from the Jazz floor area.

So, as someone who already was into Hardcore punk, that sort of "thing" sounded good to me.

So I go up to the register and ask Jorge (cranky Afro-Latino supervisor of the Jazz floor) who that is. He just pulls the CD cove where it is displayed as one of the several CD that are being played on the store system and puts it in my face.

I say thanks because it sounds that amazing to me. I knew John McLaughlin was one of favorites from Mahavishnu Orchestra but I wasn't expecting him to do something like that Tony Williams Lifetime track I was hearing.
13438309, Kiss From A Rose
Posted by Cold Truth, Wed Jul-28-21 10:07 AM
I did what you did, except I called the local radio station to request it.

A lot.

A whole lot.

For weeks.

It was painfully obvious they were sick of my calls, because it reached a point where it was just "yeah we'll play it soon CLICK"

But they played that shit.

That was a song like no other when it hit. Still is, IMO, one of the greatest songs ever recorded.
13438605, Big tune!
Posted by Bambino Grande, Fri Jul-30-21 04:10 AM
13438310, Just Friends
Posted by legsdiamond, Wed Jul-28-21 10:12 AM
My GF and I were driving back from DC after the club and right before our exit this song came on. We were tired as hell because its a 2 hour ride back to Richmond and of course we left at 3AM after hitting up Yums.

The lyrics were effortless and felt like a real ass convo you would have when trying to spit game.

of course they didn’t say who the artist was and this was before you could pull a song up on your phone. I had to work hard to remember the melody so I could ask someone about it.

Song made me want to dance and holla at girls at the same time
13438313, Skeletal Lamping by Of Montreal
Posted by MEAT, Wed Jul-28-21 10:19 AM
I was in Birmingham Alabama, just out of a whatevership and newly unemployed. So I escaped to visit a friend so I could recover.

Her roommate at the time came home with that album and I had never heard anything like that in my life.

Up until that point it had only been mainly radio stuff or "underground" hip hop. You have the stuff you grew up with, the classics, R&B ... but this was new, different, and I had never had any access point to it sonically or culturally.

And at that point I decided that I was just going to shed a lot of what had gotten me to that point. Told myself that there was a whole world out there that I didn't know about and I was going to find it.

I've been on the journey ever since,
13438315, Thuggsish Ruggish Bone.
Posted by Cold Truth, Wed Jul-28-21 10:25 AM
Life changing.
World-altering.

That's how this joint felt.

And my mind was blown, because it was on a bump it or dump it segment, and lost to JV's Naybahood Queen.

No disrespect to JV, because I liked that song, it wasn't fucking with Thuggish Ruggish Bone in any way, shape or form.

And looking back, while both songs are firmly in their era production wise, NQ sounds about two years late sonically.

Conversely, The Thuggish Ruggish Bone beat turned that g-funk synth lead on it's head with an iconic riff. Even the intro to that song, those first few notes, are setting you up for something big.

And goddamn did it deliver.

Because I haven't even touched on the MC's themselves.

Again, no diss to JV. But BTNH felt new, powerful, and game changing.

Look, this isn't the place for the Freestyle Fellowship talk. There's always one of you cats lurking to pounce on a Bone discussion, and I'm not just talking OKP. This ain't the place for that discussion.

I know Bone won in the big picture, but I'm still salty as fuck that Thuggish Ruggish Bone lost a bump it or dump it segment to Naybahood Queen.
13438320, D’Angelo “Send it On”….
Posted by Dstl1, Wed Jul-28-21 10:44 AM
had me in a trance, for real.
13438322, Distortion to Static - The Roots
Posted by Mack, Wed Jul-28-21 10:52 AM
Heard it on the late night edition of Yo! MTV Raps..was half asleep on the couch when it came on...and woke up the next morning wondering if I really heard what I heard or had I been dreaming. Had to watch the re-run of Yo! at 10am Sunday morning to make sure I heard what I thought I heard.
13438347, saw the video for the first time
Posted by legsdiamond, Wed Jul-28-21 12:23 PM
with a few hip hop heads.

when one of my friends told me it was a live band I lost my shit.

13438323, LSOB Homies
Posted by T Reynolds, Wed Jul-28-21 10:52 AM
wasn't familiar with the original Smokey. I think I was like 11.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L4zl6aJHMs

But my cousin told me he heard it named Brotherhood Creed - Helluva, by the DJ on the radio which I fuckin hated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9M5VqHNV14

I looked for months for the damn cassingle. Finally found the shit based on the title of the shit, but I had to look through every damn single in the rap section to find it.

13438326, RE: The first time I heard…
Posted by jimaveli, Wed Jul-28-21 11:10 AM
>this post is about the first time you heard a song that
>changed your life or hit you in that special place.
>
>Like the first time I heard Egyptian Lover.
>
>I fucking bugged out and stood next to the DJ for 30 minutes
>at the pool asking him to play it again. Dude was annoyed af
>but I didn’t care. That shit was like a drug and I needed
>another hit.
>

I have so many of these but this is one of the first ones that came to mind for me.

I heard the album for the first time the Friday before it dropped on 9/11. Yep, that 9/11.

Me and two of my homeboys did a listening session for it. We loved it and I remember us all being blown away and impressed that JayZ had finally made a self-aware rapper album. So much of the stuff before was him recounting hustler stuff and basically acting like he wasn't comfy with where he was at. Blueprint was the exhale.

And the title track at the end just brought it all home for us. Even something simple like the beat dropping out for the 'kitchen table, that's where I honed my skills' part worked like a charm on us. And the end with him shouting out the Roc dudes with personal messages made it even more clear that dude was onto something. I loved the weird Al Green sample too so there's that.
13438328, Biz - make the music with your mouth
Posted by mikediggz, Wed Jul-28-21 11:11 AM
im about 14-15 and its like '86ish...my big homey down the street called me and told me come thru he was gonna roll out (i wasnt drivin yet)... shoot down to his crib and he had a van in his yard that wouldnt crank lol...we would sit in the van and smoke joints (thats with white rollin papers for all the youngins)...we sittin in the van gettin baked and homey has a lil tape deck and is playing music while we chillin...next thing i know those pianos kick in and im stuck like chuck in a trance like OMG...never forgot that moment RIP Biz
13438385, RE: Biz - make the music with your mouth
Posted by jimaveli, Wed Jul-28-21 04:18 PM
>im about 14-15 and its like '86ish...my big homey down the
>street called me and told me come thru he was gonna roll out
>(i wasnt drivin yet)... shoot down to his crib and he had a
>van in his yard that wouldnt crank lol...we would sit in the
>van and smoke joints (thats with white rollin papers for all
>the youngins)...we sittin in the van gettin baked and homey
>has a lil tape deck and is playing music while we
>chillin...next thing i know those pianos kick in and im stuck
>like chuck in a trance like OMG...never forgot that moment RIP
>Biz

Yes! Absolutely yes! I was blown away by hearing this on the radio.

Then, I was blown away all over again when I heard those keys come through on the Isaac Hayes song it sampled. Yeah, Ike's Mood all day.
13438898, this is the one for me too...
Posted by My_SP1200_Broken_Again, Tue Aug-03-21 03:25 PM
...late 86 not long after the mets won the world series, i was at the roller rink for a birthday party and heard the dj play "make the music" ..i was HOOKED from there ..Doug E Fresh "The Show" was another one I heard for the first time that day
13438330, Freestyle Fellowship - Hot Potato
Posted by T Reynolds, Wed Jul-28-21 11:15 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOTapJYlawU

edit: forgot this was the remix. I liked the original from the album more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYDhiEPw0L4

this is the first song that grabbed me off an album that would eventually be one of my all time favorite records

The combination of throwback synchronized rhyming like the Treacherous Three etc. that Jurassic 5 would bring back later on, and the futuristic vocal stylings that would influence LA underground hip hop until today, made me appreciate the hometown scene more since I was a NY rap stan in LA mostly.

Seeing these dudes at swap meet raves and at Leimert Park or shows on Sunset for years started with this song and Innercity Griots as a whole.
13438382, They Want EFX
Posted by Ray_Snill, Wed Jul-28-21 04:00 PM
I literally ran to the record store when I heard that on Rap City. blew my mind




<=========================================
https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PYzh4v9cSf4FDnq3yMQyqNqh79o=/800x0/filters:no_upscale%28%29/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/4079674/jlio.0.gif
13438386, Green Eyes - Badu
Posted by mista k5, Wed Jul-28-21 04:23 PM
I was at THAT age and moment in life where you are really going through all those emotions all at once and yeah this cemented her place in my rotation for me.

I have a few of those moments for her though lol

You Got Me..got me
The Light video...yeah
On & On

Plenty

I Want You

Honey

...and on and on

Window Seat

Umm Hmm
13438388, The FIRST time?
Posted by jimaveli, Wed Jul-28-21 04:36 PM
>this post is about the first time you heard a song that
>changed your life or hit you in that special place.
>
>Like the first time I heard Egyptian Lover.
>
>I fucking bugged out and stood next to the DJ for 30 minutes
>at the pool asking him to play it again. Dude was annoyed af
>but I didn’t care. That shit was like a drug and I needed
>another hit.
>

Shiiiid, I'm not sure. Thinking...

Quiet Storm - Smokey Robinson. Let's go with that.

My pops and his friends AND my uncles were all about riding in these big azz 2-door sedans. Boats/slabs/whatevers. Lincoln. Monte Carlo. Burgundy azz Buicks. All of that. And I can still very clearly remember riding with my pops in a Monte Carlo while he went around doing random shit that old country dudes did back then: meeting up with the numbers dude at the corner store right off the freeway for the next board, eating at some hole in a wall where he knew the owner, linking up to talk side hustles of some kind with some random dude that I may or may not ever see again, bumping into someone he knew and then arguing and clowning for 30 minutes about sports, all of this stuff. I'm like 5 or so during all of this.

It would get to be evening time and he'd almost always have to stop off one more random place before we head back across town to the house. The sun would be going down. And the radio station would go into that slow jams/quiet storm session. And there was the damn Smokey and that badass song. I heard it so many times. It ALWAYS made me feel good and cool..riding around with my pops in a powder blue Monte Carlo floating with Smokey in the background. Or later on, it was a forest green Lincoln.

Now look, I don't know if those cars were raggedy or not, but it informed my driving tastes from then on out. I drive a big sedan even now for instance. Not those colors tho!

If it wasn't that Smokey, it was LTD - Stranger, which also blew my mind. That chorus (even more than the 'Can you woo woo WOO!' and all of the wonderful Cedric The Entertainer material that came after) is by far my favorite Jeffrey Osborne anything. NOBODAYYYYYY, NAH NAH NAH NAHHHHHH!
13438419, Soho - Hot Music
Posted by flipnile, Wed Jul-28-21 09:11 PM
DJ played it during a house set at a party back in the 90s.

Officially flipped me from benig a hip hop head to a house head after that. Really changed the direction of my musical life. Also got me into dancing.
13438474, This is a good one.
Posted by legsdiamond, Thu Jul-29-21 11:22 AM
my boy played this for me in college freshman year and I lost my shit.

I loved house but this was my first time hearing a house track that wasn’t 4 on the floor.

13438421, PM Dawn I'd Die Without You
Posted by Mori, Wed Jul-28-21 10:07 PM
Middle school. Late 80's R&B became boring to me. I heard PM Dawn and sought that ethereal ambient sound ever since.

Others:
Sza- Love Galore
Michael Jackson- Butterflies
A Tribe Called Quest- Electric Relaxation
Lots of Classical music- Just can't find hte names or remember the rhthyms
Freddie Hubbard - Mirrors
13438897, I loved them, and I totally get what you mean by that ethereal sound.
Posted by spades, Tue Aug-03-21 03:15 PM
13438475, Gypsy Woman
Posted by legsdiamond, Thu Jul-29-21 11:23 AM
when that bass line kicks in on the extended version the first time.

I think I cried

13438902, 42nd Street Happenstance
Posted by spades, Tue Aug-03-21 03:27 PM
I had never head anything so vulnerable directed at men, instead of at women. It kind of knocked my socks off.
13438905, Rebel Without A Pause....
Posted by Castro, Tue Aug-03-21 03:50 PM
It was a b side on a PE single I bought from 'Record Express'...
went to my boy Joe's house and he had a stereo in the basement.

Played the A side, had heard that and was like okay....

flipped it over, played Rebel....for an hour straight. Screaming and yelling at the top of our lungs.
13438946, Erykah Badu - On & On
Posted by FLUIDJ, Wed Aug-04-21 06:35 AM
Freshman year at A&T sitting in my dorm room listening to the WNAA 90.1 (our radio station).
The bass line is what hit of course. And the way track was so muddy and obviously poorly mastered made it even more appealing....sounded like someone had literally just recorded it in their closet and sent over to the station with at note that said "PLAY THIS REAL QUICK".....

I called up the station and the homie Fuqwan answered the phone....I said "YO, who is THAT???"
He was like...."This chick called Erykah Badu....she spells it funny...E.R.Y.K.A.H"......



13438978, Yooo I was working at Taco Bell off of Summit Ave during that time, lol
Posted by Sleepy300, Wed Aug-04-21 11:44 AM
I remember getting the sample cassette joints they used to give out that played like 30 seconds of each song, lol
13438989, I used to HATE them sampler joints lol...even though I was part of the problem
Posted by FLUIDJ, Wed Aug-04-21 12:46 PM
problem because we'd set them out in a big basket at The Record Exchange where I was working lol....

Summit Ave.....I'm still surprised Taco Bell survived after Cook Out dropped on the scene lol....


"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"
13438994, Yeah the Record Exchange used to have 'em all, lol
Posted by Sleepy300, Wed Aug-04-21 01:35 PM
Last time I went home...that Taco Bell is still there (so is Cookout/Wendy's). Damn shame how they don't invest in that side of town anymore tho.

Now how Mrs. Winner's survived is purely because of A&T, LOL
13439188, My homey had a slot at the college's "radio station"
Posted by flipnile, Fri Aug-06-21 10:11 AM
I don't think the college had an FM transmitter or a license, so it was an AM station with the range of a few blocks. I used to go in just to dig through all the vinyl in the library, and they got promos even tho the broadcast was wack. One day my dude pulls out Erykah's single and throws it on the table and looks at me with a smirk while it's spinning. Song plays, and we start laughing by the first chorus on some "why is she singing all funny like that?" I thought it was interesting tho, and it was like narcotics... I had a hit, I wanted more but I wasn't hooked yet TBH. "Otherside of the Game" was that second hit that got me hooked on Erykah.

A little long, but for some reason I remember that EXACT moment when I first heard "On & On"
13439003, mahogany - eric b & rakim
Posted by Binlahab, Wed Aug-04-21 02:05 PM
late 80s.no rappers were getting played on the radio that I recall MAYBE hammer and tone loc kinda shit but real rap rap?

no.

except late at night the local college radio station would play some rap and i recall it as being uncut altho i know that is impossible now

id listen on the lowest volume setting on my clock radio at night so my mom didnt hear

one night dj played this and i recognized the beat immeadiately as al green but the words.

i had not heard anyone rap like that before seemed so...smooth. effortless.

i was amazed and astonished. i found a store that sold the album and bought the tape...my first purchase of music with my own money

i played that sucker to DEATH.

rakim is the greatest of all time period


on sabbatical.

does it really matter?

wonder what bin's doing?
http://i.imgur.com/phECCMp.jpg
13439151, C.R.E.A.M
Posted by MaxPtah, Thu Aug-05-21 08:22 PM
It was on Rap City. I was getting bored with the videos that were playing and I was about to fire up the Sega Genesis and play a game (I'm sure it was an EA Sports title). Then the intro came on and I was mesmerized. I was literally in a trance looking at the video and hearing that song. When it was over I begged my mom to take me to the mall music store (Camelot) so I can see if there was a tape single I could buy. It was there. I wore that tape out.
13439170, Free-Goodie Mob
Posted by tully_blanchard, Fri Aug-06-21 06:53 AM
I really wasn't checking for southern hip-hop like that. I thought 'kast was a fluke, and "Cell Therapy" was a one hit wonder. I was watching this MTV documentary about Freaknik, and they were showing this "the morning after" type montage and I heard this voice singing "Loooord it's sooo haaarrrrd..." and I lost my shit. I tried to catch that doc everytime it came on just to hear that song, and my circle was so "NY Hip Hop" nobody knew what it was either. I found the "Soul Food" cd used and by that point knew the Goodie Mo-b wasnt a fluke so I bought it. I damn near cried in the parking lot when that song I had been looking for came on.




*************************************

Fuck aliens

-Warriorpoet415

#2dopebrothersandastackofwax

https://www.instagram.com/bobgeorge87

https://www.instagram.com/thirtythree.three/