Excerpts from This Morning's Alphabits: Looking Forward

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Beside the fact that a terribly unfair music industry allowed a certain entertainer (whose name I won’t mention but it rhymes with Foldger Toy) to be successful enough to think that he has a right to say Nas killed hip-hop, I think there is promise in the world of music again—at least in my small arena of knowledge and minuscule quantity of playlist variety. There is little more jaded than my outlook on what I consider to be good music; I’ve greatly expanded my horizons as I’ve gotten older, but there’s still something left to be said about what I listen to.

I love Common. I think it’s remarkable how far he’s come commercially (finally), given the talent that he possesses. But for every person that lifted a quizzical eyebrow at his Electric Circus album attempt, please note that the techno, experimental, otherworldly sound that so many artists are embracing today (see Kanye, Akon, Rihanna, et al.) and getting significant airplay is some of the same stuff that was on Common’s aforementioned album. Hard-rock guitar accompanies Jay-Z on “99 Problems” along with his collabs with Linkin Park and Coldplay. Is it really that much different from Common’s “Electric Wire Hustle Flower”?

But lately, I’ve been kinda on the instrumentation of songs these days. Jazzanova, which I mentioned in a previous post, has really piqued my earbuds. I heard a song the other day by Ryan Leslie “How It Was Supposed to Be” that has actual instruments. There’s some heavy guitar again, but it definitely blows away the album version that is also available.

Anyway, as I’ve added other artists to my collection—of whom I was previously ignorant and would never have accidentally come within 300 megabytes of my computer before—I look forward to what is to come, so that I will have something wonderful to listen to while I try to write a script or a short story.

In the meantime, let the new year rain greatness in abundance in finances, health, success and blessings to all.

Be good.