2pac - keep ya head up

youtube was down for maintenance last night and it was kinda scary to imagine the web without it. there are videos on like millions of websites thanks to youtube. i'm glad its back. i remember seeing this video back when it was on mtv and thinking "huh, this guy is pretty cool - i really like his shirt"

naughty by nature - hip hop hooray

naughty by nature keeps it pretty nice and radio friendly here, bridging gaps in the community getting everyone involved with the arm motions, shouting lines like "I love black women always and disrespect ain't the way. let's start a family today! hip hop hooray!" did you think there was gonna be a fight at the end of the video? super soakers!! the groove is infectious, you just have to bob your head. one thing i love about this music is how totally acceptable it is to have an entire song just be about how cool hip hop is. not to mention in the vast majority of songs mcs brag how great they are on the mic compared to everyone else. i would love to hear a band like oasis, for example, if they think they are all that, write a song about how sweet they are and call other bands out instead of saving it all for interviews. hip hop hooray for sure, thats where its at.

souls of mischief - 93 til infinity

if west coast rap is all about the parties, then this is the ultimate party jam. to me this song just feels like perpetual summertime, chillin outside in the nice weather. and thats only reinforced by the video i guess. hard not to feel good when this is on. seriously how good was music back in 93? tribe released midnight marauders. black moon's enta da stage. first album from wu-tang. this song. the list could go much longer but they aren't lying cuz even though this is almost 15 years old, its just as good as it was then. maybe even better since we know the kind of shit that gets released now. i'm happy listening to this from now til infinity, whatever. timeless.

black moon - how many mc's

nice - mtv back in '93. i love the shots towards the end of evil dee scratching while hanging upside down from the wall. youtube is the greatest thing ever if i can find shit like this in like 15 seconds or less. its gonna be hard not to blow my load all in one night and post like 50 videos right now. i'll just watch this a few times and ponder...how many mcs must get dissed?