Musical Monday Morning

Ugh. Word to the wise, if you're going to stay up all night to watch a basketball game, you best be ready to deal with the consequences. I don't know where, when, why, or how I decided that it was a good idea to watch the Men's Gold Medal game live, knowing full well that I had a meeting for work to attend at 7am on Sunday morning (which was to be followed up with 9 hours of actual work afterward) but if I had it to do again, I'd probably make the same choice. The Spaniards gave the US Team all they could handle and then some. What a game...

That being said, my once I got home Sunday any chance for productivity or procrastination went clean out of the window. No blogging, no school work, no playing of video games. Sleeping was the only thing on my mind and damn if I didn't sleep to my heart's content. Well, obviously I'm awake now (unless I've managed to perfect the art of sleep-blogging) and I've got some time to kill, so how about a few tunes to pass the time...

Rap
Eazy-E ft Dresta and BG Knocc Out - "Real Muthafukkin' G's"
Eazy-E never got his due. He wasn't as marketable as Dre or Ice Cube, his flow wasn't as smooth as Slick Rick or Ice-T, and he never had an army of fans like that of Notorious B.I.G. or Tupac. Eazy-E was a producer and record excutive first and a rapper second, but when he wanted to he could spit bars with the best of them. This track is a prime example of that. Written as a response to Dr. Dre's diss track "Fuck Wit Dre Day (And Everybody's Celebratin')," Eazy-E and his crew let it all hang out here. Whereas Dre's track was a thinly veiled slam on Eazy, one that only those who followed gangsta rap at the time would understand, Eazy comes out of the gate with both pistols blazing. By the time you reach the 1:30 mark in the song, you know exactly who Eazy is targeting and more importantly why.
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50s Ballad
Pat Boone - "I'll Be Home"
I feel a little bad for Pat Boone. His early career was built on the copying the success of other, more talented, musicians. You see, Pat Boone's role in the mid-to-late 50s was to "purify" rock-and-roll. All of Boone's big hits were covers of songs made popular by African American artists such as Fats Domino, Nat King Cole, and Little Richard. And these weren't covers that came years after the original was released -- most of his hits were on the radio and music charts at the same time as the source material. But I don't hold that against him as those events were moreso a result of the time period and attitudes at the time than anything he was trying to do on purpose. Like any other performer, Boone wanted to create his own music. It took a few years, but once Boone was given the chance to sing his own songs, record executives finalize realized "hey, this guy ain't half bad." "I'll Be Home" is one of Boone's earlier successes and while it doesn't too much to stand out from the time period, it is worth a quick listen.
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...and in a funny footnote, one of Pat Boone's last album releases was a cover collection of metal songs. Old habits die hard apparently.

Metal
Dio - "Rainbow In The Dark"
I have not been able to get this song out of my head since the first time I heard it. The scary thing is I kind of like it being there. Thanks a ton Dr. Kenneth Noisewater.
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