Music has an interesting way of making you remember the most random events. For some odd reason I cannot remember a large majority of the Patriots games I have been to, yet there are songs that I still listen to today that bring me back to when I first heard them. Specifically, I remember the song that got me to fall in love with hip-hop.
I was in seventh grade, and at the time my music diet consisted of classic rock, alternative rock and a lot of Metallica. I also felt an angst towards the hip-hop that my friends were listening to. Try not to hate me for this, but I used to have an emotional hatred for Lil Wayne and all things auto-tuned. I still kind of feel this way since a lot of hip-hop is garbage, yet I did grow an appreciation for old school hip-hop and an assortment of today’s music (I know I sound like an old man).
Now, back to the story. I was walking home from school with my friend Trevor and a couple of other kids who I cannot recall. He was playing music from his iPod, most of which I was not feeling at all. Then, he prefaced an upcoming song by saying, “the beginning of this song is hilarious, listen closely to the lyrics or words or whatever it is.” I put my ears up to the iPod not knowing what to expect. “Easy does it,” Trevor said.
“Easy does what?” I asked, confused as all hell.
“No, that’s the name of the song. Eazy-Duz-It by Eazy-E.”
Then the song started. “He was once a thug from around the way… / Eazy, but you should – Bitch, shut the f*** up, get the f*** outta here. / Yo Dre, (what’s up) give me a funky ass baseline.”
From that moment on, I was hooked. Eazy-E’s story about all the women he’s acquired (“Well I’m Eazy-E, I got bitches galore / You may have a lot of bitches but I got more”), his “super-duper group coming out the chute,” 8 ball sipping, how he “collects from bitches,” being a gangsta having fun, knocking “m************ out,” taking money and “itching for mo’,” and cold smoking someone’s ass really connected with me. I could feel it in my bones. Finally, music that not only related to my life, but was also catchy and hilarious. I really did not expect to like the song, but this one spoke to me on a deep level. It’s also a dope beat from Dr. Dre, making it all the better.
Eazy-E’s anthem sticks with me to this day. I almost feel like it is a theme song for my life. Anybody who knows me can attest to this: “in one way or another, I’m a bad brother / Word to the m************.”