Onward with the nerd lists about subjects I have no credentials to talk about. For some reason, like I think the world wants to hear what I have to say about “Confessions of a Shopaholic” (surprisingly awesome) – so it’s time for another list of personal favorites that will appeal to 3 and a half people in the world.

One of the more time-consuming – but enjoyable – themes for me to write about is favorite lyrics from a specific artist. And this time I chose to go with my favorite lyricist: Posdnuos of De La Soul. But there aren’t really Posdnuos songs, there are De La Soul songs. So I’m ignoring the lyrical contributions of Dave aka Dove aka Trugoy – the other emcee in that group, because in all honesty, I’ve spent a lot more time thinking about and breaking down Pos’s rhymes. That’s not to say Trugoy’s verses are any less potent, just that Posdnuos delivers his bizness from a place in his heart that appeals to me.

Aside: I once Tweeted something to him and he responded, and that is the highlight of my Twitter using career.

As I was putting this list together, I realized that early De La does not appeal as much to me lyrically as their later stuff. I know for many, the golden era of De La Soul was the Buhloone Mindstate/Stakes is High run, but for me, it extends to the seriously under-appreciated “Art Official Intelligence” and in many respects all the way to “Grind Date” I think as one of the few rap groups to actively aim to grow their emcee personae as they grew older as people, the lines they dropped int heir mid-20s, late-20s and into their 30s got heavier and more meaningful. And the heavy representation of AOI on this list probably has a lot to do with the fact that at the time, Pos was roughly the age I am now and going through similar things in life.

Anyway though, what follows is my ten favorite lines from Posdnuos, with some selection criteria, like they all come from songs that have appeared on De La Soul albums, I’m not including guest verses on other artists albums, not even Prince Paul stuff. Also, even though content, delivery and flow, voice, and sounds and aesthetics all play into what makes me love a line, I’m trying to not include much or any of the actual rhyme sounds, and only leaving it at the specific heart of the line that has caught my attention over and over. If you want to catch any of these lines in context, go listen to the entire song to catch the whole thing.

And…

10. “While you others represent, I present my rep” from Supa Emcees
This was the mid-90s, so seemed like all of hip hop was about representing, whether it was a set, a hood, a city, whatever. Pos subtly laid down the gauntlet by saying the only claim anyone has to the title of “emcee” is their skills, and until that’s proven, your other credentials can be taken off the wall. Moreover, Pos is real good at this, unpacking a word to its different parts and incorporating them all together, for example “it ain’t my fault your ass is on the asphalt” and so on.

9. “My aim’s to freeze you dead center in your tracks with your hands high” from Declaration
This is a favorite at live shows cuz Pos always does the whole thing the same way, and incorporates a coordinated arm movement from the entire crowd. So yeah, that’s fun. But listen to the lyrics son! For someone who always comes across humble and maintains he’s a good but not great rapper, he lets out a little bit of the other side in this song, showing why he truly believes he is better than you. The whole thing is about how he will easily and gladly out-rhyme you, and what?

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This is kinda controversial. Not to anyone else – just to me. It’s hard to pick my favorite spoken word pieces of the last decade because the thing that makes me love them is so personal. It might be the presentation, the wordplay, the structuring – or it could be a lot harder to pin down, like the mood I was in when I first heard it, the way it seemed to complete an incomplete thought I was having, or maybe it became more powerful the more I thought back to it.

Of course, this is true for any work of creative expression. That’s almost the very definition of “art” – it is not fact and it is not fiction, and it doesn’t dwell between those two polarities. Art is a separate category altogether. You can – but you don’t have to – understand it logically. Sometimes the greatest power of art is that it simply confirms we are alive and present in this world. It’s a crazy thing, this art business.

So the criteria is that I must have heard it performed live after the new millennium began and before I ever heard it on CD or read it in a book or on the Internet (thus no “First Writing Sense”) – but even if I heard it for the first time in the 00s, if it was very obviously written before that, then it is disqualified (thus no “Unemployed Mami”). Also, no poet can appear more than once.

This list is heavily biased, you know, toward pieces I’ve actually seen performed – and also, I admit it’s pretty East Coastish. Whatever yo, it’s my list!

Also, I know I did twelve and not the customary ten, but there’s no way I can possibly take any of these off. It was hard enough narrowing it down this far. I’ve included the approximate year I first heard the poem and my favorite line from each piece, but these are coming straight from memory – so don’t quote me on them.

12. “Listen Asshole” – Yellow Rage (2000)
It feels like a lifetime ago. When I first moved to DC right after college, I knew close to nobody – and I had no aspirations to take on spoken word as anything more than just something I did at bars every now and then, since I lived right off Black Broadway and there was no shortage of open mics a couple blocks from my apartment. But pretty soon I found myself part of a duo called re: verse, and we were one of three main API spoken word groups out that way. The other two were Feedback (who I’ll talk about later) from New York and Yellow Rage from Philly.

I don’t really know how we all connected, but folks from all three cities met up in 215 to do a little East Coast retreat and this was the first time I hear them do this ridiculous piece. It was like, yo, who’s gonna stop us now?

Favorite Line: I’m gonna fight with alla my might against motherfuckers who think I’m a white…girl. Watch my finger unfurrrrl…”

11. “Remembrance” – Taiyo Na (2000)
On to the aforementioned Feedback Poets. Taiyo was the baby of the bunch – so I was shocked when I saw this like 17 year old kid spit this amazing piece at the Asian American Writer’s Workshop open mic called (re)collection. It was the most succinct and touching rendition of a Japanese American history and future through its literature and music, done in a way that I guess I haven’t seen anyone else even attempt. Mas Yamagata backed him up on the bass.

Favorite Line: This ain’t just some Biz Mark shit; these lips are rocking a lost taiko

10. “The Last Words of a Roach, Underfoot” – El Guante (2009)
Dark Horse entry here. Everyone else on this list is someone I probably first met like – well – a long time ago. But I didn’t have the pleasure of sharing a stage with El Guante until this past year, and I have to say man I was astounded. This piece from the point of view of a cockroach made me feel like I should be writing a lot more.

In the hands of a lesser writer, this concept could have been corny. But he went in on it; honestly, it’s transcendent.

Favorite Line: You say…that life can be something greater than survival, but what could be greater than survival?

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I’m listing the best live performances I’ve seen in the Zeroes. It struck me while writing this: I have not seen many live shows aside from my friends’ performances. Ah well.

By the way, i’m not including like theater or sporting events or dance shows and the like. You know what I’m saying? This is for “concert” or things that are basically like concerts.

10. Koba, 2006
East Meets Words, Cambridge, MA
If I remember correctly, Koba was the first rapper to do a feature set at this open mic series. And it was crazy because he actually rocked it! A bookstore!

More than that, it made me feel like – wait, we can do anything we want here?

9. Brown Star, 2009
East Meets Words, Cambridge, MA
What I like about these brothers is that they don’t come from a slam-influenced world – they both come from theater. Thus, they are not bound by the same theoretical limits many of us (I mean folks roughly my age I guess) impose on ourselves by accident. They had pieces that went like 10 or 15 minutes long, but the great thing about that was it never felt stagnant. No matter how long the pieces were, they were always moving, nothing was accidental or unplanned – it was all paced out perfectly.

Even more, I love seeing performers I haven’t seen before do amazing work. It makes me feel like spoken word is not dying.

8. Beau Sia, 2007
Boston University, Boston, MA
Beau is pretty much always great, but on this evening at BU he was more sharp than I had ever seen him. There was some college student performers that night who were at various levels of proficiency when it came to writing, but Beau took that all in and spit it back out with fire. He’s like a monster that swallows mediocre poetry and returns it as amazing isht.

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I was gonna try to come up with 10, but it’s too hard. My memory is mad spotty – plus I don’t really pay that much attention to commercials unless they’re dope. So top seven it is.

By the way, I don’t watch much TV except sports, so…uh…take that for what it’s worth.

7. Cog
Honda, 2003

What??

6. Pony
Ally Bank, 2009
This brown-haired girl gives awesome facial expressions – at :03 when she is overjoyed at getting a toy pony, and even more delicious is the glare as she cocks her head to side to let him know he needs to stop messing around.

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10. Musicology, Prince (2004)
Prince’s best album in more than 10 years. When he released this, all I could think was “music is back!” Then again, I probably would not have picked it up if they hadn’t been passing it out at his concerts. The big revelation was that he was ready to come back full force – for a long time he had been in an extended “see what I can do” phase, where it was like he was trying to come up with the least memorable music of his career. In the years after Musicology, he’s released a bunch of new music that has been at a similar high level.

9. Sam’s Town, The Killers (2006)
After I heard “When You Were Young” while playing Rock Band on the XBOX, I was really impressed with the songwriting, so I downloaded the Killers album, not knowing what their music sounded like. But the album was like whooosh! Maybe it’s because I actively avoided radio rock music since I accidentally heard Nickelback and was traumatized. The weird thing was, I read a lot of stuff online about how Sam’s Town was a big letdown after their first album, but for my money, this is the album that defines their sound. Their musical execution in the studio is phenomenal, the guitar solos are lyrical, and the songwriting from beginning to end is as poetic as can be. (I’m of the opinion that rock songs tend to have the worst lyrics of any genre.)

Anyway, I know I’m a nerd. So what.

8. Greatest Hits, Foundation Movement (2006)
I used to see these brothers like every other week, but I guess it’s normal that as you get older and stuff, you tend to lose touch with folks here and there. Regardless, there’s no way I could forget to put one of the finest hip hop acts to ever come out of Boston on my decade-end list. Speaking of Boston hip hop, Edo G guested on “Movement” with an inspired verse that makes me nostalgic even now three years later – and he’s just one of several high-profile collaborators on here. I think the fact that world famous cats were itching to jump on a track with FM reminds us that sometimes the best stuff in the world is being made right next door. Don’t stop checking for it.

7. Supreme Clientele, Ghostface Killah (2000)
This was released almost exactly ten years ago, but it still looms large in my memory. I think Ghost kinda defined the split that was gonna play itself out in hip hop music over the next several. The first song on the disc – the bugged out “Nutmeg” – was the first I can remember to force a listener to understand its concept primarily from elements other than its lyrics. Ghost had always done a little roundabout stuff in his songs, but it was consistent throughout this entire album, and he went on the show it would be consistent for the rest of his career, pitting him in sharp contrast to rappers like Plies or MIMS or the Ying Yang Twinz who made songs that had no real meaning at all.

Something about Ghost’s raps on this album reminds me of ziti.

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I don’t hear anybody talking about how the decade is coming to a close. When it was 1999, mad people were freaking out over the Y2K. But even in 1989, going into the 90s was a big deal. And I’m sure it was the same in 1979. But people aren’t tripping over 2009 becoming 2010. Is it because nobody knows what to call the decades? I heard people using ‘The Aughts’ – but I’m cool with ‘The Zeroes’ because, ther’es no confusion over it right?

OK, my top ten movies of the Zeroes.

10. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
My wife and I thought this was a kids movie when we snuck in. I guess we are idiots because it is not at all apprpriate for children. But it is an amazing flick. Taking place after the Spanish Civil War, a girl escapes her fascist – in multiple ways – stepfather by imagining (?) a fantasy world in which she is actually a long lost princess who will eventually be reunited with her parents – king and queen of the underworld.

All children create alternate realities to some extent, and dwell in them for various amounts of time, depending on how emotionally healthy they are. This film is heartbreaking because Ofelia is forced to live most of her day in her fantasy world because the reality of her life is so rough. Her stepfather eventually kills her before he’s assassinated by rebels in bittersweet justice. And of course, the special effects are crazy ass.

9. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
After seeing this flick, I went to the bookstore to read the short story it’s based on and was shocked to finish it in about 15 minutes. To actually read the source material makes it all the more impressive that such well developed characters and such an emotionally-affecting story was built off a short story of about 30 pages. But most of all, the movie is made by Jake Gyllenhall and Heath Ledger’s performances. I don’t think I’ve ever seen two characters in an American movie more convincingly in love.

8. My Sassy Girl (2001)
My favorite thing about this movie is that it is based on a true story. I know, right?

Of course Ji-hyun Jun (aka Gianna Jun?) is the undisputed star, but I feel Tae-hyun Cha actually holds his own. If you haven’t seen it, don’t watch it without your ride-or-die, because even though the premise – silly dude meets drunk girl on subway, she subsequently ruins his life as they fall in love – sounds kinda throwaway, it really helps remind a viewer what it means to be in love. Korean movies have a weird penchant for being mad deep even when they don’t seem it; it’s the han.

7. Synecdoche, New York (2008)
I don’t know if I’ll ever see another movie that does this to me. I can’t say I liked it in the traditional sense of liking stuff, but I loved how sad it made me. Does that sounds weird?

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I like pro sports, and the NBA in particular. I am not blind to the way it replicates exploitative systems from larger society – but in the same way we can appreciate a clever political campaign, a day of unexpected beautiful weather, or a well-crafted children’s picture book – so too do I appreciate watching NBA basketball. It is theater for the oppressed. (No Freire)

In honor of the new NBA season getting underway tonight (!!!), I’m putting up a list of my favorite Celtics players during my lifetime. There’s basically two loose guidelines: 1) I have to like them for what they did for the Celtics – no Gary Payton, no Dominique Wilkins, no Chauncey Billups and the like, and 2) I have to have watched them play, thus no Russell, no Jojo White (my mom’s favorite), no Bob Cousy, etc.

Let’s get it started…

10. Tom Heinsohn
Allow me to start off this list by breaking my own rule. Of course I never saw Tommy play: he retired in 1965, and coached until 1978 – the year I was born. So I’ve known him in my lifetime primarily as a broadcaster. And the great thing about him is that over the years, he’s gotten more and more crotchety and biased. Almost every time a Celtics player get called for a foul, Tommy gets livid and screams about how the refs are terrible. But my favorite is when they look at a replay and see the Celtic in question was undeniably guilty of committing the foul, he’ll usually mutter a retraction under his breath – then talk about how the other team has been doing the same thing all game and never got called for it.

9. Dee Brown
A Celtic won the slam dunk contest! Throughout the 80s, the Celtics were known throughout the land as the blue-collar, not very athletic NBA team. So when Dee won the slam dunk contest when I was in middle school – woooooooo! It wasn’t just the dunking ability, but it was mostly the flair. The blindfold dunk and the little act of pumping up his sneakers before every attempt! I waited in line for 2 hours at the Cambridgeside Galleria to get his autograph on a mini Celtics basketball. Uh. I lost it. Still though, he had a nice career in the NBA, so I’ll have a special place in my memory for him.

8. Kevin Garnett
He’s only been here two years, and he’s in the top 10 Celtics players of my lifetime? ANYTHING’S POSSIBLE!!!

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Dude, Prince again?

Yes again. Last week, I blogged about some of my favorite lyrics from Killers songs – and it made me feel guilty that I didn’t do it for Prince first.

It’s a lot harder with prince though, because the Killers have 3 albums and a collection of B-sides. Prince has at least, I dunno, 25 albums. In addition, Prince sometimes writes amazing lyrics and sometimes seems to not spend any time thinking about lyrics at all (My name is Prince! And I am funky!) – and even in songs with blah lyrics, the music can still make it amazing. So after much some thought, here are my top 10 favorite lines from Prince songs as of today.

Tomorrow, it could change. (As usual, scroll to the bottom for the imeem playlist.)

10. “Her favorite number was 20 every single day.” from Starfish & Coffee
This is a dark horse entry. There’s nothing remarkable about this line, except its context. In this song about Cynthia Rose, a little girl who has an active imagination, this detail about her personality grounds her in real life even though the song dwells almost exclusively in fantasy. More than anything, I just think it’s cute for a kid to have a favorite number of 20.

9. “I just want your extra time and your kiss.” from Kiss
The funk guitar on this jam makes it. But this refrain takes it over the top. The pause before the last word makes a simple kiss like the hottest thing in the world. Like the guitar says everything the lyrics don’t. Fire.

8. “I would die for you, darling, if you want me to.” from I Would Die 4 U
As with many Prince jams, this might be about God or love. It really doesn’t matter. It’s such an emotionally raw line to base a pop song around. There’s an extended version of this song that I caught wind of once – maybe it was released in Europe or something? – that takes the realness to another place with the entire band chanting “I would die for you” for several minutes before the song starts.

He balances the ultimate sacrifice – death – with the least weighty motivation – want, not need, desire, or even ask.

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I like lists. I’ve said it before. And I started putting lists of my favorite stuff to give me subjects to blog about, but I did a piss-poor job of following up with that. So I thought I would try to put together a list once again once again.

A while back, wifey and I (BTW, can you call someone wifey after you’re actually married?) went to see The Killers in concert. It’s the first rock show I’ve ever been to, and after – I dunno – 15 years of going to almost nothing but hip hop shows and one Prince concert, I didn’t know what to expect.

First of all, I was surprised that the crowd did not look significantly different from the crowd at a Celtics game, except even fewer people of color. But I expected a bunch of tight-jeaned dudes with like dyed bangs; it was all dudes in cargo shorts who look like they probably throw their fists in the air and scream woooooooo! about twice a week. And then a bunch of uncomfortable middle-schooler/well-meaning parent duos.

Regardless, the buzz leaving the Garden was that the show was amazing. But to me it was just kinda alright. It felt far too overproduced for my tastes, it felt like I just watched “The Killers: Live in Concert” on TV, except the TV was 600 feet away, I had to periodically move from behind the person in front of me to see it, and it costed way too much goddamn money.

But I think rock shows must generally be like that. They just aren’t up there in terms of energy like hip hop shows are. And the truth is that my favorite thing about that band is their song-writing. They don’t do much vocally or instrumentally that I was really itching to see done live. In that sense, the Killers are a studio band through and through, but in a really good way.

All this to say that there’s a reason I’m not just doing a list of my favorite 10 Killers songs. (Another day perhaps.) What I’m doing below is a list of my ten favorite lines from Killers songs – because more than any radio rock band I can think of, their lyrics are complex and they matter. BTW, if you read the whole thing, you can find an imeem playlist at the bottom of this post.

So without further ado…

10. “Are we human or are we dancer?” from Human
What an awesome concept. I’m more than a little surprised that so many people – fans, bloggers, and journalists – didn’t understand it. Maybe we need to re-emphasize art in schools, because if a mildly abstract pop song lyric causes so much consternation, then something is wrong with the way we think about creativity in our society.

9. “I know that I can make it, as long as somebody takes me home – every now and then.” from Sam’s Town
This is one of many times that Brandon Flowers extends the line past the line cleverly. It sounds like the line will end “home,” which gives it a meaning on its own, that he needs help for some of the most basic tasks in life. But then by adding “every now and then” – it changes from having a designated driver to having someone he can get intimate with from time to time. From a call for friendship to a call for just wanting to be wanted at all.

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Before Biggie and Pac or Nas and Jay-Z or, uh, Lupe Fiasco and the Internets, there was Prince and Michael Jackson. Contemporaries who were both far more extraordinary than anyone else in their orbit; so naturally they clashed.

I don’t think they ever made nice and got along. (So if it ever comes down to it, know that I ride or die with Prince.) Nevertheless, I am also a MJ fan, I think I just forgot. It’s only last week that I decided to revisit his music, and it made me wonder why I had been away for so long. It’s honestly harder than I thought it would be to listen to his music – no matter how happy it all sounds, it still feels a little sad.

So, since I recently did a Top 10 Prince list, it’s only right…

One caveat: I’m using any song where Mike sang lead vocals, so that includes songs with the Jackson 5/Jacksons.

In descending order (scroll to the bottom for an imeem.com playlist, if you have an imeem account, you can hear every song.):

10. She’s Out of My Life (1979)
OK, so I’m going to start this list talking about Prince, but I’m not trying to be tacky. I think what always appealed to me about Prince was how nakedly he bared himself in music. Michael felt to me the opposite, that he was an amazing songwriter, but that his songs were not all autobiographies of pieces of his soul. That may be unfair, but that’s how he felt to me.

But this song came early in his solo career, maybe before he became more guarded about his privacy. And the connection between the song and the voice – and the specificity, like saying “2 years” – manifests itself in dude obviously crying at the end, you can hear it as he sings. So…yeah, I always give props to songs that feature crying.

9. Rock With You (1979)
I love the way this joint starts, that little tingly googly sounding note that slithers up and down. Don’t that sound like a musical representation of closing your eyes and throwing your head to the side? And in case you don’t think so, Michael tells you in the first line: girl, close your eyes…

8. Billie Jean (1982)
At the time, I had absolutely no idea that this song was about denying fathering a groupie’s baby. Crazy! How come parents didn’t make a big deal about this? And I didn’t fully grasp the story until probably a couple years ago, because of the multiple meanings of the word “baby.” It’s pretty scandalous!

Even though he was already a star, why do I feel like this was when he started to become Michael Jackson, you know? The vocal style, the fashion sense, and the dance style started to become really specifically him.

7. The Way You Make Me Feel (1987)
I remember watching this video and thinking that girl he was harassing on the street was gorgeous. I also remember thinking he should not be harassing her in the street. I also remember thinking that he was not very threatening, so maybe that was cool.

But that beat was hot, it kept ambling steadily forward as if chased by the vocals. Mad 80s but mad futuristic. I wished I was a grown-up so I could jack Michael’s swagger and kick it to ladies. I had outlandish goals.

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If you read to the end, you can hear the imeem playlist of this list. Log in to imeem to hear all the songs.

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10. The Bridge is Over, Boogie Down Productions
Not to say stuff that everybody already says, but the Youtube era of beef is wack. While it can be entertaining for laughs, in general, I’d rather hear a rapper, you know, RAP. You wanna dis a rival? Do it on a track. KRS-ONE bodied MC Shan on not one but two tracks! (South South Bronx!) Looking back though, you can see it’s kind of a jerk move, and in a way it seems like KRS was making a calculated move to boost his career on the back of a lesser emcee. While that’s not very nice or considerate, you gotta respect the man’s hustle.

I still feel bad for Shan though. His contributions to the game are looked back as the developments that allowed KRS-ONE to become KRS-ONE, and not appreciated for their own merits.

9. Bombs Over Baghdad, Outkast
First of all, why did this song come out ten years ago and it still sounds futuristic? What does that say about us now? You all remember the video for this song? When it came out, Bao pointed out the contrasts in Dre’s and Big Boi’s sections, where Andre’s is very active from the beginning, where he wakes up in all these bright colors and starts running, and all these kids start running after him – Big Boi’s is kinda the opposite, its like he said “No running or kids or colors. I’m gonna climb from this car into a bus filled with girls dancing.” And the director just said OK.

As that contrast in styles became more obvious when they grew older, it made for some really interesting music, until they started to grow too far apart to be considered partners anymore. In recent years, it seems like Andre has gotten over himself and is going back to rhyming, which really is where he belongs. (I admire the experimentation with music and acting, but his best verses as an emcee are among the best verses by anyone ever, whereas the other stuff can be good, but does not bring the funk on a similar level.) I love both of their stuff, but they are even better together.

8. The Hollywood Paradox, The College Boyz
Long story short: In middle school, I began to develop opinions on sociopolitical issues and conditions, and a big part of that was exposure to hip hop artists like Public Enemy, 2Pac, N.W.A., Da Lench Mob, and even 3rd Bass. the College Boyz was another one of them. This song just deals with the idea of how hard it is for a Black artist to make it in an industry that has not treated Black artists well. And the Isley Brothers sample is just…woooo. Weird though that the lead emcee in this group had a solid voice and flow, and real dope content, yet he’s known more as the Black guy in Judd Apatow movies. I guess the lesson in this song is mad true, even for the dude who wrote it. (Yeah, Romany Malco was the dude from the College Boyz.)

BTW, the summer before 9th grade I saw them in concert at City Hall Plaza. That was the year someone pulled a gun and everyone went running – but it wasn’t during the College Boyz set! It was during that pop-rock group Mr. Big!

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Updating this blog is not my favorite thing to do. So to encourage myself to blog more often and keep my folks updated on what’s going ons with me, I’m gonna start making lists when I can’t think of anything else to write about. Look for more lists in the future! (If you have a potential topic, please e-mail me, because I run out of ideas pretty fast and I can imagine sometime pretty soon writing “Top 5 Favorite Top 5 Lists.”)

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If you know me, then you know I have an affinity for the musician Prince. It’s a little weird, because I can’t really identify what speaks to me so much about his music besides its awesome-ness. So there’s really no better topic for my first list than my favorite songs by Prince.

In descending order (scroll to the bottom for an imeem.com playlist, if you have an imeem account, you can hear every song.):

10. Musicology (2004)
For a long time, Prince’s main flaw – at least to me – was his misunderstanding of hip hop. Although he rapped in songs dating back to the 1990s, he was pretty terrible at it. This song was like his signal to the world that he was through trying to “get” hip hop, and return to what he knows best, and that’s funk. He namechecks Doug E Fresh, Chuck D and Jam Master Jay, and how they appreciate(d) the real old school like Sly, James Brown, and Earth, Wind & Fire. And that bass groove is so filthy and clean at the same time.

9. Let’s Go Crazy (1984)
I wasn’t gonna put years down, but when I noticed the first two songs on this list were released 20 years apart, I felt like I needed to acknowledge that Prince has been the man for like my entire lifetime. Everything about this song is dope, from the spoken word intro that makes no sense and the organ flourishes, then the drum machine kicks in, then that rockin guitar riff…I could describe the whole song to you, but if you get it, then you get it. And if you don’t, then you are a disgrace.

8. Cream (1991)
This was not among my favorite Prince songs until I saw him in concert a few years ago. You know, I always thought of this song with like backup dancers and him making bedroom eyes at everyone in his vicinity and stuff, but at the show, he sat on a rotating stool alone on stage and accompanied himself on acoustic guitar – and that was it. And the part in the song when he goes “You are fine” – and the audience sang along with him, he stopped and goes “I can tell you really mean that don’t you?” At that point, I felt like the radio dj that Chris Rock plays in the movie “Pootie Tang,” when he starts breaking up his studio and yelling “Pootie too good! Pootie too good!”

To make it even more g, he claims he wrote it front of a mirror, so apparently it’s about himself.

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