Mean

Hmmm...Music Is My Life! I believe that I probably was singing before I was talking. My father listened almost exclusively to Jazz (or "real" Jazz, as he would say); John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Sarah Vaughn...So much of my musical foundation lies within jazz music. My mother, on the other hand, was more free spirited when it came to music. She exposed me to everything from Soul(Minnie Ripperton, Sly and the Family Stone), to Disco(Chic), to Reggae(Bob Marley), to Calypso, Rock and even African drumming...It is obvious to me that I draw most of my experimental side from her. However, It was my sister's records (Michael Jackson's "Off The Wall" and the song "Funk you up" by The Sequence) that truly ignited my love affair with music. I credit Cleveland, Oh radio stations 93.1 WZAK and 107.9 WDMT (rip) for sculpting what I thought was good music. Somewhere in my youth I began watching Solid Gold, which exposed me to the other genres of music that weren't regularly played in my home. And then came rap! (or hip hop for the purists) Rap was here to stay, for me, when UTFO dropped "Roxanne, Roxanne" and then Roxanne Shante' released the unauthorized reply, followed by The Real Roxanne's official response, I was hooked! I saw the first commercialism of rap (Jazzy Jeff/Fresh Prince, Kid N Play, Salt N Pepa), The emergence of Social Rap(KRS[BDP], Public Enemy), The introduction of Reality Rap (NWA, Geto Boys), and everything in between. My Favorite Artists? Too many to name...My list includes all that have been mentioned above; In addition: LL Cool J, Run DMC, EPMD, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Wu Tang Clan, Sade, Maxwell, The Isley Brothers, Zapp, 2PAC, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Al Green, Nirvana, James Brown (of course), Jodeci, Mary J. Blige, Soul II Soul; aww man - the list goes on and on.