Member-only story
Mom — The Original Shazam
Technology Ain’t Nothin’ to a Musicologist
It’s 1990. I’m chillin’, bumpin’ 3rd Bass. Mom busts into the room and says, “You know that’s Blood, Sweat & Tears, right?!” No, I didn’t know, and from that day on my mom made sure I knew most of my favorite music was repurposed. She didn’t scoff at the repurposing. If anything, knowing where these samples originated made her hip again. Soon it was one more unwritten bond we shared.
I mowed lawns in the summer. Some lawns I charged $5 and others — if they were buried in weeds — I charged $10. This allowed me to stack mad cassettes from Musicland. That was until Ice Cube’s Death Certificate in 1991. Other “Explicit Lyric” tapes I was able to borrow. My best friend Mo had Ice-T’s Power on permanent repeat, so I knew all the lyrics without owning the tape. But Mo had moved away at this point, and I needed that new Ice Cube tape! There was no one else to turn to but Mom. Why? You couldn’t buy the album if you were underage. We were under Conservative rule and they had a new target in their crosshairs: Hip Hop.
Mom walked into the Tabor Center in downtown Denver with her head held high. She didn’t want the truth…
