Soul Food

This weekend I took moms to the 4th Annual Funk Festival in Concord. The tickets were a major prize I won from an American Cancer Society Event I went to in April – an event that gave me so much more than these sweet tickets – but back to the show. I swear it felt like a big ass family reunion or something. Listening to music that caused memories to rush back like tides on island sands – creating feelings of warmth, comfort, freedom and happiness. The line up was the SOS Band, the Ohio Players, Cameo, MC Hammer (sans the parachute pants), and Morris Day – some names that you folks may remember or have heard of – or at least you have come across them in some song in which they have been sampled repeatedly. I hate that fact that music like this doesn’t exist anymore. Props to Phatsostace for recognizing the contributions that the great Luther Vandross gave to music. I mean would you rather hear someone sing “a thousand kisses from you is never too much” or T.I. telling you “bust it over shorty, lemme see ya get loose.” Depending on how horny and drunk you are, you might go for the latter. It’s just really saddening to me how soul and R&B is loosing so many of their great staples – how they get reduced to caricatures that don’t nearly serve them justice. No offense, but if the only thing you know about Rick James is what you saw on Dave Chappelle, your ass needs to be slapped… cold blooded indeed. Although that shit was hella funny, I hope that those episodes have prompted you to at least listen to and appreciate his music, and not just see him as a joke.
But I’m hella digressing – the show was bomb! Although I got sunburned, it was refreshing to go to an event and not worry about fights, sucky performances, and ignorant people – well, there were some dumb asses that decided to break out some Mary Jane and my mom and I got some major contact from it. How people can smoke something that smells like ass, and perhaps was once in someone’s ass, is beyond me. The set I was super juiced to see was Hammer. Regardless of the fact that he lost all his millions, the whole sell-out moniker that he gained during his rise to fame, it was good to see that Oakland has not given up on him. Nationwide, folks only saw him as the guy who wore the glittery suits and gheri curl fades – Oakland folks saw him with a smaller gheri curl fade, Troop Jackets, baby Benz’s and Gazelle glasses, and the first version of “Let’s Get It Started” that was filmed at Sweet Jimmie’s in Downtown Oakland. Despite all the changes he went through – of course we were a bit let down and disappointed in some capacities – we still embrace him an his talents. And they say you can’t go home again, right? Damn, that man can still move too… and his dancers, OH MY GOD!!! I was so jealous – I wanna be a Hammer dancer too! I give Hammer major props too cuz he is working with youth from the Oakland community. They are taking their natural talents and putting them towards good. Like Hammer said, “If we don’t help our youth, who else will?” Dope.
This show was so nostalgic for me… like corner store dill pickles and peppermint sticks (broke kids can get really creative with pocket change) – and like soul and R&B music, they both have a distinguished flavor that you won’t ever forget, and should never be watered down, or condemned for being different.
P.S.: Sorry for getting a lil hyperlink happy -- just wanted you to see what I was talkin' about =)