Dance Party Friday! 90s Jams

This week's Dance Party is time stamped: 1990s, y'all! The 90s were my teen years - I started middle school at the beginning of the 90s and should have graduated college in 2000 (I did go to college but dropped out my junior year when I got pregnant). Some say the music you listen to during these years is most impactful and is what you return to more than any other period . . . it has something to do with developing sexually. Could be true, but what I do know is that there was some great music going on then.

Let's just go chronologically, shall we?

Here we have a classic. I had the BBD tape (Yes, tape! You know you're not too young to have had tapes. Well, some of you) and I played it constantly in 6th and 7th grade. I have a vivid memory of traveling with my family to Branson, Missouri one of those summers and listening to that tape on my walkman over and over, everywhere we went. This song has always had a special place in my heart, and my friends and I love to trip out over it.

It's one of those songs - all you need is to hear the intro and people just GO WILD, you know? A couple years ago, friends and I went to see New Kids On The Block (shut up, it as incredibly fun and yes, we did lose it like when were in 5th grade, AND?!) and the Jabbawockeez from America's Best Dance Crew were one of their opening acts. They had Poison in their routine and like I said, as soon as everyone heard those staccato drumbeats at the beginning, we went crazy. I have it on video, everyone is watching them, the energy level is still kind of low, and then that song hits and screams erupt all over the place.

THEN, last summer I went with friends (some of the same from the NKOTB concert) to a big concert at The Chicago Taste (a big food & music festival every summer), where we saw: Slick Rick, Rob Base, Doug E. Fresh, BBD and Salt N Pepa. IT WAS RIDICULOUS! So much fun, just thousands of people ranging from their 20s to 50s, singing and dancing and drinking and having a good time. I lost count of how many times we sang, "Never trust a big butt and a smile" and the part from the chorus, "It's driving me out of my mind . . ." and the "ahhaaaaaaaaa" from the very end of the song.


Oh come on. Tell me that you don't throw your remote/drink/sandwich/baby on the floor when you hear this, and start doing the Humpty Dance. Tell me you don't. SAMOANS!!!!



Oh, 8th grade. Which came first, Black folks calling White girls "Becky", or Sir Mix-a-Lot calling them "Becky?" Chicken or egg? Chicken or egg? That year, my friend Tara invited a few BFFs to her cabin for the weekend. We ate, went swimming/boating on a little pond . . . and listened to this song 173 times. It was basically on repeat for 2 days straight.



I've professed my undying affection for my Beasties before so I won't go into that again. I will say that as a kid, I'd heard License to Ill and then in 8th grade, came across the masterpiece that is Check Your Head. THEN I caught up with Paul's Boutique. I know everyone loves PB the best, and I get why. Still, CYH is and always will be my favorite Beasties album. Likely has something to do with it being the album that made me fall completely head of heels in love with them, but also, I just love the sound. CYH and Ill Communication are kind of twins among the other albums. They each play a mix of hip hop, punk, funk, instrumentals . . . and they're also when the Beasties first introduced topics like Buddhism and higher consciousness and respecting women. PB is their big departure, musically, from what they were doing before. But CYH was their first real step into maturity and their first album that showed something besides party-all-the-time.



Freshman year! One of my BFFs, the lovely Ngan of eNVe Designs, the one who inspired me to start an Etsy, the one who I have spent hours and hours talking with about serious and silly things, my first dance partner in crime - this was our song.

Ngan and I at a homecoming dance senior year.

*dreamy sigh* A Tribe Called Quest. So. Have I told you how I met my husband? WELL. It was 1998, I was in college in Kansas, and hanging out at a friend's house - I was going to move in with her in a couple weeks. Our university (Kansas State) was very close to an Army post and a few Army dudes came over that night because one of them had a crush on my soon-to-be-roomie. Here's the scene: roomie is in the bathroom, ignoring dude, putting on makeup 'cause she's going to go out. I'm laying on the living room floor, watching Friday (I mean, how 90s can this story get??), chain smoking (I smoked for about 6 months during college and I now allow myself an annual cigarette). Army dudes were in various chairs/couches in the living room. I sat up and began quizzing them about the music they listened to. That's what I did to determine if someone was cool or not. I still do it, but not to see if they're cool, just to get a small sense of who they are. Anyway - they were all into Master P, who was HUGE at the time. I have never been a fan, just don't really like his sound, that's all. Nothing personal, Master P! Then I get to the guy who would turn out to be my husband, and he says he likes A Tribe Called Quest. And I swooned. Actually, I just took note of him, told the roomie I thought the one on the couch was cute, and I left to go to some party. We met the guys a few weeks later at a Goodie Mob concert and from that night on we were together.



Yet another "The Intro Will Make You Slap Your Mama" songs. I may or may not have spent months leading up to my 10 year high school reunion, obsessing about dancing to this song with my friends. I also may or may not have bumrushed the reunion DJ and begged him to play this song. If you were my Livejournal friend you'd have been subjected to this song about 92 times. I'm not sorry.



I bought this CD my freshman year in a music store in Breckenridge, CO, I think, on Spring Break. I listened to it all through high school college, and well, ever since then, I guess. But it was a staple for me during the 90s. This is my favorite song from the album. I've only met 2 or 3 people, ever, who really, really dig this band. It's always a special day when I meet that person.



I don't know if this was ever a single, but if you, like every teenager I knew, ran out and purchased Warren G's Regulate album, you may have fallen in love with this song the way I did. I've continued to be a fan of Warren G . . . his biggest hit was his first, but he's consistently put out lighthearted hip hop with great musicality.



My friends and I liked the movie Judgment Night, but we really got into the soundtrack. Every song is a rock artist (from indie to metal) and a hip hop artist, performing together.

Ok - I think that's enough for today! At least from my vault. I'll continue my 90s Dance Party next week. Do you have any requests?