WORD NERDS: this is NOT your nanay's blog

1999 was when I really started getting into R&B, rap, and hip hop as a hobby. This was when I started to venture out of oldies and Bay Area lite rock less talk radio stations. Since this was before I had access to the Internet, television was the only avenue towards the mainstream music scene. A kid's gotta start somewhere, right? Of course, over time, I've learned to learn from other, more reliable, purer sources.

In 1999, my brother had already embarked on his path towards hip hop consciousness and shopping for CDs outside the realm of 90s rock. Ma$e's "Lookin' At Me" was one of the first singles that he ever bought, and I'm pretty sure I snuck in to his CD case to steal a few listens. 

Ma$e's laid-back-ness (not to be confused with P. Diddy's bitch-ass-ness), was seemingly antithetical to what I thought a rapper was. Ma$e was always straight chillin, always smiling, and rapped at a pace slower than I was used to - compared to my brother's early collection of Naughty by Nature, Kris Kross, Montell Jordan, and Tupac. Maybe the game needs more men of the word. Maybe folks more devoted to making music, and not just hits.

The first CD I ever bought for my brother was Ma$e's Double Up album in 1999. Which was also released around same time that Ma$e announced his retirement as a rapper to become a man of faith. As long as this man is still hustling somehow, I'll be down for his words. No shame in what the game is because he's shown that change doesn't have to come in the form of a permanent absence. 

Ma$e's singles were hella dope, but he set it off for me when he was featured on Brandy's "Top of the World" off the Never Say Never album. That is one of my favorite songs off of one of my favorite albums ever of Life. That's when I knew I could get down. 

We've come a long way!: