My Life In Records

When I was ten, one of my older cousins gave me this record and it seemed extremely exotic to me. I hardly understood any of the lyrics, but it made want to be a gangster in south central, which to me might as well have been Neverland. I told my farther this was way better than the Beatles, and we ended up spending an evening comparing this and the White Album.  

At about 14 I was getting tired with grunge, and some freinds of mine and I wanted to start a jazz band. We got ourselves some second hand suits and started digging for jazz records. I can’t explain how thrilled I was to discover this record. I’d been listening to Louis Armstrong and Baby Dodds up to that point, and here was finely some jazz that sounded as cool as I had imagined it to.  

Around the same time I stumbled upon this record, and completely lost myself to it. For years this was the most superb music I could imagine and I still go to Sly for inspiration.  

When I was 16, I was into any type of electrified jazz I could find, and I think I bought this just off the cover – but what a lucky pick. I listened to it almost daily on my disc-man for a good year. It features Andy Bey and turned me in to his stuff as well.  

This album completely renewed my faith in music. Today I prefer Kid A and Amnesiac, but I am certain that this was my generation's Revolver.  

I had this idea of making an album solely out of samples from my former roommates indie-rock records. I ended up sampling just about every other second of this record before I realized that this was perfect music not to be messed with, and that I should try to something else.  

I was heavily in to Slum Village and Jay Dee when this came out, and when a friend of mine played me 'I Will Truck', with those big dirty claps, I truly had the feeling that the best of two worlds had finely met.  

For a long while I bought just about anything Madlib put out. It is not all high quality, but it is all very inspiring. This album, however, I still consider his finest achievement . And often Dooms lyrics will come to my mind when I am writing.  

I do not remember exactly when I first listened to Tender Buttons. I don’t think I realized just how brilliant it was. But I do remember thinking that this was an album I wish I'd made. Today it is one of favourite records and I don’t think I’ll ever get bored with it.  

It was a hard stroke for me when I realized just how many Sun Ra records were actually in existence, because I knew that I could not afford to collect all of them. But I still really have the urge. I have sold most of my L.P.’s by now but I kept Lanqudity and this one. The silver sleeve and the gold sleeve.