Yo what's up, this is Vic Mensa, we're at Amoeba, and this is What's in My Bag.
First record that I picked up was 'Nevermind the Bollocks.'
The energy captivated me as a kid and I felt like
it's one of those bands and one of those records...
didn't they never have another record after this or something too? I think that was it, but
shit was just authentic man, it was a real channel of
energy, it was like a whole generation's
energy coming out of one fucking band. It was just so vitriolic.
The next record I think I picked up...oh
was this, this is D'Angelo, 'Live at Jazz Café.'
You know, I always have sworn by D'Angelo being
as the male incarnation of Black Jesus
and Lauryn Hill being the female incarnation.
Well, yeah you know, whatever, fuck the gender roles and shit.
'Live at Jazz Café' probably has all types of vamps and intros and
and musical bridges that I could sample
and that'd be iller than sampling the album proper.
Then I grabbed 'Slum Village-Fantastic Vol. 2'.
this is, without a doubt, one of the best produced
hip-hop records of all time, because this is Dilla doing an entire album
for a group in which he's the principal songwriter, you know.
I'm like, this is just necessary.
Dilla's really underrated as a rapper, man. That's really why I saw it
and I didn't grab 'Dilla Donuts' 'cause I had that
but then I was like, nah, let me go to the Slum Vill because he's so underrated as a rapper in my opinion.
His flow was so fucking natural.
His arrogance was jumping off the record and he was just talking that shit.
People kind of overlook it 'cause he's one of the best fucking producers of all time but
of any genre, but Dilla just always inspired me
as a rapper a lot so I grabbed this, 'cause there's a lot of Dilla raps on here, some of the best ones like
in high school, I would like put on 'Climax' or '2U4U'
when I was trying to be smooth and shit
and I'm like, I'm trying to introduce you girl, tryin' to put you on some shit that niggas might not even show you
you know, for another 10 years right now.
But then also you got like 'Raise It Up,' crazy.
"I ain't about shit, no, wasn't me dog, I don't flow, ain't that nigga J.D."
He was just going off. Yeah, this shit is deep.
It's a lot of heat on there.
This is like one of the most influential hip-hop albums to me also.
One of my favorite albums and my favorite Tribe album for sure, y'know?
Every song, for the most part, is just drums and bass, y'know, and like double bass stuff.
You listen to it and it's just like so simple, but they made it so murderous y'know
'cause jazz, I feel, can be put into hip-hop and be like highlighting its skittering rhythms.
Even 'jazzy' can be a way that you might describe a beat that's kind of like more wavy than aggressive.
But they just made it both at the same time.
They made it aggressive but it was also jazzy in the sense that it was like those jazzy chords
but it was really aggressive because they highlighted the bassline.
RIP Phife Dawg. I feel like Phife Dawg is one of the nicest rappers.
I always consider Phife Dawg to be the first rapper that I really listened to
but what I consider like the 'golden flow,' just like very pristine, you know?
It's like he's rhyming pretty much every line straight forward.
I gave my dad this record when I was like
ok, I'm realy doing fuckin' rap, this is what I'm doing with my life.
There was no college thing happening but I had shit moving in rap
and I remember I was trying to engage my dad, and I'm like, man let me give you somewhere to start
because he's an open-minded person, he's West African though.
He's from Ghana so y'know he didn't grow up with hip-hop.
I remember him saying he listened to it and he liked it
and I just feel like it's a real square one of hip-hop.
This record, 'The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill'
This is just an apex of hip-hop and one of the high points of music, I feel like.
People like D'Angelo or Lauryn Hill gave us so little music overall
but what they did give to the world shifted the course of music's evolution
so much they they never lose any relevance.
And she's been torn down a lot, you know, people would say things like she's crazy
but she did it, you know, she made the best fucking...
like one of the best albums in the genre of all time.
So I gotta have so much love for this album and I really love when someone's music
really, really reflects the things that you know are going on in their life, like 'To Zion.'
You know she had this big publicized split with Wyclef. You know that she has a child
and it's so cool to hear her perspective on it, y'know, when she's saying in 'To Zion'
"Look at your career they said, Lauren baby use your head, but instead I chose to use my heart."
Talking about deciding to have this son and how she felt as a human being and she just
inspired a generation and will continue to inspire future generations.
The last record that I picked up was 'The Clash: Live at Shea Stadium.'
I got this also because I'm like, the live version is gonna have all of this
fresh musicality that I haven't heard before that I could probably grab loops from and sample.
I've been making a lot of beats recently.
Clash is just one of my favorite bands, specifically
this was in the rock section, but I feel like The Clash is a punk band. I feel like The Clash is the punk band.
Their constant reinvention of their style, musically and visually.
Their subject matter was informed, it was political, it was challenging.
It, to me, is one of the best examples of music with a message.
They took these songs that were... like 'Spanish Bombs,' you know, or 'Rock the Casbah' where it's like
it's like a dance record, you know?
but he's talking about religious leaders in the Middle East or something.
I still don't even fully know what they mean.
They were just really, really good at putting these messages into crazy grooves.
You could completely remove the message and still have an amazing song.
Very few people have been able to do that.
Thank you so much.
Alright, cool. No doubt.