Random Dreams...

Last night i had a dream there was a flood in America. I had just shone up to volunteer to help and was directed to a mall to help gather food and distribute to people. I was teamed up with Flava Flav for this task. He kept making me and some of the other volunteers laugh and try to have fun by joking around and, well, just being Flav. In the mall me and Flav saw some kids looting a store. Flav got all serious and started talking to the kids, saying " why you stealing t.v.'s yo? There's a tragedy here and ya'll stealing, doing exactly what the white media wants you to do." "Stop perpetuating the stereo types. Ya'll wanna be real gangsta? Real Men? Help some people. Show the media they is wrong" etc. Then he handed the kids a stack of money and said "change". Then he turned to me and said something like "back to work" or whatever and started joking around again.

Reflecting on this dream this morning got me thinking about a few things.

I first heard Public Enemy around 1987-88. I was at a record store and hip hop was still new. I was into the Beastie Boys and Run DMC but had never heard P.E. The clerk told me about the album Yo, Bum Rush The Show and i picked it up.

Hearing Public Enemy that first time was like hearing Slayer for the first time, or Mozart, or Black Sabbath. It's powerful. It's scary how powerful it is. The world of music was being dominated by Huey Lewis, Bon Jovi, Whitney Houston, Jefferson Starship, Bruce Hornsbey(!) and this is what my 17 year old ears are hearing..


Twenty Four years later and i still would hold them in my top 10 favorite bands of all time.

The second thing my dream had me thinking is how funny it is that certain Hip Hop performers that in the 1980's scared the shit out of White America are now part of pop culture (Flav) Hollywood ( Hey Ice Cube remember that track you did with Public Enemy Burn, Hollywood, Burn?) or Yuppie ass makeup ( Queen Latifa). Flav i can forgive, but Cube? Damn man.