Artifact.

What’s next? A Motorola pager, a Sony Walkman, a Zack Morris cell phone and an abacus?

International Artist Of The Week – Vanessa Paradis – “Be My Baby”

This artist is international, but the song is definitely a throwback and it’s in English, but I like it. It’s from 1992. The real reason why I picked it is because I was trying to have four weeks of French artists: David Guetta, Les Plastiscines, Yelle, now Vanessa Paradis. One of my old bosses first put me on to this song years ago. The is Vanessa back when she was with Lenny Kravitz, long before she became Johnny Depp’s wife and the mother of his kids.

Doesn’t she just look angelic and serene in the whole video, I guess it’s the French sensibility and the black boyfriend. This video has Early 90s Lenny written all over it.

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Hype Song Of The Week “(Doo Doo Brown) I Wanna Rock” – Luke

Ahhhhhhhh!!!!

Every hood cookout plays this song at least once and it’s usually at the end, once the older people and the children go home. This is how babies are born. When this song comes on, people literally drop their drink, their plates, put away their phones and GO IN on the dance floor.  You might feel a little embarrassed after this song goes off, you might have on a couple fewer articles of clothing and probably didnt even get their name..

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NYC Song Of The Week “You’re All I Need” – Method Man ft. Mary J. Blige

I might be mixing up my music themes a bit, this is definitely a NYC song, but it’s a hardcore THROWBACK. This vid has 90s written all over it:  the Cross Colors and South Pole gear; Mary was still wearing hear “coke shades,” Meth just got his eye fixed, but still rocking nappy corn rows… This takes me back to bus passes, music on The Box, and New York Undercover with their music guest at the end of every show. This kind of look like a New York Undercover cut-away.

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90s, Tokens And Bus Passes

Counterfeit Paper Bus Passes From Dude in Homeroom 602.
I remember back in the day when I was in junior high school. Back when the fare was changing from $1.25 to $1.50 and everyone was up-in-arms about that little increase. I’m not sure if MetroCards were out yet, but if they were, it was the blue cards and it wasn’t a big deal yet. Tokens still ruled…and to see a crackhead magically suck a token back out of the slot after you went through the turnstile was like MTA Cabaret in the late 80s/ early 90s. (They eventually managed to take over the MetroCard hustle…just bend the lower right corner at about 30 degrees. Just ask Flava Flav, Yankee Stadium on the, then, C & D trains. He ruled the decade, and the block as Token Jester.)
This is the time when students would get a paper bus pass from your homeroom teacher every month. The september card sometimes came with a wallet with the clear window-depending if the Board Of Ed. was in the black, or in th red that year. The cards were slightly irridescent, with pastel colors that either read,”S” or “R/S.” S for surface and R/S for rapid(transit)/surface. If you only lived like 10 blocks away, you was getting that S-pass…and you know you was :tight: having the R/S was like flashing a badge to a 12 year old. That meant wondering the entire city for free “between the hours of 6:30am and 8:30pm.”
We came to learn ways of getting around little hurdles like living 6 blocks away, but wanted to go to The Key on Friday to not rollerskate and grind up on some Bronx girls:
“The January pass from 7th grade is the same as this September one. Ask your sister if she still has her’s.”
“Make sure you cut real neat, yo. The be knowing…”
The colors repeat often, so if you could cut out the R/S insignia, etc and put it or the current month, you were copasetic for the month. That $1.25 could go towards a slice and a soda (:moment of silence for the 90s prices:*:)

*Post Script* I even remember people putting a foggy screen in their wallets just so their passes would pass better…

Throwback Song Of The Week “All Around The World” – Lisa Stansfield

THROWWWWWWBACK! Back farther than the Puffy (as he was called at the time) remix. This song is as 90s as Cross Colors and New York Undercover. Lisa Stansfield has some pipes on her. I remember always cracking up at the first verse, thinking, who still says quarrel in 1990 blah blah blah.

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Throwback Song Of The Week “I Love Your Smile” – Shanice

“Shanice is dope” “Nah man, she’s buuttttter…” Boy do I miss the 90s, and the crazy slang we used to use. “Syke ya mike” was my personal favorite and it’s back.

When I hear this song I can remember bopping my head during recess, with my juice cup and snack cakes. Or watching TGIF  and seeing Shanice on Family Matters… They should have had her on there more. And of course, Eddie Winslow thought he could sing-bad look.

This is a classic 90s video, everything from the fake photoshoot scene, back-up dancers in Cross Colors gear to the rap verse and xylophone. Let’s not forget the saxophone.

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Throwback Song Of The Week “Tomorrow” – Tevin Campbell

I remember this song being one of the first songs I can remember and liked. It’s a classic Quincy Jones production down to the harmonizing and the sax.

I had to I’m loving all of the Early 90s-ness in this video, it takes me back to Pepsi Classic commercials and afterschool specials. It’s first grade all over again.

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