Like graffiti, break dancing is steadily making inroads into the institutional art world. Not new, just as street based arts have been in and out of favor with the art world for some decades, but stronger than ever, the notion that this art must be validated and understood outside the core culture building. Desire for institutional validation of American vernacular arts has plenty of precedents. Eric Porter beautifully describes Wynton Marsalis’ work with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in this context in his book What is This Thing Called Jazz. There is a clear avenue for advancement (institutionally) with Marsalis, elevate jazz to the same status as classical music.   

Progressive dance companies have occasionally mixed breakin’ in to spice up some pieces, but the flowering of purely hip-hop driven troupes in the past decade pushes the folk form more solidly into the academy. Philadelphia is a hot bed for hip-hop dance companies, most famously Renne Harris’ Pure Movement. Over the years I’ve seen a good number of them, mostly at Washington DC’s Dance Place, which next week will host its annual hip-hop dance festival. They kicked off a little early this year inviting olive Dance Theater in for a one week residence.

The mission of the theater is “validate indigenous American hip-hop dance forms, specifically Breakin’, through the creation and performance of new dance theater works.” Unfortunately, in offering authentic breakin’ AND poignant interpretive pieces the aim is stunted. Director Jaime stresses that breaking is the sole dance form employed by Olive. Certainly true, however the interpretation of breaking within the frame of contemporary dance minimizes the pace, pulse and power of break dancing. Isolating movements also works to limit the potential of the dancers to express a confident identity. 

olive undeniably is about breaking. The most powerful piece of the performance wasn’t even live. The film presentation “‘83″ nicely discussed the nature of community through mentoring, as well as opening my eyes to a new connection. Raphael Xavier, Olive’s lead dancer, also rides flat land. Moving between his riding and dancing, similarities in movement are apparent, and the linkage fascinating. In the film, the company best relays the power of street arts to combat social ills, and only here does the company really push the original intent of the hip-hop movement. 

In the more “serious” pieces, olive faces tension between salient points and actually doing great dance. There are moments of excitement and flow in each, but they never quite hit a stride. Ultimately, the attempts at validation are overly focused and sadly miss the proper fusion of vernacular and high art. 

I am reminded of Donte Ross’ review of the recent Banksy instillation in my thinking about olive. The New York show raised similar questions about intent. The small scale pieces presented in NY divorce Banksy from the interactive power of the street paintings and his large scale instillations. The connection is limited, however, in that olive minimizes their own mission in the work, whereas Banksy falls to the hands of outside curators. 

What does build in both is the difficulty of bringing new forms of folk art to traditional audiences. Balancing expectation and authenticity has pitfalls. Certainly, as I mentioned above, street arts have taken the fancy of the art world before. Basquiat is the prime example. But, street arts now have more cultural and economic capital, and I would argue there is more at stake with current moves toward validation. The core purveyors of the culture have more power to ease the entry, and have opportunities to positively push agendas. 

With olive, I was bothered by the overall feel of the product. They have an ambitious mission, but have a long road ahead in pulling it off the right way. Break dancing needs passion. There is a need to react, to the music or to fellow dancers. Formalizing the movements, while an interesting exercise, removes the EXCITEMENT. The dancers faces showed just that and the audience could feel it. They had come to be enthralled, and left (at least in my case) uninspired and a little let down.   

I am always interested in how pedagogy differs from discipline to discipline. An essay dealing with arts education by Alison Armstrong, struck me. “Visual Literacy: Humanities and the Fine Arts Curriculum” (which you can read here if you please http://www.nccsc.net/2007/8/15/visual-literacy) emphasizes the importance of humanities training in arts education. Education in literature, poetry and history assist in better visualizing thoughts and theories. Armstrong’s ideas (and those that buttress them) are completely valid. There is danger in over specialization! Not only can it be boring, but creativity too can be stifled.

Armstrong mentions artists in history who are accomplished writers and musicians, but does not discuss music as an integral part to of visual art education. If the literary can expand and push thought, so too should music. The aesthetics of streetwear are so dependent on musical culture (rather than music in the strict sense), that exploring the musical connection appears, at the surface, fruitful.

I saw Nigo DJ for the Teriyaki Boys a few months back. Now, to be certain, Nigo competently covers the decks without displaying any real musical genius. However, his musical forays are indicative of the cross pollination of streetwear and several forms of music (often more accomplished than Mr. Number Two). Theoretically, both the DJ and streetwear designer share similarity in cobbling together bits and pieces of pre-existing material to formulate a new sound, aesthetic and cultural product (and BAPE is famous for liberally “remixing”). But, this is not new to either exercise. Ginsburg and Burroughs played with cut ups well before this, happily experimenting while holed up in a cheap Parisian hotel. Here the literary and aural come together, as the rhythm of the spoken words changes with the reforming of each given work. With streetwear, the music and the visual product remain separate, despite obvious influence and suggestions of compatibility. There are, of course, references to music in much design, but it is a visual created to compliment rather than stem from the sounds.    

Music has, and does, influence art (no groundbreaking thought here). An exhibition of Romare Bearden’s collages at the National Gallery was wonderfully narrated (via audio tour) by Winton Marsalis. This connection, between collage and jazz, simply and clearly relayed by one of jazz music’s great orators hammered down a simple point — artists of different mediums are often attempting to use their chosen vocabulary to explore the same ideas. The joy of the audio tour came in Marsalis reverence for Bearden’s work, and sense of shared agenda.  With jazz and painting connections to emotive phrasing can be challenging for people (like myself) who are not cognizant of the nuances in each.

Streetwear, and much of music’s complimentary visual, avoids this problem all together. Rock (and its many derivations) and rap being the two keystone musical genres informing street culture as it stands, allow for literal to visual interpretation. And so, we get lots of lyric inspired graphic, often text based. This has set the standard. My essential question here is: can sound really begin to push and influence the visual?

I’ve been thinking for some time about this, and reached no real conclusion. Perhaps it is fruitless. There are obvious roadblocks too. For one, the idea of literacy as it applies to non-letter based arts. In some respects, it is so much easier to understand visual arts than to understand (really understand) music. Literary, visual and aural arts all intertwine in fascinating ways, and require separate vocabularies for discussion and dissection. The Annales School, founded by Febvre and Block, championed new studies of history focused on everyday lives. Sound was an important aspect. For example, in my work, I have pondered how electricity changed the environment of the tattoo shop in the late 20^th century. Essentially, what people heard, and what people hear, is as important to a full examination of life as what they tasted, felt, heard, read and saw.

Since a vague sense of history (read nostalgia) seems so important in current design, where does that sense of sound history fit in? Above, I identify what we may call the precedents for musical inspiration in visual street culture. Armstrong’s notion of the danger of specialization does not apply as concretely to street culture as it does to arts in the academy. People have broad and diverse interests. They do not, however, often articulate those interests in broad view. The danger comes in narrow thinking rather than narrowly focused efforts. It seems that the wide lens approach of the Annales School could be equally beneficial to design (in the streetwear sense), as it was to pushing history back to the concerns of everyday life.

Let me now attempt to round back to the impetus for this discussion — Visual literacy and humanities education. There are many courses offered in music, and in my experience they rank quite low on the priority of many students. The visual and the literary are privileged, and pop music, especially, has limited appeal to most academics. In reverse, pop music often replaces the literary in street culture. Recognizing that, more creative interaction between sight and sound seems very possible. Promoting and exploring the wonderful dialogue that already exists between music and streetwear beyond the base impact might just be an avenue for creating new cultural forms that some people are starved for. 

 

 

Ads of the World: Rolling Stone Hip-Hop

Ads of the World: Rolling Stone Metal

—

From: Steven
Date: 11/26/07
Subject: Re: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

really well done I must admit, granted I would disagree with some of the classifications ( STP in Grunge??? ) but apart from that, damn.

—
From: Jeff
Date: Nov 27, 2007 12:47 AM
Subject: Re: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

Nick made a mention of how the hip-hop chart could be re-worked in
terms of timeline as well.

—
From: Steven
Date: Nov 27, 2007 12:49 AM
Subject: AW: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

yeah the more I look at them, especially the hip hop one, the more skewed
they are.
But then Rolling Stone are a little of the political and intellectual chart
anyways. Creem, they are not.

—
From: Jeff
Date: Nov 27, 2007 1:13 AM
Subject: Re: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

Why you up so late? You in the USA?

—
From: Steven
Date: Nov 27, 2007 1:14 AM
Subject: AW: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

na just got up really early ( 5am ) for some stupid reason, and it’s safer
to get out of bed than to lie there and wake the wife up at that time.
believe you me!

—
From: Nick
Date: Nov 27, 2007 7:03 AM
Subject: Re: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

I listened to “South of Heaven” on the way to give a few lectures at the university of maryland about the development of hip-hop scholarship from 1983 to the present yesterday. Might have been an odd choice of soundtrack on the way to such an event, but there is one key thread in that… Rick Rubin (listening to “South of Heaven” from a production standpoint, Rick leaves a lot to be desired in my mind… but that is another issue all together). That all being said, I thought about these two flow charts last night, with Rubin on the brain, and was thinking it would be cool to have one that just stemmed from him melding all the music he touched into an interesting document of american muiscal history.

I think the tag lines are cool, but yes the timelines are skewed in RS work. I believe Austin Scaggs, son of Boz Scaggs, is an editor there. Austin is the best high school basketball player I have ever seen.

Enough of that ramble.

—
From: Steven
Date: Nov 27, 2007 7:42 AM
Subject: AW: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

you know, I always thought South of Heaven was crap, I never liked that album. I really think Rubin got “amazing” when he started working with Johnny Cash, as a producer, not just as a Muse as with RHCP, you know?

—
From: Nick
Date: Nov 27, 2007 12:43 PM
Subject: Re: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

My brother just became irrate when I suggested the song itself sounded
like complete shit on record. South Of Heaven was his go to song when
people asked him to play guitar as a kid. Imagine the suprise of well
to do folks thinking they would get something standard and then having
a 4 foot nothing 9 year old blast that out. One of my favorite
memories.

—
From: Steven
Date: Nov 27, 2007 12:45 PM
Subject: AW: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

Ha; i think I would have paid to have seen that!

Anybody for the new Sonic Youth album?

—
From: Nick
Date: Nov 27, 2007 1:18 PM
Subject: Re: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

I need something to get out the hip-hop mire… which plays a little
into my listening to slayer yesterday. I tried to branch out by
playing unsigned british soul in the office today. Interested response
from my co-workers, who are all bothered by my distinct dislike of Jay
Z and Kanye. Bashing Jay is my favorite past time when in the Words
Beats Life offices. I also spend a considerable amount of time weaning
our young DJs (aged 10 and 12) off of Soulja Boy.

I am also up for a new Deltron album, and have been told it is happening.

—
From: Steven
Date: Nov 27, 2007 1:20 PM
Subject: AW: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

I would recommend getting on a plane to London, head to the best record shop
in the world ( Honest Johns ) and getting yourself a lifetime supply of
their tunes. Never fails. Obviously, we just need to rob a bank or
something.

—
From: Nick
Date: Nov 27, 2007 1:25 PM
Subject: Re: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

I argue that Jazz Record Mart in Chicago is the best. Hahaha. I can’t
leave there in less than 3 hours and a few hundred poorer. I’ll be
back in London in January. Will hit Honest Johns for sure. There can
always be two best.

—
From: Steven
Date: Nov 27, 2007 1:26 PM
Subject: AW: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

well I think we agree on one best per country?

—
From: Nick
Date: Nov 27, 2007 1:29 PM
Subject: Re: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

And also for genre. There is a really old man in Madison Wisconsin who
maintains the basement of the Exclusive Company on state street, he
bills himself as a classical specialist. I have never had a better
experiance browsing classical music and he was such a wealth of
knowledge. I believe his name is C.S. Lund.

—
From: Steven
Date: Nov 27, 2007 1:31 PM
Subject: AW: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

granted, there is rough trade in London as well, as well as the CD factory
which I think has the best collection of anything rock related, and staff
that can speak in full sentences. which is always a bonus.

—
From: Nick
Date: Nov 27, 2007 1:37 PM
Subject: Re: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

And Rough Trade just opened or is about to open a new store at Truman
Brewery. Wasn’t open when I was there in July. I spend a lot of time
in the Rough Trade below slam city in Neal’s Yard. Not sure if that
location remains. They always have the most diverse selection of
british hip-hop.

Later Jeff will probably gush about Black Market.

If either of you are ever in Waterbury, CT Brass City Music (waterbury
produced the most brass in the country in the 19th century), is one of
the more entertaining record stores in New England.

I guess I could go on and on about this.

—
From: Steven
Date: Nov 27, 2007 1:39 PM
Subject: AW: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

the trumann brewery location is open and huge!!! Slam Jam used the space
downstairs for a few other bits and bobs, nothing too crazy.

—
From: Jeff
Date: Nov 27, 2007 1:44 PM
Subject: Re: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

BLACK MARKET… NOTHING LIKE IT! HANDS DOWN.

—
From: Nick
Date: Nov 27, 2007 1:45 PM
Subject: Re: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

I could never have predicted that response.

—
From: Steven
Date: Nov 27, 2007 1:46 PM
Subject: AW: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

saying that, there used to be a local store in warsaw, and this is before
poland had a copyright law, where you could rent CD’S for like an hour and
tape that shit right there, which was pretty dope.

—
From: Nick
Date: Nov 27, 2007 1:48 PM
Subject: Re: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

Amazing! The library at University of Wisconsin used to buy any cd
that was requested by a student. Similar thing, slightly more descrete
bootlegging.

—
From: Steven
Date: Nov 27, 2007 1:49 PM
Subject: AW: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

oh, I do like that approach. very clever of them. not something you would
expect from a higher education facility.

—
From: Nick
Date: Nov 27, 2007 1:56 PM
Subject: Re: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

Apart from New Glarus brewing company it was one of the best
discoveries of my undergraduate life.

—
From: Steven
Date: Nov 27, 2007 1:57 PM
Subject: AW: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

i would have to say that the best discovery I made at College is that
regardless how plastered you were, you’d still get laid just by mentioning
you are at the same school that Damien hirst went to. England. what can I
say. you gotta love that place.

—
From: Nick
Date: Nov 27, 2007 2:00 PM
Subject: Re: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

Sadly Heisman trophy winner Ron Dayne does not have the same effect.

At Jeff’s school I hear you have to pretend you are actually enrolled
somewhere else to pull.

—
From: Jeff
Date: Nov 27, 2007 2:09 PM
Subject: Re: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

i just pretended to be a mechanic. Women love mechanics. They know
their tools well.

—
From: Steven
Date: Nov 27, 2007 2:09 PM
Subject: AW: Rolling Stone ads – Hip Hop or Metal.

in a bruce springsteen sort of way I can almost see that

Some of you know it. To those, you know what I’m talking about when it comes to this record.

But I’ll assume most of you haven’t heard it. That’s fine of course as you all will be quickly trolling What!, iTunes, or YouTube (in that order) to steal download and accept its dominance for the year.

“All My Friends” is a song of positivity; one about moving forward while recognizing how much of your life has been wasting away. All the while, you accept this and take none of it back. What is done is done; you can only move forward.

For me, “All My Friends” was a life line and a wake-up. First time I really gave a shit about the song was in May, while trying to understand how certain components of my life could be crumbling while others were moving forward. “All My Friends” like all prominent tracks in my life served to bring me back to reality. Big ass slap in the face to fuck on.

Thats why I give a shit about music. The impact of the sound to make me care a little more than I did before.

Over the last year, the obsessive part of me needed to ensure that everyone around me was made aware of “All My Friends.” It is not very often that I find any impulse to share music this personal with people, if not simply for the expected reaction of most. Half the time, people will smile with blank response; shaking their heads in a manner that only be described as “accepting.”

Being “accepting” of music by my definition is comparable to saying “Who Gives a Shit.” It is a problem for me. I give people the benefit of the doubt always. As much as I look for that glimmer in the eye of a first time listener to actually get it, click with it, I’ve become more aware that for most, listening to music is background – something that is kept running on loop in order to bring repetitive tempo to their work day or their lives.

People happily “accept” what is being passed to them by terrestrial radio. Accepting to listen to what they play. Boring familiarity. God Bless the hip-hop mixtape for at least trying to bring some freshness to their listeners.

Categorically, rock and crossover rock, has been dying a slow death on commercial radio to classic hits and the familiarity classic hits bring. Classics tend to be defined as any music older than a decade that broke Top 20 radio charts. Classic crossover is so in demand that over the course of the last 5 years it has re-formulated radio formatting, bring us the concept of Jack FM. Wiki that shit for more information.

All the while that radio’s hand is being forced to play crossover classics, a progressive new sounds are being shuffled in and out of Myspace players online. Music is clearly thriving in this venue but I’m not arguing if new music is being heard by that generation. They clearly have the time and the energy to engage themselves to new shit online. What I’m looking to tackle is the everyday, music listener thats my age – the majority of the listening world – this is the consumer that does not give a shit.

Its impossible to not see the similarities between “accepted music” and those trying to re-pawn off bad 80’s fashion to an (assumed) unintelligent consumer base.

Like commercial fashion, people tend to gravitate to the familiar. It is no wonder why everything on the radio basically has the same re-worked beat. Make your own Top 10 list for the year. I doubt most people can even come up with 5 but if they do, they probably draw themselves back to the familiar. Very rarely does some new sound ever surface to rotation on terrestrial radio. Worse off if it does make impact, the music industry will adapt like fruit flies and swarm every last dollar into sucking what they can from it. We’re then back to where we started. Familiarity.

So what the fuck stopped people from caring about music? When did the romance in new music die? Forget blaming MTV and terrestrial radio.

In trying to understand the “who gives a shit” phenomenon with music, you have to try to find a time; a moment in life of people when music does not become important. Most will argue that music remains an important component in life while the discovery and romance dies. Do we blame life in general for forcing us to re-prioritize music or does the mind stop being curious; becoming content with what it knows? That whole familiarity argument again.

How can this be changed? Not fucking easily it would seem. The self destruction of the music industry itself is not helping the cause at all. Heavy rotation does nothing to combat this. In fact heavy rotation looks to actually worsen the average music loving individual from being able to expand to further unfamiliar sound.

My bet is that if you actually gave listeners pure variety on the radio that they would become more honest listeners. People would be more adept to understanding what they like and dislike. Today, they only like and dislike a handful of tracks.

Think of street fashion for instance. Unlike terrestrial radio, we have ridiculous numbers of blog entries blinding our screens with heaps of cotton options. It’s a full on slug-fest as designers and brands battle out to grab the short attention of a handful of consumers. It may all look the same but it is not heavy rotation. The option to pick and choose what you like and dislike is right there in front of you. As repetitive and re-purposed as product is on hype blogs, the viewer is at least able today to recognize familiarity and decide what choices they will make when purchasing.

Terrestrial radio and the music industry as a whole simple does not offer this option to the listener… unless the listener gives a shit – enough to hunt down and find something fresh. Radio looks like a terribly lost cause in the United States. College radio, the traditional vehicle for music discovery seems to remain that last vestige of hope for the unassuming.

There is an energy in caring about anything that is not materialistic. Music cannot be worn as a sign of prestige, but it can impact a single individual and bring them together in ways that wearing BBC hoodies cannot. When you give a shit for even just a moment, you may be able to see that there is more to it than you first heard. You may actually care a little.

Here’s a list of what I gave a shit about in 2007.

A Place To Bury Strangers A Place To Bury Strangers 2007
Aesop Rock None Shall Pass 2007
AIR Pocket Symphony 2007
Apparat Walls 2007
Arcade Fire Neon Bible 2007
Arctic Monkeys Favorite Worst Nightmare 2007
Art Brut It’s A Bit Complicated 2007
Babyshambles Shotters Nation 2007
Band of Horses Cease to Begin 2007
Battles Mirrored 2007
Beirut The Flying Club Cup 2007
Black Kids Wizard of Ahhhs [Demo] 2007
Bloc Party A Weekend In The City 2007
Broken Social Scene Kevin Drew’s Spirit if … 2007
Bruce Springsteen Magic 2007
Burial Untrue 2007
Clientele God Save The Clientele 2007
Daft Punk Live at Vegoose 2007
Deerhunter Cryptograms 2007
Deerhunter Fluorescent Grey EP 2007
DJ Hell Live at Watergate Berlin Apr 20, 2007
El-P I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead 2007
Feist The Reminder 2007
Heartthrob Piknic Electronic Mutek June 3 2007
James Murphy & Pat Mahoney Fabriclive 36 2007
Jay-Z American Gangster 2007
Jens Lekman Night Falls Over Kortedala 2007
Kanye West Graduation 2007
Laurent Garnier Live at The End London 2007
LCD Soundsystem 45:33 2007
LCD Soundsystem All My Friends (Single) 2007
LCD Soundsystem Sound Of Silver 2007
M.I.A. Kala 2007
Marco Carola Fabric 31 zzz 2007
Maximo Park Our Earthly Pleasures 2007
of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? 2007
Pan-Pot Pan-O-Rama Album Release Show 2007
Panda Bear Person Pitch 2007
Pela Anytown Graffiti 2007
Radiohead In Rainbows 2007
Rilo Kiley Under The Blacklight 2007
Rob Heppler, Jeff Carvalho, Frank Rivera WeeklyDrop 2007
Spoon GA GA GA GA GA 2007
Stones Throw Stones Throw Podcast 2007
The Field From Here We Go Sublime 2007
The National Boxer 2007
The Ponys Turn the Lights Out 2007
Viva Viva Viva Viva Demo 2007 2007
Whitechapel True Believer 2007
Wighnomy Brothers Live at Piknic Electronic Mutek June 3 2007

In March of 1999 I arrived at M.C.I. Concord Facility in Concord, MA.

After 6 months of awaiting trial at Worcester House of Correction I finally was given my gift of 4 to 6 years in a state prison. I say gift because nobody gets 4 to 6 for “Mayhem”, which usually carried a 35 year sentence.

In my old cell I had a television set, an AM/FM Walkman, and magazines to stay up on current events on the outside (television shows and music being the events most cherished).

I had to leave my collection of Jennifer Anniston photos when I moved to M.C.I. Concord and was only allowed to bring one book. I chose the Joseph Heller novel Catch 22, which seems ironic looking back.  But then I picked it because it was the thickest book in my collection.

The lack of entertainment is unnoticeable at first as there was too much to focus on: learning your new cell, the hiding places, the view out your window, figuring out how not to die, and, most important, your cell mate.

Concord was a classification prison meaning you were only there until the system moved you to another facility, depending on your behavior. The place you did NOT want to go was the Shirley Supermax, which was based on an Israeli prisoner of war camp. However, a good roll of the dice and a 14 month wait could land you in Gardner, a bearable prison with ice cream served in the summer month and bingo for real money played on Sundays.

After my initial holding cell I was moved to the East/West Building, an ancient structure that was built for breaking souls. E/W was also disgustingly hot in the summer (which I was right on-time for) and frost bitingly cold in the winter.  The E/W stress box is necessary because not everyone can go to Gardner, so they need a few fighters to send to the Supermax.

Since all inmates are in a transitional period they have no property. No special clothing, no electronics, no nuthin’.  Inmates keep each other entertained with jokes, stories, tricks, and pain.  For some reason whipping someone with an extension cord or throwing a cup of piss on an unsuspecting person really makes the time go by and builds bonds with other inmates.

You do not notice the lack of music at first. When an inmate is not talking, he is singing his favorite song all the time. There must be some sort of animalistic correlation behind it.  Like bullfrogs, or birds, if they stop making noise, other inmates would see them as weak.

Drumming on the doors and footlockers became a pastime.  Add the drumming with the singing and you have the most gangsta barbershop quartet you have ever seen!  I can personally remember singing the Beastie Boys “Get It Together” song and in place of ad-roc, q-tip, MCA, and Mike D’s names, I would say “Hepdog.”  Every other inmate thought I made the song up and word was spreading through the camp that I had a sick flow… but I only knew one song!!!

It became evident that on our tiers, the music catalog ended in mid-1998 when most of us first got popped.  There was a lot of DMX and Big Pun.  I liked “Ghetto Superstar” but could only remember Mya’s verse (picture me singing that in a shower with eight dudes and only two shower heads).

As the months proceeded and our same lame songs (that we were making up the words to) got older, we started to hear news from the outside. Apparently my friend and inmate, Mark Peterson, had to go to court, which meant he took a van that would have a radio.  He came back with wondrous tales of pop music we could never have imagined.  As we crowded his cell Mark sat high on his pulpit, the top bunk, and he began to describe the song he heard twice in the same day on the radio.  Our inmate math told us this was the most popular song out there and we needed to know it.  Apparently a guy named Ricky Martin was the only thing happening on the outside, and I was not the only one learning Spanish because of it.

By breakfast the next morning, you would have thought every inmate was given a “La Vida Loca” single before bed.  We were all singing it, to our own tunes of course.  You might be laughing, but the way these inmates adapted and still got to be into what they wanted is inspiring.

Before I was shipped off to a Texas jail, I was asked to go to “West Up” to get some forms.  Inmates were not authorized to go into buildings freely, but I had a pass.  I walked across the quad to a door I had seen a thousand times but was never permitted to enter.  I went upstairs to an unfamiliar office, where I could hear a strange tinny monotone noise.

It was music being played and I knew the song!  Sarah Mclachlan’s “Adia,” “cuz we are born innocent/believe me Adia.” I am not sure Sarah Mclachlan’s biggest fans felt the way I did at that moment. The sound felt like a soft drug as I waited outside the office hanging on every note.

I was finally called in given the papers and signed something. While in the office a new song with a beat I never dreamt of, with a voice I couldn’t identify, came on the radio.

Could this be?  A song from the summer of ‘99! What was she saying?

Genie in a what? Rub who?  The office was crowded and the clock radio didn’t exactly sound like a Bang and Olufsen.  I got a solid minute of “Genie in a Bottle,” with a few random lyrics I was forcing myself to memorize instead of enjoy.

I imagine it is how a photographer must feel when a once in a lifetime opportunity presents itself. The photographer can either personally experience the moment, or focus on capturing it on film and only seeing it through a tiny viewfinder thus missing the bigger experience.

I was trying to memorize every word from this heavenly angels mouth, who in my head looked like Elizabeth Shue.  Not Leaving Las Vegas Elizabeth Shue, more like Adventures in Babysitting Elizabeth Shue.

“HEPPLER!  WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE?!!” was the last lyrics I heard from the sergeant’s mouth.  I returned to the block like I had killed a moose and was now going to feed it to my family. I told them everything I could remember which was surprisingly a good amount!

Someone made up a beat on a footlocker to what they interpreted what the beat to “Genie in a Bottle” to be. “If you want to be with me/baby, there’s a price to pay/I’m a genie in a bottle/you gotta rub me he right way.” Who knows what that enigmatic statement could ever mean, we might never know.

But five inmates without adding to the total sales charts, concert tour gross, or even a ring tone, felt that song that day, and they made a wish.