Let's take a darker turn on BnB Music Week.
Every mood needs music to match. And speaking of matches, sometimes you just gotta set it off. Whether it's getting in a workout or getting your head right before work, every now and then you need some music that says I have a gallon of gas and a Bic lighter… try me. Personally, I can't work out to passive music. I need a banging angry beat to match my mood (hate working out!). I mean, I don't need to Cardio-Box to Maxwell.
Sometimes your environment sets your musical taste. There was one entire year that I drove to work at a job I hated with my fist balled up and teeth on perma-clench. [Blogger's Note: It's not a good idea to listen to P.E.'s Can't Truss It on repeat on your way to the Paycheck Plantation. You spend all day daring somebody with your eyes to say something stupid… anything.] Moving on, these songs aren't necessarily about positivity. A good revolutionary "might catch a case today" anthem is angry, has a beat you can punch repetitively to and a chorus that you can mutter under your breath or scream at the top of your lungs. So I present in no particular order some tunes from my Set It Off playlist:
- Made You Look by Nas: Any song with gunplay in the chorus is a guaranteed firestarter
- Uptown Anthem by Naughty by Nature: This song breaking, bashing and smashing things, nuff said.
- Enter Sandman by Metallica: Scary song. This band is the devil disguised as musicians. But this song rocks.
- Public Enemy (defy you to pick only one or two): Fight the Power and 911 is a Joke to start and the list goes on
- Up in Here by DMX: Just burn your office down now. (unless you work at home, in which case go with the neighbor whose dog can't find their lawn – their house will do)
- Slap by Ludacris: It's a slower tune but how can you go wrong with a chorus like, "I feeling like slapping somebody today?"
- Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana: The only grunge song that was 100% okay by me
- I don't give a/Only God can judge me by 2Pac: Pac was a revolutionary, it's only fair he kick start the revolution
- Break Stuff by Limp Bizkit: All in the title
- Rising Up by the Roots featuring Chrisette Michele: I almost twisted something jammin' to this yesterday. Damn those Roots can play!
- Rompe by Daddy Yankee: Rompe means Break in English, say no more
- NWA/Dre/Ice Cube there are enough songs to fill box sets for the revolution
- We Takin' Over/Out Here Grindin' by DJ Khaled: Yes, my bougie butt loves songs about folks hustlin' in the streets. Probably cuz I ain't out there with 'em
- Welcome to the Jungle by Guns n Roses: Monster guitar riffs and crazy vocals keep this perennial stadium banger on my list
- Bring 'em Out by T.I.: Dirty South rappin' about mayhem and mischief making, what's not to love?
- Just to Get By by Talib Kweli: I spent a year wearing this song out. Listening to it again right, makes you want to Just.Do.Better.
- Steady Bounce by KRS One: Deep Cut, if you don't know… ask somebody
- Green Day – pick a song, any song, they pretty much own the rock anthem these days, the first sixteen bars of Holiday are enough to start a riot
- Can I get a by Jay-Z: Get your bounce on!
- B.O.B. (Bombs over Baghdad) by Outkast: Frenetic beat with lyrics to match, this one makes me weary trying to keep up on the treadmill
And for my femme anthems, these still make me want to kick some a! but with pumps on:
- Fighter by Christina Aquilera
- Latifah's had it up to here by Queen La
- You Oughta Know by Alanis Morrissette
- Karma (the Reggaeton Remix) by Alicia Keys
- Just a Girl by No Doubt
Okay, let's hear it… what song makes you want to go all Rock-Star-In-the-Four-Seasons and tear a place apart? If the revolution starts tomorrow, what's on the playlist? What songs do you work out to? What the heck is Convict Music? And after reading this post are you worried that I'm going to set something aflame? Hey, no one said Bougie can't be a little militant.