The Day Rap and Rock Collided

Back in high school, I had an ultra-elitist view of music. Pretty much , I knew everything there was to know about good music and everyone else is wrong. I would even go so far as to prove it to others if they challenged my supreme authority ! I still have a rather rigid view of music, however, I'm softening in my adulthood. I'm actually listening to NKOTB records now!

Anyway, my friend Ray was heavily into alternative music (pre-commercialization of the genre) and I was heavily into rap (before it was hip-hop, gangsta rap, underground, etc.). My favorite rapper at the time was Young M.C. One of his favorite bands was Faith No More. We would argue incessantly about how much each other's music sucked. It would get so heated we would turn the boombox on whenever each other's music came on. I actually started hating the guy for disagreeing with me! In my mind rappers and rockers didn't mix even though Aerosmith and Run-DMC had canonically proven me wrong.

Then one day Ray runs up to me at a party and goes, "Dude, you are so wrong! Even Young MC likes alternative! He just played a show with Faith No More!" I was crushed. The thought that rappers and rockers were mixing bothered me as well as the thought of being wrong! I just found video from that specific show he told me about:

About 5 years after we graduated high school, I ran into him while he was working at a pizza joint. I asked him what kind of music he was into. He asked me the same thing. I told him "Well, I'm more into modern rock right now. I've got a band now." He said, "I'm into hip-hop. I'm deejaying a little bit on the side."

Oh, the irony....

Note: This blog was originally posted on MySpace with comments at:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=16074757&blogID=365971476&Mytoken=701AB44A-8B9D-4766-A8AF372D48405847115564