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Fab 5 Freddy's Playlist

Various Artists

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"My taste in music spans the spectrum. But like Rakim said on his 1988 classic 'Microphone Fiend,' 'Feed me hip-hop, and I start tremblin . . .' So I'm about to feed you a few of my favorites. Let's get ready to tremble!"

2. "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five: "I was a teenager watching a baby called hip-hop take it's first steps at NYC's block parties and park jams in the '70s. It was a fun, 'yes yes yall,' and 'throw your hands in the air,' nursery rhyme type thing in the beginning. But when 'The Message' came out and you heard Melle Mel say that awesome hook, ' . . . It's like a jungle sometimes . . .' I knew it was about to get real interesting."
4. "Rock the Bells" by LL Cool J: "The power and energy in this record used to also inspire wild bursts of testosterone in young urban males and epitomized that early '80s ruggish, thuggish NYC B-Boy stance and swagger. His persona was so big in the beginning that guys in every part of NYC had tales of him being beaten and robbed for his jewelry. None true. Yet way before he made music videos and became a big Hollywood star, his cameo in Krush Groove was like the tip of an iceberg."
5. "Microphone Fiend" by Eric B. & Rakim: "'I was a fiend, before I became a teen . . .' Rakim made so many seminal records but this one, among my favorites, is built on a loop from the Average White Bands 'School Boy Crush' song that DJ Mark The 45 King had originally given me for a rap I was working on at the time. He later sold it to Eric B. I was cool with it because I would soon start directing music videos and just didn't feel like rapping was my true calling. And Rakim as usual, did do his thing."
8. "La Di Da Di (Live) [Bonus Track]" by Slick Rick & Doug E. Fresh: "'We don't cause trouble, we don't bother nobody . . .' Not only did this tune send the message that every black kid from the streets wasn't a criminal this is one of hip-hop music's most favorite sing-a-long songs from one of its most original artists. Slick Rick was and still is the personification of a 'fly guy.'"
9. "Hold It Now, Hit It" by Beastie Boys: "Unfortunately 'Cookie Puss,' the first Beastie Boy song I remember and loved, is not yet on iTunes but this song, I remember well. They expanded what rap music could be back then with their punk, rap, frat boy sensibility. The Beasties and I hung in the same East Village circles back then and I watched Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin groom them for the big time. I remember seeing them hit the stage opening for Run-DMC and PE back then to all black crowds getting nothing but love for this song."
10. "Night of the Living Baseheads" by Public Enemy: "My campaign to direct music videos started with PE like I said earlier and continued into the recording of their second album It Takes A Nation Of Millions . . . I would visit them often at Green Street studios in lower Manhattan and one day Hank Shocklee of the Bomb Squad was not happy with the mix down on the automated 48 track digital board. He decided to go back to an old analogue board and summoned every available hand in the studio to grab a fader and on cue, move them up or down on cue."
11. "I'm Your Pusher / Pusherman" by Ice-T: "Me and Ice go back like rockin chairs to a time when he famously drove around Los Angeles in a dated red Porsche convertible with a broken top, even in the rain. He often told me what I then thought were fantasy tales of LA 'ballahs' and gang bangers. We went to a show in '86 to see LL Cool J and Kurtis Blow. 'Where are all these gang bangers?' I asked after venturing into the crowd and returning unscathed. 'They're here,' he said, 'trust me.' Soon after a fight broke out and a guy was literally stomped to death as the crowd stampeded and Ice-T drove me to my hotel in the red Porsche, top down, in a downpour. 'Pusherman' is Ice-t telling those stories at his best."
14. "Who Am I (What's My Name)?" by Snoop Dogg: "Dr Dre and I were chillin at one of his notorious pool party/BBQ's after interviewing him for YO! MTV Raps when he invited me to direct Snoop's debut video. Gin & Juice was one of two songs definite for the album at the time but Dre was sure he wanted 'What's My Name' for the first single and video. 'Let's keep it comical and funny he said,' and I replied, 'no problemo,' and came up with the idea to use the still-new morphing technology to turn Snoop and the Dogg Pound into, 'real' dogs. What should have taken three weeks at the most turned into an entire summer with me as Dre's house guest while he finished Snoop's album. We partied hard, Chronic style in between shooting bits and pieces of the video whenever we could. Unfortunately, there was a big scene of Snoop morphing into a dog that I never got to shoot because a 187 took place and Snoop was charged with, or should I say, 'Murder Was The Case . . . '"
15. "One Love" by Nas: "When I first listened to the Illmatic album I knew this was going into the pantheon of greatest rap albums of all time. So when Nas expressed interest in me directing the video for his song 'One Love' I was ready to get busy. Along with the way he sampled a scene from my film Wild Style for the albums intro, I felt he knew I understood what he needed at that time. Up to that point his first few videos had lackluster performances and I was the guy that would get him to perform up to the level of his songs. The structure of that record is brilliant. Nas rapping letters he had sent to his man in prison. The video mirrored those scenarios and filming in the apt he grew up in in the Queens Bridge projects was memorable as local crack dealers kept up their business while appearing in the video to keep it a little more than real."
16. "Chi-City" by Common: "Hip-hop is now a multi-billion dollar global game and this artist and his music often feels like the conscious conscience of it all. He's like the good angel on one shoulder while the devil seduces you on the other. From the first song of his that grabbed me 'I Used to Love H.E.R.,' an ode to the wayward path rap was taking in the mid '90s to now in this new millennium, he's sending out a similar message that cats need to wake up and recognize before it's too far gone."

$18.84

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