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Shuffled! is a weekly column appearing every Thursday here on BPRLive. Each week, we welcome someone from the APA community to share some thoughts about the music they listen to. Check out the Shuffled! archive for past articles.

Today’s Shuffler: Jenn F. of Reappropriate.com

Jenn is the blogger at Reappropriate.com, a blog focused towards Asian American politics, current events, and activism. In real life, Jenn hails from Ontario, Canada. She moved to the States to pursue an undergraduate degree at Cornell University, where she had a thriving extracurricular life working with Asian Pacific Americans for Action, the Asian/Asian American Mental Health Task Force, and the Pan-Asian Activities Council. Jenn was also a writer/actor for Ordinary People, a student-based anti-oppression drama troupe.

After graduation, Jenn worked briefly as a laboratory technician in the biological sciences before entering graduate school at The University of Arizona (in sunny Tucson) to pursue her doctorate in physiology. In her spare time, Jenn maintains her blog, Reappropriate, and has also appeared as a regular podcaster on Fallout Central and Addicted to Race. In 2007-2008, Jenn became heavily involved in the Obama for America campaign, and volunteered with many organizations focused on electing President Barack Obama, including Tucson Arizonans for Obama and Asian Americans for Obama. Jenn is also a board-member for Girl-Wonder.org, a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the quality of representation of women in the comics industry.

For more information, check out the About page on her blog.

Let’s move to the shuffle…

“‘Lil Tookie”
Taiyo Na
I met Taiyo in the studio while I was podcasting with Fallout Central (http://www.falloutcentral.com): I had traveled to New York City for a conference and Taiyo happened to be our guest interview. I immediately fell in love with Taiyo’s music when it played as an interlude to the podcast’s segments. I later contacted Taiyo to sample some of his music for some YouTube clips I was making. Of all of Taiyo’s tracks, my favourite is “Lil’ Tookie”, which became a permanent fixture in my playlist. Without being clichéd, I think Taiyo’s sound is a refreshingly genuine and soulful blending of hip hop, spoken word and R&B, perfectly encapsulating the experimental nature of contemporary Asian American music.

“You’ll See”
Madonna
I’m in a soft rock/80’s kick right now, and Madonna’s “Something to Remember” album is another diva-licious ballad from the Queen of Pop. And this was pre-henna-stained, pre-Sanskrit-mumbling, pre-fake-belly-dancing, pre-Orientalist Madonna, which is all the better, I guess.

“Nasty Girl”
The Notorious B.I.G., ft. Diddy, Nelly (Biggie Duets)
Ahhhh, Biggie. In the ‘Pac vs. Biggie beef, I’m clearly in the Biggie camp. Biggie’s music always indicated that he had a clear, mature understanding of who he was as an artist and as a person. Biggie had the unique ability to make party tracks and music that took his listeners on an introspective journey – they sure don’t make hip hop like that anymore. The Biggie Duets album was released recently, and it contains remixes of classic Biggie songs featuring contemporary hip hop artists. The album’s single, “Nasty Girl” is easily the best dance track of the album, even Nelly is good on it. Speaking of Biggie, I’m embarrassed to say I’m excited about the upcoming Notorious Biggie bio-pic, even if Derek Luke (of Antwone Fisher fame) somehow got cast as Puff Daddy. Best line of the trailer comes from Angela Bassett playing Biggie’s mom, Voletta Wallace: “What kind of grown man calls himself ‘Puffy’?” A question for the ages.

“I’m Not Your Fetish”
I Was Born With Two Tongues
I *heart* I Was Born With Two Tongues, and, in particular, this track. I bought the “Broken Speak” album when Dennis Kim (now Denizen Kane) and members of Two Tongues visited my undergraduate alma mater for Asian American Heritage Month; I think this was both my first exposure to Asian American art/music and the spoken word genre. I’m Not Your Fetish was a song I particularly connected with, especially as my identity as an Asian American woman evolved. It would be an understatement to say that this song influenced me to become more involved in Asian American politics, feminism, and activism. I wish I were even a fraction as talented as the incredible artists of Two Tongues. I was very sad to hear the group disbanded in 2008–I consider them pioneers of Asian American art and music.

“Bad”
Michael Jackson
With as much Mike as I have on my playlist, one was bound to come up for this column. What can I say about Mike that hasn’t already been said? He is, and always will be, the King of Pop. In fact, I’m trying to save up the money for Guitar Hero: World Tour for the sole reason that this song is a playable track on that game. My favourite M.J. songs are “Remember the Time”, “Billie Jean”, “You Are Not Alone” and “You Rock My World”. Incidentally, that last song is also memorable for having the most cringe-inducing mini-movie introduction to a Mike Jackson song ever. Could M.J. have possibly sounded less convincing when he describes a girl he and Chris Tucker are gawking at as “banging”?

Last 5 posts by shuffled

• Shuffled! North Star of the BROWNSTAR Revolution - December 10th, 2009
• Shuffled! Pen Khek Chear - November 25th, 2009
• Shuffled! Maanav Thakore - November 19th, 2009
• Shuffled! Jerry Ma - August 13th, 2009
• Shuffled! Tanzila Ahmed - August 6th, 2009

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