Shuffled! Taiyo Na
Shuffled! is a regular column appearing most Thursdays here on BPRLive. Each column, we welcome someone from the API* community to share some thoughts about the music they listen to. Check out the Shuffled! archive for past articles. (Apologies readers, we are no longer linking to online playlists.)
Today’s Shuffler: Taiyo Na
Born and raised in New York City, Taiyo Na is an MC, singer, songwriter and producer who has performed nationwide at venues such as Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, Knitting Factory and many more. Hailed as “undeniably soul-rootsy” with “storytelling through music at its finest,” his critically acclaimed debut album Love Is Growth (Issilah Productions, 2008) features the song “Lovely To Me (Immigrant Mother),” an ImaginAsian Entertainment Original Song Contest Winner.
He is also Artistic Director of the monthly Sulu Series at the Bowery Poetry Club and Entertainment Series host for the PBS-syndicated TV show Asian America. Learn more at www.TaiyoNa.com.
Check the shuffle…
Harlem/Cold Baloney
Bill Withers
This is one of my favorite performances by one of my favorite albums by one of my favorite artists of all time. Yup, it completely randomly showed up when I pressed shuffle. Bill Withers’s Live at Carnegie Hall album is something I return to all the time along with just a handful of albums. This song is the closer of his set that night, and boy, you can hear how he turned the party out. I mean, soul, love, funk and true joy is just oozing out this mutha. It truly shows how when the dynamics of a live performance are just right, an artist and his audience can be one. I dig this song for other reasons, too. A) he sings about baloney sandwiches, and that just about sums up my childhood summers, and B) he goes into a “red light, green light” call & response, and that also takes me back to my childhood summers in various gyms and playgrounds and such.
A Little Better
Gnarlz Barkley
This joint just hits home with me, man. Cee-lo always does, but especially on this joint. I’m just so happy he blew the hell up with Gnarlz Barkley because I’ve been a Goodie Mob fan since day one, and I’ve been rooting for the brotha since. Don’t you just love it when the cat you were rooting for finally gets his due after like, yeeears?
Smile
Scarface & 2Pac
This one is another soul-stirring jam. One of the lesser-appreciated Pac jams, in my opinion. I mean, how many rappers can pull off a song about smiling? I remember the video used to trip everybody out because this was released posthumously, and the actor they got really looked like Pac. On the second verse, Pac raps, “Scared to drop a seed, hoping I didn’t curse my babies.” That’s some heavy stuff when you marinate on it. You know, in this Obama age—and while I am very happy he’s in office—I don’t think we should ever forget what this country did to people like Pac’s folks. I once wrote a piece called “Yuri & Pac”, and the impetus behind that joint was after I went to this event for Yuri Kochiyama and this older white lady activist/former political prisoner (Sorry, I forget your name) shared a story about how she remembers a 9 year old Pac at Yuri’s house speaking at a meeting on trying to free his incarcerated family members. I mean, he was 9 years old and organizing and speaking out! At Yuri’s crib! When I was 9, I was picking buggers and playing Mario or whatever… For many reasons, there’s always a Pac song near me.
Ghost of Me
Conchita Campos
My homegirl Conchita never performs this song or my other favorite song of hers, “For Tonight,” but when I first heard these 2 songs, I put them on repeat like crazy. She thinks they’re too mellow or whatever, but joints like these just hit me all up in my soul! She twists it on some Jazzyfatnastees-meets-Bjork vibe with this one. It’s a late night jam when you want to maybe light something, sip some tea and write in your journal. The lyrics of the song remind me of Greek poetry or something like that where the speaker is openly talking to her angels and demons. It’s like a Li-Young Lee poem. I admire that. It takes balls. Oh, and the strings! I love strings!
Get Yourself Another Fool
Sam Cooke
Perfection. Sam Cooke’s voice is just perfection. The timing, phrasing, spontaneity, depth… everything. This is one of my favorite songs by him. It’s so behind the beat, it just makes me sink an extra 6 inches in my chair. Each musician on here leans so far back Fat Joe wouldn’t know what to do with it. When I hear this, I’m transported to the backyard of a country house chewing on a piece of grass. God, I love music.
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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