boston progress radio

Back in my Asian American student conference attending days, I acquired this compilation CD of Asian American artists, Plugged In 2. Honestly, back when I got this CD, it wasn’t something I was really in to. I think this was mostly because I had horrible taste in music while I was in college. Horrible.

I loaded up the CD this past weekend, and it was funny to listen to each track again, nearly a decade later. I remember that the track I probably listened the most to was 5th Platoon’s “And We Do It Like This.” I remember being shocked to learn that one of the members of 5th Platoon was a woman. I don’t think I knew what turntablism was before I went to college, and I certainly never could have dreamed up 5th Platoon and Kuttin Kandi.

The other track that I can specifically remember listening to was “Letter to Our Unborn Children” by I Was Born With 2 Tongues. This was also probably my first exposure to spoken word, and spoken word performed by people that looked like me. It was almost strange to listen to these voices coming out of my speakers, without seeing the faces of the people performing.I was lucky enough to see both of these groups perform live (again, I owe a debt to all the multitudes of student conferences that I was part of). I think that’s where it all started to come together for me - to be able to experience this live, to think about the people behind the music, to come together over their words, to experience this with other people that I feel connected to. That’s when I started to feel connected to these tracks, these songs, this community.

I think music has the power to transport you. And as I listen to these tracks again, now, I can remember what it felt like to listen for the first time, to process over and over what it means to be plugged in, to be in the middle of searching for that place where you feel at home, where you fit in. And where you don’t.
Here’s the track listing of the cd:

Plugged In 2

1. Visions, The Pacifics
2. When U Think About Me, One Vo1ce
3. Hostile Takeover, The Mountain Brothers
4. I Wanna Be Your Man, Kai
5. Letter To Our Unborn Children, 2 Tongues
6. Comet, Mango Pirates
7. Self Sufficient, The Visionaries
8. Girl It’s You, Devotion
9. X-Games, The Wisemen
10. Fender Bender, Kid Koala
11. Balcony Beach, Lyrics Born
12. When I Get Close To You, Jocelyn Enriques
13. Snapshot, Mitsuo Downer Sounds

Does anyone have Plugged In 1?

Tags: Appreciation, CD, music.

Celebrate Hallowe’en 2007 with Lyrics Born. He’ll be in Beantown playing at the Paradise Lounge. Tickets are $15. I assume that you’ll be able to get them at the regular ticket outlets including the Paradise box office. 18 and over.

Underground hip hop legend Lyrics Born - interviewed in the newest issue of Hyphen magazine by Boston Progress and BPR’s very own Vidya Rao - opens for overground hip hop legend The Roots. At the Clark Center; doors will open at 6pm. Tickets can be purchased at Student Life for $25, but for UMass-Boston students, it’s $15.