That funky freshman year $#!*

Today, while putting in commercials and doing other station related work, I’ve started listening to a CD I recently (and finally) got my hands on.  Even though I’ve not heard it since about 1993, I still remember a lot of the music (and lyrics even!).  I’ve never owned it before, and now I only own it digitally.  It was property of my college roommate back in 1992.  He bought a five-CD changer, and we had it hooked into my “Mega-bass” boom box.  For a while, he only had one CD, but soon, he had a pretty good collection, and this one was almost always in.  I’d grown up not hating rap, but I didn’t give it a second thought.  By the time he moved out (nothing I did…he just wanted some…privacy?  he was more of a ladies man than I was) I knew every song on this CD, along with House of Pain, DJ Magic Mike, Black Sheep, and Public Enemy, thanks to a few days of all day Super Mario 3 playing and that he listened to mostly rap all the time.

Back in 1994 or 1995, I lost touch with the old roomie.  We were in the same major, and I like to think we stayed friends the two years he went to SSU.  He transferred to Florida State, and we had some kind of awkward exchange at some NBS-AERho convention about him thinking SSU was small time and me thinking his attitude had gotten too big.  So Matt Rost (formerly of Mankato), if you find this, I’m sorry.  I hope you’re doing well wherever you might be, and I hope you’re still enjoying Cypress Hill.  Also, thanks for broadening my musical horizons, even if I prefer Ludacris to most rappers (however, my favorite rap group is still Public Enemy).