Black folks love to sing. I'm telling you, I think my son Andrew came out the womb singing. He wakes up singing and he goes to bed singing. When he's up during the day--if he even sees the CD player or the lap-top computer--he points to it and says "Music, mommy! Music!!" As soon as he turns "2", we're getting him in some music lessons, you never know, he might be the next Bobby Brown!
One thing about black folks though, we might love a song--and sing it with all our might--but I'll be damned if we know all the words. We'll get through a chorus or two--perhaps even a verse, but ain't no way we gonna make it through an entire song with all the correct words! That just ain't possible. And we ain't gonna take the time to learn the words--when we get to a point where our favorite singer says something in the song and we can't understand it, we'll just insert our own verse. And rhyme it with whatever we "think" they just said. That goes for everything from gospel music to hip-hop to R&B.
And especially now since ain't nobody actually buying albums anymore--and you don't have access to the words to a song--it's gotten a lot worse. Folks are either downloading songs on their I-pod or downloading them illegally or burning a copy of their favorite artist's new release from a friend (Hey man, times are hard, and gas is $4 a gallon, but we still wanna get that new Mary J Blige CD. Might as well say Mary J. was 5 million sold and 10 million STOLE!).
I was talking to my girl Kimmy from Atlanta the other day and she told me to watch this show on Fox I think, with Wayne Brady--he's got a game show where folks gotta sing the words to the songs--and when they do so correctly, they advance--and win money. I don't do too much television, but this show was funny as hell. Whenever the black folks got too much money, they'd throw a Rock and Roll category their way--and sure enough--they had no idea what the words were to the Barry Manolo tune. And white folks in the crowd would be amazed like "How could Tyrone NOT know the lyrics to Copa Cabana?"
Let me let y'all in on a little secret, there are only 10 songs black folks know all the words to. And I'm gonna need ole' Wayne Brady to add these songs in the rotation for his show; cause Wayne ain't black enough to actually know that these songs below are the only songs WE know all the words to. I don't care if you're 2 or 102, black folks know these songs cause we hear 'em year after year at birthday parties, family reunions, baptisms and pastor's anniversaries.
Shawn and I were out for ice cream the other night and we put in an old school CD--we rode past the house about 10 times singing the words to the following...
Top 10 songs black folks know all the words to
10. Is the famous diss song "In the Rain" by Oran Juice Jones (..."so you can take that alley-cat-coat-wearing-Hush-Puppy-shoe-wearing-crumb-cake-I-saw-you-wit'-&-SCAT-'cuz-you-dismissed!"). I'm convinced that Oran Juice Jones was Steve Harvey in his younger days. Those two could be twins!
"The Pack Yo Sh*t" part at the end of the tune She's Got Papers by Richard "Dimples" Fields was the anthem for black women who were fed up with bull$hit from 1973 to 2001! ("Well, well, well! What have we here?" This might just be ME...)
8. My Girl by The Temptations. I don't even need to give you any of the hooks on this one. Hell, my 7 year old niece can sing this one and her momma wasn't even born when it came out. Just part of our DNA!
7. Joy & Pain by Maze featuring Frankie Beverly. This is the REAL black folks national anthem. I was in the Louisiana Superdome for the Essence Music Festival when Frankie took the microphone and started belting out this tune. I saw 150,000 people in unison start singing--and doing the electric slide at the same damn time. Without prompting, it was like somebody said "OK, all together now GO!" (..."the ones that you care for, bring you so much pain--oh but it's wonderful--they are both one in the same.)
6. Our Love by Natalie Cole. I'm talking about cocaine snorting Natalie Cole. She was blowing back in the day when she was stoned out of her mind. Her sobriety really meant the end of her career.
5. Before Dave Chapelle made him famous for being a crack head, Rick James was known for singing and playing a mean guitar. The one song that we all know is his ode to the reefer, Mary Jane. (..."I'm in love with Mary Jane, she's my main thing, she makes me feel alright. She makes my heart sing...")
4. If you grew up in a black household, listening to Switch was mandatory. And if you listened to Switch, you know all the lyrics to "I Call Your Name". That's the best love song ever written! (..."I'm not worried bout a dog-on-thing, I take anything you bring. Although I love the sunshine, I still accept the rain.")
3. Slow Jam by Midnight Star probably was the reason more kids were born out of wedlock than any other song in the history of popular black music. You put that song on and you gotta go FIND somebody to have relations with! Just listening to that song this morning made me all in love with my husband all over again an we ain't even talking to each other this mornin.
2. Do you remember Larry Blackman and Cameo? Now they were some funk pioneers in the tradition of George Clinton and Sly and the Family Stone, but they were also known for their ballads. They got a song called Sparkle, I'm here to tell you, if you ain't heard it, you gotta check it out. I'm talking to the white folks, cause the black folks know all the words to this one.
1. And I know they were considered "bubble gum rap", but right now, if somebody started singing Rapper's Delight by The Sugarhill Gang, you couldn't help but join in. And we all know the words on this one. Black, white and other! Ain't nobody in the history of modern civilization done heard this song and not rushed to the dance floor and sang along with those three dudes who pretty much vanished from the face of the earth after penning Rapper's Delight and Apache (Jump On It). Say what you will about Rapper's Delight, it was jammin' and we all know the words! If Barak Obama really wants to unify the country, he should use this as his theme song!
Honorable mentions go out to Lenny Williams for his 1970s anthem "Cause I Love You", The Commodores Country & Western balad "Sail On", and The O'Jay's "Family Reunion".
