Rap and Country.

I discovered Spotify last night. Ever since I downloaded the free Spotify app for my iPhone I've spent the better part of 14 hours searching the database for obscure rap/hip-hop albums. I've also downloaded some not so obscure albums too. There's really only so long you can search "Bun-B" before you need to separate yourself from one genre and search another. I naturally shifted my focus to Country Music.


I'm a huge Country Fan (seriously) and as such I was extremely excited to see that Spotify has a huge Country Music selection. This doesn't mean that I'm tired of Hip-Hop. Never. Rap to me is as soap to water in a shower. One without the other won't function correctly. I'll always need a dose of Rap in my life to fully function. I'm not entirely sure why I'll always need mildly threatening Urban American artists who rhyme about things I'll never fully understand, or be able to relate to to get as much out of life as I enjoy getting. It doesn't make sense. It's just an irrefutable fact of existence. 


But alone, it's not enough to get me by. It used to be. As a thirteen to seventeen year old, Rap was my my sole source of musical nourishment. After a while it got boring. I couldn't figure out why. I now realize that this is like eating nothing but white bread, then wondering why you find your diet bland. It doesn't mean you don't enjoy white bread, it just means you need something more than that alone. Same with Rap. I love Rap but it's just not enough to nourish me totally.

This is where Country comes in. I've been experiencing Country since I was 7 years old listening to Come on Over during summer visits to Modesto, California. I never actively realized that I liked what I was hearing. I just jumped around to "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" In hindsight this seems a little odd...but I'm not questioning anything. I listened to Country on vacation. Whenever my Aunt got behind the wheel of a car we were tuned in to the local Country station. So to me, Summer sounds like steel guitars and Southern Charm.   


As far as musical similarity and style goes you really can't get two musical genres so different. There's a huge musical divide between Country and Rap. I like to play both sides of this musical divide. Country fans rarely enjoy Rap; Rap fans rarely enjoy Country. There are exceptions but usually this is a general rule. Alan Jackson fans don't regularly bump N.W.A. between Chattahoochee and Precious Memories. But I will do this. Regularly. Right now I'm bumping Nu Mixx Klazzic's by Tupac, and following this I plan on throwing some Kenny C (as in Chesney) on up in this bitch! 

I may have found in Spotify my new substitute for crack. Bless you Spotify. You have created a credible way for me to enjoy all the terrible music I want. 


  VS      

Now that I possess access to both Netflix and Spotify, I sense a technological battle of semi-epic proportions. Both sides vying for my attention. Not a little here and a little there. No. The attention will be undivided. I fear there can only be one winner.

It'll be like the battle between:

 

Small Soldiers was an awesome movie, right? There could only be one winner in the end in the showdown between the Gorgonites and the Commando Elite. So too with Netflix and Spotify. There can only be one winner. I think Spotify edges ahead because I've watched all the Breaking Bad available and now it's time to discover music.

I remember a time when I used to read...

Screw it! I like music, television and the internet. Make the three available in one convenient location (my iPhone) and that puts an end to any literary integrity I once possessed.

Oh well...I wonder what else I can find on Spotify.