Yearbook (The Mount:Year One)

In late September, I received a Facebook message from a college classmate that "wanted to see if I could do something for her since I was all in the music business." Oh boy I thought, messages that start off like this usually result in two kinds of requests: one, to help them get something on the radio or two, concert tickets. Turns out, she asked if I could type out a playlist of some popular mainstream Hip-Hop and R&B songs from our freshman year at Marymount College for a memory box she was complying.

Now, anyone that knows me will tell you, I am always one to soundtrack associate almost every occurrence in my life. From the moment I received that message, the wheels started turning, and I saw myself scribble out a list of over 40 songs the next morning. Once I looked down at my hieroglyphics, bookmarked moments of my freshman year of college; one of the most influential 12 months in my life, started to flashback in my mind. A time in my life when I realized "I knew this world was crazy, but not this crazy." I realized it moves at the speed of light such as the album cover’s photo; a shot I took of myself one late night on the college’s bus for photography class. Just a written list would not suffice nor do justice, these experiences had to be relived through speakers.

Unlike The Demonstration series, the record selection process was more based on historic context than my own personal taste. It had to be given that this was the soundtrack for that time period, and not just for my own ears (that is another list in itself).

Important to highlight is much of the landscape of what Hip-Hop and R&B music has become presently started to manifest that year. Just listen to Snoop and Akon’s “I Wanna Love You” or the “Hyphy Movement” cuts on this tape and tell me you can’t hear its minimalist influence on DJ Mustard; currently spearheading arguably the West Coast’s most influential sound since Dr. Dre and Scott Storch unleashed the lowrider Grand Piano and Symphony String bounce of the magnum opus, “Still D.R.E.” Then there is the affair of Hip-Hop with Dance music. It is a common place now, but later became pop culture foreshadowing heard in, my humble opinion, Timbaland’s best cover to cover production work outside of Missy and Aaliyah: Justin Timberlake’s Future Sex/Love Sounds, Nelly Furtado’s Loose, and his own Shock Value. All three of those LPs were laced with vibes of Electronic, dance floor driven monsters.

Admittedly, 95% of these songs I jammed from jump, 4% grew on me over time, and one song on here I honesty cringed at including. But I knew I had to given both its popularity and association with one of those hilarious flashbacks I mentioned above. I'll let you try to figure out which song it is.

But that is the power of music. It is a hell of a stimulating sensation. The melody and lyrics are the flux capacitor and our mind is the DeLorean. With that established as the motto, I welcome you to the first installment of my nostalgia trip with “no roads.” First stop... 30800 Palos Verdes Drive East... Fall of 2006.

These were the sounds, these were the quotes… this is the music Yearbook of The Mount: Year One.

Soul Claps & Salutes and Thank You For Listening,

DJ Chuck "thE oLd SouL"

PS- Thank you Sara "placing" the light bulb over my head.

Arranged and Mixed By DJ Chuck "thE oLd SouL" For Honor Flow Productions
Album Art Design: Tyler Ann Nunley For Genevieve Munroe co.
For Promotional Use Only!