The Current
Straight up, as soon as I saw this coffee I was interested. I purchased the Stankonia coffee and fulfilled my expectation of a great cup, but I wasn’t expecting the nostalgia of the album to come with my purchase. I copped the Stankonia album in 2000 AD - the year it was released (see the photo of that exact CD above). I think it was around the holidays when I got the album but I remember wanting to listen to the entire project after hearing and seeing the music video for B.O.B. played repeatedly after school on BET’s Rap City and Cita’s World. André 3000 is being chased by a horde of children and a Big Boi is jumping a hydraulic kitted Cadillac while driving down the street in a hi-energy, psychedelic colored, afro-surrealist, audiovisual masterpiece. When I first heard it, I knew that it was the product of two extremely talented MCs. The album was/ is unique, at times weird, at times funny, and manages to effortlessly blend funk, rap, theatrics, and lyricism into 24 tracks. I liked the album back then, and still do.
I won’t belabor my experience about the album, because music, like the taste of coffee, is subjective. I will, however, digress and mention one of the most recurrent scams I’ve witnessed over time, and it’s the one where corporations will convince the consumer to discard their tangible goods for digital ones - especially ones that are streamed or received through a tiered pay service. Intangible digital media has its place. I’m no luddite, nor am I trying to romanticize antiquated technology, but when one pays for a tangible item once, one owns it for as long as one wants, and it’s theirs to do with it as they please. Although the stowage and transportation of tangibles can be a hassle, tangibility allows the buyer to copy (to some degree), loan, donate, bequeath, use, or resell the item. When the prevailing audio format transitioned from CD to digital, I refused to get rid of my disks because of the size of the music library I had acquired and because some of the best advice I have ever been given was to build a personal library of audio, visual, and print media that would allow myself to reference topics, and enrich, and educate my own mind and the minds of others.
At the risk of getting too long-winded on this, I’m going to stop here and ask, 1.) Are there tangible items that you refuse to give up, or wished you hadn’t willingly gotten rid of? 2.) Is there a specific piece of media that made you feel like you were a part of its inception, or as if you had some nonzero contribution to its success?
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