Jason Toney

The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2004 - The Grind Date

"They said the good die young so I added something bad ass to my flavor to prolong my life over the drum." - De La Soul, Rock.Co.Kane Flow (featuring MF Doom)

 Here's what I said about The Grind Date when it topped my list in 2004:

Is it so wrong that I absolutely love hip hop that grows up as I do? That with each successive album, I've found plugs won, two and three to continue to speak to my particular point in life as well? The Grind Date is absolutely dad rap. It's bumpin' and hard and clever and on point but De La understands that there are those of us that can remember 20 years of hip hop. There are those of us who need a little more from our hip hop. And De La responded by saying, you know what, "we give you much more." And this isn't harkening back to times and sounds long since past, this album is fresh. Fresh as in clean, crisp and now and fresh as in FRESH make me wanna walk the streets with my boom box blasting joints. FRESH like head nodding hard on the bus or the subway or in your car at stop lights. FRESH like put that shit on repeat fresh.

Here's what was true about me in 2004: I was facing down my 30th birthday. I was disenchanted with our Presidential candidates and the direction our country was headed. I was growing ever more disenchanted with work and with life in general. Half-way through the decade and I was feeling that urge for change. A shake-up. I wanted much more.

But I was also nostalgic. I was old enough to "remember when." I've got a pretty solid memory but I tend not to dwell on the past (this series of posts notwithstanding) but to keep it on forward motion.

De La Soul and The Grind Date felt like a perfect soundtrack for that kind of moment. Pos, Trugoy, and Dave were old friends telling me they were going to ride into the next stage of my life—of our lives (How the days of your life go, kid?)—with me.

Into the future, baby. 

Another day, y'all.

The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2003 - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

"Finding a way to get in, to fit in." - Outkast, GhettoMusick

Back in 2003, there was no question that this was my favorite album(s) of the year. Now, looking back, I had a debate. I return to Jay-Z's The Black Album more often. I could listen to Jigga's Public Service Announcement several times a day without getting bored or sick of it. I listened to Speakerboxxx/The Love Below so much in 2003 and 2004, that I, in fact, did get sick of it but I think that's the point.

I did a lot of trying to figure me out in 2003. I pushed myself to my physical limits by training for and running a marathon. I'd made a commitment to find a new love and failed. I'd had my, to that point, most successful professional year—BMP promoted me to Director; Lynne hired me to write a few things for vibe.com—but, ultimately, I didn't quite know who I was. I ended the year with some regrets that, thankfully,  I no longer harbor, but it was the first time as an adult that I had been filled with self-doubt. I had been faced with some big personal challenges and come up short.

The Love Below and Andre 3000's creative exploration aligned with my own internal spelunking. The Love Below could barely be called Hip Hop. It was both forward looking and homage to those spacey funk sounds of the 70s. Much of his writing dealt with his own failures and successes in relationships and as a human being. It felt new and inviting and I could relate.

I had no time for Speakerboxxx when the album first was released. At first blush, I critiqued Big Boi's contribution, wrongly, as just another hip hop record. Superb hip hop but nothing I hadn't heard before. Six years later and what's true is that I return again and again to Speakerboxxx. As I've gotten more sure of myself, I've appreciated Big Boi's certainty and bravado as well. He knows who the hell he is and he's still inventive and energetic and entertaining. And smart.

No disrespect to Andre but in 2003, I equated quirky and different with wit and intelligence. Looking back on my writing, that's obvious. I'm older now, though, and I know that while there's value in breaking convention and treating everything like a blank slate to explore, often, the best stuff comes when you're constrained. When you color within the lines. When you find you can still be yourself inside the box.

The Speakerboxxx.

Huh!

The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2002 - The Colored Section

"Who are you? - Donnie, People Person

This decade began in earnest for me on January 24th, 2002. On that day, I started a blog. It would eventually be called Negro Please and live for several years but it started simply enough. A work friend had started her own site on diaryland or livejournal or something with the premise that having an easy to use publishing system on the web would get her to write more and, by extension, improve her writing. I thought that was brilliant and so I did the same. I hadn't read blogs to that point. Didn't really know what one was, actually, but I was searching for an outlet and in a format that meant something to me. I was a professional web guy who had done been active online since my college days in the early to mid-nineties, writing on paper with no audience didn't make much sense to me any more so I registered with blogger, it was called Better Left Unsaid, and I wrote "on the first day..."

That single act has influenced just about every aspect of my life since. I only know The Lady because of blogging. Some of the most significant people in my life are only there because of blogging. I wouldn't have the career I have without blogging. Most of the best experiences of the past 10 years I can't imagine having come to fruition without Negro Please and everything that came after.

I also wouldn't be the kind of man I am without the forum that blogging gave me to explore who I am. To examine and give birth to my identity. I spent those early years discussing race, my own blackness and beyond in deep and surprising ways. Surprising to myself because I didn't know how conflicted I was. Even more surprising because I didn't know I wasn't the only one. Those honest and raw moments in which I was emotionally and culturally naked and yelling out from a web browser provided not just an outlet but created connections. I found a community of like minded (and sometimes not) individuals who I could parry and banter with. They became as much a part of my family as those I'd known all my life.

I felt at home. And so, when Donnie opens this inspired soul collection with "Welcome to the colored section. Welcome to the negro leagues..." well, you'll forgive me if I assumed he was talking directly to me.

And while I didn't spend any time talking about this wonderful album, please trust that that is exactly what The Colored Section is. Wonderful. Honest. Joyful in the face of pain.

Looking back on my first couple years blogging, that was me, too. Full of joy as I was able to put to virtual paper a face and form to things that I didn't even know pained me.

The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2001 - Simple Things

"Nothing is real." - Zero 7, In the Waiting Line (Dorfmeister con Madrid de los Austrias Dub)

I'm going to spend much more time talking about Zero 7 (Spoiler Alert! They are likely to be my favorite artists of the Aughties) and Simple Things gets this honor by virtue of this being the first time they came onto my radar. 2001 was before I was blogging, before I followed blogs, before I was on napster and limewire, before I stopped listening to much terrestrial radio. I still made weekly trips to the record store (Tower and Second Spin) and I depended heavily on friends, magazines, and KCRW to tell me what I should put in my headphones.

Simple Things landed on my work desk courtesy of Wilson Yau, a Music Supervisor at BMP. I was the Web Guy for The Real World and Road Rules and a bunch of other stuff and, if I'm not mistaken, Destiny (or maybe it was Distractions) was used in a The Real World episode and we were going to promote it on the site. Wilson was excited about this band. It's one of the things I loved about that job. Music was a big part of it and our music team was passionate about it. So, I popped the disc in my computer, turn my speakers up so my interns could hear and fell in love--with the music and with one featured singer in particular.

But more on that later.

2001 was a great year for music. Aaliyah's Aaliyah (which I've listened to considerably this year); Björk's Vespertine (which battles with Debut as my favorite album of hers); Kelis's never-domestically-released Wanderland (which is still her best album and one that most people haven't heard); De La Soul's AOI: Bionix, Fantastic Plastic Machine's Beautiful, Charles Webster's Born on the 24th of July; Koop's Waltz for Koop; Jay Dee's Welcome 2 Detroit are just some of the spectacular albums to come out that year. Looking at this list, I'm seeing where the seeds of just about all my music listening habits over the course of the decade were planted.

None more than Zero 7's Simple Things. No sense in distracting myself from that truth.

The Best of The Dawn of the 21st Century

"When everything is a rope of sand, we should be learning to let it go." - Jamie Lidell, Rope of Sand

The 21st century, for me, began with a breakup. Right before Y2K hit, I was hit by the end of a six year relationship that had begun my freshman year of college. It wasn't the end of my innocence or anything that melodramatic but it definitely shifted my world view about what was possible. We were heading down a path that I didn't want but that I felt was inevitable and then she had the class to fall in love with another guy. It tore me up inside but I came out of it better for it. Me, the single guy, now knew that anything was possible. Life isn't pre-determined.

Ten years later, and I'm at the precipice of the next phase of my life. Things are afoot. There's a she + me situation and that notion of possibility continues to prove itself out. And, it is through that prism that I plan to look back on the last decade. How'd I get from that guy to this guy? What were the words, sounds, events, and emotions that mattered?

I'm going to cover music, TV, movies, books, moments in time, blog posts, and whatever else I can think of. I'll spend the most time on music for a couple reasons: 1) I've got the most data around my music habits via last.fm and my own writing and 2) if anyone has followed me online for any period of time you know that it's the music that matters most.

This post will remain up front on the blog until I'm done and will get updated with each thing I add.

Sometimes I still can't believe Prince wasn't right about 1999.

Okay...let's go.

Music

• The Two Zeros: The Best Albums of the Decade (according to Last.fm)
• The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2000 - Mama's Gun
• The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2001 - Simple Things
• The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2002 - The Colored Section
• The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2003 - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
• The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2004 - The Grind Date
• The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2005 - Be
• The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2006 - Veneer
• The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2007 - Cross
• The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2008 - Of All The Things
• The Two Zeros: Songs of the Decade - They Live In The Sky
• The Two Zeros: Artists of the Decade - Ghostface
• The Two Zeros: The Best Music of 2009 - Michael Jackson
• The Two Zeros: The Best Albums of 2009 (a list)

Movies

• The Two Zeros: The Best Movies of the Decade

Television

• The Two Zeros: The Best Television of the Decade - Six Feet Under