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90363462 · 1 year

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FEATURES

HIP-HOP’S GREATEST ROAD TRIP SONGS

By Stereo Williams

Published Fri, August 14, 2020 at 11:00 AM EDT

The global coronavirus pandemic has led to so many having to spend hours upon hours stuck inside. The effect of widespread quarantining means many are feeling stifled and sequestered in their homes. And it's so unfortunate, because the road can be therapeutic. Cruising can hold a unique spiritual freedom; getting behind the wheel can be as close as many of us get to "getting away from it all." The only thing better than hopping in the car and riding to nowhere is having a great soundtrack to push things along. Songs about the open road are a great American tradition – from “Rocket 88” to “Freeway of Love.” In Hip-Hop, those songs convey a sense of freedom and identity, beyond just the allure of hitting the highway, there’s also the sense of self that comes from riding around the neighborhood, speakers blaring, rims spinning. Whether long drives, or slowly rollin' the streets on a Sunday—these are some classic rap road songs that you'd have on deck.

FOR THE RIDERS: ALL-PURPOSE ANTHEMS

“MY HOOPTIE” – SIR MIX-A-LOT (1989)

As Hip-Hop became more obsessed with flashy, luxury vehicles, it’s sometimes great to think back to when it was cool to rap about the kind of junker we all had to push at some point or another.

There’s no better ode to the lemon than Mix-A-Lot’s classic “My Hooptie,” featuring an always broken windshield, non-working meters and dragging tailpipe. Sir Mix-A-Lot had a knack for story raps about cruising with his boys, and while “Posse On Broadway” might be more beloved, “My Hooptie” is the quintessential everyman car song. We’ve all had this car.

“24S” – T.I. (2003)

Tip has a few songs that define the early 2000s, and “Top Back” is another car banger that could have easily been on this list. But it was this ode to bigass rims that helped set things off for Clifford Harris’ early career, and the hook is one of his best.

Produced by DJ Toomp, it perfectly captures ATL swagger and the car culture that defines so much of southern rap from Miami to Atlanta to Houston. And T.I. is on one throughout the track. “I'm in a drop-top Chevy with the roof wide open/My partners looking at me to see if my eyes open/Cause I've been dranking and I've been smoking…” A ridin’ masterpiece.

RIDIN' - CHAMILLIONAIRE FEAT. KRAYZIE BONE (2005)

The thrill of driving is as American as apple pie — but the reality of “Driving While Black” is just as inherent in the experience of so many young Black people. This classic hit from Chamillionaire illustrates the duality of both: it’s an undeniable car classic that also functions as a harrowing tale of how just being a brotha cruising in your ride can lead to an altercation with the cops.

The Texas rapper was inspired by UGK’s classic 1996 album, and with a heavy assist from Krayzie, Cham makes it clear that, for certain folks, there is no easy liberation to be found in going for a ride in the whip. But he also couches that message in a song that functions as perfect car music. Quite a trick to pull off.

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“YOU’RE GONNA GET YOURS” – PUBLIC ENEMY (1987)

P.E.’s first album is bombastic and aggressive, but it may surprise younger listeners with how it’s not quite as focused on righteous, raging rhetoric as their later, more famous works.

The clearest example of Chuck D’s early approach is this car-themed classic. Often casually referred to as “My ’98 Oldsmobile” it features Chuck rhyming over an almost Run-DMC-esque truck rattling beat courtesy of the Bomb Squad, where he makes his Olds sound like an urban terrain vehicle made for b-boys. He rhymes about his ride as if it’s his only protection against the suckas hatin.’ Tell me you can’t relate. Perfect anthem for any road warrior.

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“THE BOOMIN’ SYSTEM” – LL COOL J (1990)

LL COOL J was blanking out throughout Mama Said Knock You Out, a classic album with no shortage of bangers. But this car anthem classic made it clear that James Todd Smith knew a thing or three about having a dope-ass system in your car. A sentiment that resonated with heads from Queens to Cali, LL perfectly tapped into the energy of riding around with the system loud as hell.

“LET’S RIDE” – Q-TIP (1999)

The former A Tribe Called Quest frontman’s solo debut Amplified may be most remembered for shiny pop singles like “Breathe & Stop” and the ubiquitous “Vivrant Thing,” but it was this chill ode to riding in your whip that best crystalizes who Kamal Fareed was going to be circa Y2K.

Name-dropping the classic rock of The Who alongside the Hip-Hop du jour of Biggie, Q-Tip makes a perfect case for rolling to the sounds of your choice and not letting the outside world interrupt the groove.

IMPALA ANTHEMS: FOR SITTIN’ SIDEWAYS ON A SOUTHERN SLAB

“DRIVE SLOW” – KANYE WEST FEAT. PAUL WALL (2005)

‘Ye was in full bloom on Late Registration, and this Paul Wall-assisted, southern-flavored tribute to riding was one of the standouts on an album that many still consider Yeezy’s best. Over an inspired Hank Crawford sample, ‘Ye and Wall rap about car culture as a metaphor for life, and Wall almost missed the session.

“I got pulled over on the way to the studio,“ he said in 2016. "My driver made a right turn from the wrong lane. “I said, ‘Hell nah. This ain’t real.’ I cussed the police out thinking I was getting ‘Punk’d. I almost ain’t make it.”

The remix featured a verse from T.I. and the video is an orgy of dope cars. “That verse was actually the first verse that I wrote when I was writing ‘Sittin’ Sidewayz,'” explained Paul. “Back in those days, I didn’t know how to harness the power of the production sometimes.” In the end, he decided that those rhymes were “hard” but, “Didn’t really go hand-in-hand with that beat.”

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“LACVILLE ’79” – DEVIN THE DUDE (2002)

Devin is Hip-Hop’s most laconic storyteller; like a laid-back cousin who tells stories better than anybody else in the family. His classic single breaks down the joys of having a car that’s all your own — warts and all.

Like Mix-A-Lot’s “My Hooptie,” this is an ode to a car that we all have owned at some point, and it’s the perfect anthem for hitting the road on a lazy afternoon or two. It also wouldn’t hurt to have a doobie in the ashtray — not that anyone’s advocating that sort of thing.

“STILL TIPPIN’” – MIKE JONES FEAT. PAUL WALL AND SLIM THUG (2004)

It’s slow as syrup and perfectly encapsulates Houston’s car culture in a genre-defining four and a half minutes. Mike Jones never quite topped his debut single, a tribute to chopped-and-screwed sound of DJ Screw and to a uniquely Texas flavor of rap that had been a part of southern rap since the early 1990s.

The whole song is a dedication to cruising, and of course "tippin' on four 4s, wrapped in four Vogues." It dropped the Houston sound smack dab into the middle of the mainstream, made stars out of Paul Wall and Slim Thug — and ensured that no one would have to ask “Who is Mike Jones?” ever again.

LOWRIDER LEANING: CLASSICS FOR CALI CRUISIN’...

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“LET ME RIDE” – DR. DRE (1993)

The good Doctor’s G-Funk classic perfectly captures the essence of The Chronic and the feel of So Cal cruising. Even if you’ve never seen Crenshaw and Slauson, the slice of laid-back Cali cool puts you right there. The gunplay and tough talk are there, but take a backseat to the feel good vibe of rollin’ in ya 64, a sentiment that anyone can relate to who has ever gone for a Sunday road trip on a gorgeous day.

“HIGH TIL I DIE” – 2PAC (1996)

This song isn’t exactly about a car or about driving, but it perfectly captures a certain feel associated with carefree cruising when you got nowhere to go. Like a lot of Pac anthems, the freewheeling feel belies lyrics that warn of danger at every turn — even while sounding unaffected (“When I'm in traffic, it's kinda rough and, I drive a bucket, Live the Thug Life nigga – screaming ‘fuck it’”). It’s quintessential Pac, and a perfect thug anthem for a ride.

“JEEP ASS NIGUH/BORN TO ROLL” – MASTA ACE (1993, 1994)

Former Juice Crewer and Brooklyn legend Masta Ace became a somewhat unlikely advocate for Hip-Hop car culture in the mid-1990s. The rhyme animal semi-reinvented himself as a cruise anthem rapper with hits like this. Of course, “Jeep Ass Niguh” first appeared in 1993s Slaughterhouse before it was reinvented as the decidedly West Coast-leaning “Born To Roll” a year later. It gave Ace one of his biggest crossover hits and came to define car songs that Cali loved in the 1990s. He would dive headfirst into the sound on 1995s Sittin’ On Chrome, but this was his first foray into such subject matter — and still his best.

* HEADER CREDIT: Dr. Dre and Fab 5 Freddy during 1993 MTV Video Music Awards at Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc)

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incarnateirony · 1 year

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youtube

Get 'em, what it is, what it does, what it is, what it isn't Lookin' for a better way to get up out of bed Instead of gettin' on the Internet and checkin' on who hit me, get up

Bad, moonwalkin', and this here is our party My posse's been on Broadway And we did it our way Grown music, I shed my skin and put my bones Into everything I record to it and yet I'm on Let that stage light go and shine on down Got that Bob Barker suit game and Plinko in my style Money, stay on my craft and stick around for those pounds But I do that to pass the torch and put on for my town

Labels out here, now, they can't tell me nothin' (Hey, hey, hey) We give that to the people, spread it across the country (Hey, hey, hey, oh)

Can we go back? This is the moment Tonight is the night, we'll fight 'til it's over So we put our hands up like the ceiling can't hold us Like the ceiling can't hold us

Time to go off, I'm gone Deuces, goodbye, I've got a world to see And my girl, she wanna see Rome Caesar'll make you a believer Nah, I never ever did it for a throne That validation comes from giving it back to the people

Now, sing this song, and it goes like Raise those hands, this is our party (Hey, hey, hey) We came here to live life like nobody was watching (Hey, hey, hey, oh) I got my city right behind me, if I fall, they got me (Hey, hey, hey)

And then we keep marching, I said

#do you think 2po was too stupid to figure out this one?#curious #since he made it clear he doesn't get my posts AT ALL #Youtube

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maybanksbabe · 8 months

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I’ve been at work for a couple hours and I cannot get sir mix-a-lot out of my head. Bark like you want it, posse on broadway, baby got back, Mack daddy, you name it bro.

Oh and ride too! And jump on it😭 my brain has been cycling through those songs all day I even accidentally wrote woof when I was taking notes cause I was singing bark like you want it in my head😭

-🪼

Oh no 😂😂 I mean... There are worse artists/songs to be stuck with?? Better ones too but there are definitely worse 😂

#🪼 anon #libra speaks

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djmordecai · 11 months

Video

youtube

Rare Formz - Brand New Funk (official music video)

beats & cuts by @DJMordecai

lyrics & vocals by Chris Miller

engineered by James Swisher

Rare Formz lettering by Brad Bacon

from 2015's @rareformz6905 Rare Formz - The Album https://rareformz.bandcamp.com/album/...

a tribute to @djjazzyjeff & The Fresh Prince ( @WillSmith ) - Brand New Funk

as well as an homage to our hip-hop heroes.

shoutout to @TheFoundationhiphop

LYRICS:

Brand New Funk (Get Down!) (Get Down!) Brand New Funk (funky) (Hit It!) Brand New Funk (Get Down!) (Get Down!) Brand New Funk (funky) (Hit It!) Brand New Funk (Get Down!) (Get Down!) Brand New Funk (funky) (Hit It!) Brand New Funk (Get Down!) (Get Down!) Brand New Funk (funky) (Hit It!)

[Chris Miller - Verse 1] They want that old school rap back and cats want it ASAP so I'mma flip it on niggas, the track be the gym mat I’m at a high demand for rap fans I'm Outstanding like the Gap Band, check soundscans, More money than ever so ain't no margin for error and I've been eatin’ on MC’s since Tougher Than Leather and my peoples got my back, like Africans with Mandela. So you better put them glocks down like you were Heather ‘cause I get high like Dominique smokin’ the chronic leaf and I'm in and out the future like Quantum Leap Come follow me. I flow off old school beats just like Mahogany I'm so ‘90s with the gold chain and rockin’ wallabees I still gangsta boogie Kool G Rap my ass off get stomped out for pressin’ that fast forward Sucka MCs ain’t ready for fastball ‘cause my style intense like you takin’ that crash course

[Chorus] my DJ [rock the beat] shout out to Marley Marl big ups to Chubb Rock Special Ed and Ice-T Monie Love and Geto Boys Schoolly D and Run-DMC Spoonie Gee and Rob Base Nice & Smooth all day man.

[Verse 2] I stayed criminal minded BDP first album, that was ‘87.I was up in project housin’ D.O.C. came with No One Could Do It Better. Then that Paid In Full album had a nigga wantin’ chedda. I freestyle in project hallways all day. Then Sir-Mix-A-Lot had that Posse On Broadway Flow like the incredible letter man. Red said, whateva, man. Big drove the caravan in Maryland. I was a student of the game when I learned from Kane before Meth I was bringin’ the pain like Memphis Bleek, I was comin’ of age I wanted to be Cool J when he walked on stage. He was King Hercules. He walked like a panther. Sun Rise In The East that Jeru Tha Damaja I reminisce like Pete Rock and CL peace to Melle Mel. Shante the illest female

[Chorus] my DJ: (rock the beat) Shout out to De La Soul Craig G and Pete Nice Whodini, MC Shan Juice Crew, Ice Cube Shock G, Jungle Brothers Black Sheep and Latifah Peace shout to Nicki D

[Verse 3] Whatchu know ‘bout Milk and Giz? And ain't nobody rock a party like Biz I want to dance like The Kangol Kid Scoob and Scrap Lover, Trouble T-Roy, even DJ Kool Herc even invented the b-boy. Take a look around like Master Ace, Public Enemy got me hype when they said they wanted “BASS!” Flavor Flav was the first hype man, I love British Knights, but really I was a Fila fan. Just somethin’ you wanna hear like Gang Starr and Premier with that flava in your ear. That Craig Mack that’s real Love MC Ren, but when Lyte dropped Paper Thin, cats like Drake wouldn'ta made it back then we had Prince Paul, Large Professor, big Daddy-O can't forget Kurtis Blow them word and real rap shows Parrish and Erick Sermon, Heavy D from Mount Vernon Joeski Love he even did the Pee-Wee Herman

[Chorus] to my DJ: (rock the beat) shout out to Doug E. Fresh Dana Dane and Slick Rick the whole Get Fresh Crew Steady B, Kool Moe Dee Cold Crush Brothers and Busy Bee Prince Rakeem and UTFO Fat Boys and Chill Rob G. And we out. Yeah, can't forget my DJs, shout out to: DJ Kool Herc DJ Red Alert Paul C Jazzy Jeff Cash Money Grandmaster Flash Mr. Magic DJ Hollywood Jazzy Jay Eddie Cheeba DJ Charlie Chase DJ Chuck Chillout The Masterdon and DJ Davy DMX

fresh to death, man.

#youtube #rareformz #chrismiller #brandnewfunk #djjazzyjeff #freshprince #tribute #throwbacks #oldschool #homage #thefoundation #classic #hiphop #oldschoolhiphop #pioneers #rap #heroes

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justakon · 1 year

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youtube

Little bit of humble, little bit of cautious Somewhere between like Rocky and Cosby Sweater game, nope, nope, y'all can't copy, yup

Bad, moonwalkin', and this here is our party My posse's been on Broadway And we did it our way Grown music, I shed my skin and put my bones

#playlist.#queued.

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martysmusic · 1 year

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Music from the Smash Musical Hamilton highlights Today’s Ten. I made a Countdown of all of my favorite songs that you can listen to here:

Apple Spotify

2859-2850

2859: To Share Our Love MOODY BLUES

2858: We Don't Stop KASKADE

2857: Guns and Ships LESLIE ODOM JR, DAVEED DIGGS, CHRISTOPHER JACKSON, & ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST OF “HAMILTON”

2856: Mr. Vain CULTURE BEAT

2855: For The First Time (feat. TILDE) OMNIA

2854: In My Room INSANE CLOWN POSSE

2853: Love Yuh Bad POPCAAN

2852: No Face SAVAGES

2851: Hyperpower! NINE INCH NAILS

2850: Sand & Sorrow AIRBASE

#apple music #music #hamilton memes #alexander hamilton #spotify #countdown #VSL Countdown #RadioVSL

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areus-in-a-little-cave · 2 years

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Hey, hey, hey Good to see you Come on, dude, let's go Yeah! Let's go! Ha-ha-ha-ha alright Alright, okay Uh, alright, okay Alright, okay

Return of the Mack Get 'em, what it is, what it does, what it is, what it isn't Looking for a better way to get up out of bed Instead of getting on the Internet And checking on who hit me, get up Thrift shop, pimp-strut walkin' Little bit of humble, little bit of cautious Somewhere between like Rocky and Cosby Sweater game, nope-nope, y'all can't copy

Yeah, bad, moonwalking, this here is our party My posse's been on Broadway, and we did it our way Grown music, I shed my skin and put my bones Into everything I record to it and yet I'm on Let that stage light go and shine on down Got that Bob Barker suit game and plinko in my style Money, stay on my craft and stick around for those pounds But I do that to pass the torch and put on for my town

Trust me, on my I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T shit, hustlin' Chasing dreams since I was 14 With the four-track, bussin' Halfway cross that city with the backpack Fat cat, crushing labels out here, nah, they can't tell me nothin' We give that to the people, spread it across the country Labels out here, nah, they can't tell me nothin' We give it to the people, spread it across the country

Can we go back? This is the moment Tonight is the night, we'll fight 'til it's over So we put our hands up Like the ceiling can't hold us Like the ceiling can't hold us

Now, can I kick it? Thank you Yeah, I'm so damn grateful I grew up really wanting gold fronts But that's what you get when Wu-Tang raised you Y'all can't stop me Go hard like I got a 808 in my heartbeat And I'm eating at the beat like you gave a little speed To a great white shark on Shark Week, raw!

Time to go off, I'm gone Deuces, goodbye, I got a world to see And my girl, she wanna see Rome Caesar'll make you a believer Nah, I never ever did it for a throne That validation comes from giving it back to the people Now sing a song, and it goes like Raise those hands, this is our party We came here to live life like nobody was watching I got my city right behind me, if I fall, they got me Learn from that failure, gain humility And then we keep marching, I said...

Can we go back? This is the moment Tonight is the night, we'll fight 'til it's over So we put our hands up Like the ceiling can't hold us Like the ceiling can't hold us

And so we put our hands upAnd so we put our hands up Oh, oh, oh, oh (let's go)Na na na na, na na na na Hey-ee ay-ee ay-ee ay ay-ee ay-ee, hey And all my people say Na na na na, na na na na Hey-ee ay-ee ay-ee ay ay-ee ay-ee, hey And all my people say Na na na na, na na na na Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh And all my people say Na na na na, na na na na Mack-le-eh-eh-eh-eh-more!

Can we go back? This is the moment Tonight is the night, we'll fight 'til it's over So we put our hands up Like the ceiling can't hold us Like the ceiling can't hold us

#submission #long post #areus rambles #sorry now I'm just listening to the playlist again #dare I say it fucks #do I

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bighairmonkey · 7 years

Photo

squad goals

#znation #z nation #z nation s3 #red #natalie jongjaroenlarp #10k #nat zang #5k #holden goyette #squad goals #my posse's on broadway

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edrake · 2 years

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Linear Notes - Sir Mix A Lot “Mack Daddy”

Linear Notes – Sir Mix A Lot “Mack Daddy”

View On WordPress

#30 years #30th anniversary #baby got back #Comics #con queso publishing #cq comics #hip hop #illustration #linear notes #mack daddy #my hooptie #posse on broadway #sir mix a lot #webcomics #west coast hip hop #west coast rap

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hyperfixatedimagines · 3 years

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The Moon & her Star: Ch 1

Summary: Long before Zoya, another girl from the wrong side of town fell for one of Julien’s posse. Unfortunately for the girl, she had fallen for Luna La and not noble O.

A/N: This is the first chapter in a series I will be writing. Please let me know your thoughts. I’m currently accepting requests as well. Hope you enjoy.

(Y/n) was no stranger to the excess and glamour of the upper East side’s elite. Though (y/n) didn’t belong to the exclusive club she had always had the displeasure of their company. Thanks to (y/n)’s grandmother, the head maid to the oldest of old money in New York, she had secured a full scholarship to Constance.

Freshman year was rough, (y/n) wanted so desperately to fit in with the beautiful, glamorous, and rich circle of students. (Y/N) wanted nothing more than to be on Broadway. She was going to be a star, at any cost. But freshman year- she got sidetracked trying to network herself into the right circles. The head girl, Julien, got the leading role in Heathers without even auditioning. That year (y/n) learned that money always won over talent.

Sophomore year was better…. with a noteworthy exception.

Everything seemed to be going well for (y/n). She had friends, theater rejects and scholarship kids like herself but friends nonetheless. She was steadily getting better roles, from background extra to understudy. A star on the rise.

(Y/N) had even managed to secure a leading role in the spring musical, and the only thing she had to do was first help Julien prepare for her role as Juliet. Julien didn’t understand anything about Shakespeare, and promised she’d let (y/n) have the next role. Juliet was personal to Julien, but she never revealed why. (Y/N) didn’t press further, all she needed was one role. One leading role and then no one would be able to deny that she was the true star of the theater department.

Tutoring Julien was easy enough. Julien wasn’t mean like her minions, Luna and Monet. (Y/N) and Julien’s friendship, or partnership rather, was a secret matter that (y/n) didn’t care to bring to light.

Whether it was fate or bad luck, Julien’s minion Luna found out about them and read Julien the riot act for daring to converse with such a lowly individual. Julien forced Luna into being their silent accomplice. Luna agreed, apparently knowing how important the Juliet role was. However, Luna insisted she coordinate the meetups so that no one that mattered caught the two of them together.

On a few occasions, Luna even joined the two. (Y/N) hated when Luna would watch, because she never just watched. Luna didn’t ever take criticism well, even if it wasn’t directed at her. Any time (y/n) gave Julien a piece of feedback Luna would swoop in and say the exact opposite. Of course Julien would only listen to Luna’s praise, it was the easier pill to swallow.

Fearing Julien would let her go and abandon the promise made, (Y/N) confronted Luna during the next session.

Luna La was not about to let some backwater trailer trash tell her to butt out. So what began with harsh words turned to pushing and hair pulling.

And it ended with Luna on the floor, (y/n) on top of her.

With (y/n)’s face just inches from her, Luna realized just how beautiful (y/n) was. Luna stared at (y/n)’s lips, suddenly aware of just how soft they looked.

(Y/N) hadn’t planned on falling for someone in high school, especially not at Constance, and especially not for a bitchy spoiled girl like Luna La.

But it happened.

It happened in the theater building’s basement on a normal Tuesday evening.

It happened just moments after calling Luna a jealous bitch.

It happened slowly, as (y/n)’s lips met Luna’s.

The first kiss was tender, tentative…..and tragically over just seconds after it started.

The two girls heard footsteps coming down the stairs and separated so fast they had to catch their breath. Julien entered the room, only to see Luna and (Y/N) on opposite sides in complete silence.

Luna and (Y/N) we’re terrified Julien would know the sinful act that had transpired but in her blissful ignorance Julien merely thought they’d gotten into an argument.

The session went on without a hitch. Julien was surprised that Luna hadn’t given any comments regarding (Y/N)’s feedback.

It was then that (y/n) could finally bring herself to look at Luna for the first time since their kiss.

Their eyes met, both terrified of the feelings they knew were brewing inside them. Luna excused herself, and walked out without another word.

Luna stopped showing up to Julien’s tutoring sessions.

(Y/N) would turn the opposite way anytime her path crossed Luna’s.

It went on that way for weeks.

Until opening night of Romeo and Juliet.

(Y/N) had gone backstage to wish Julien luck. To her public dismay, and to her secret joy, Luna was there.

Julien exited the dressing room for a brief second, leaving the two alone for the first time since their kiss.

(Y/N) didn’t know what to do. So she did what all terrified teens in love do, she tried to run.

But Luna reached out for her hand and stopped her.

The words came out of Luna’s mouth like vomit, uncontrollable. “I haven’t stopped thinking about it.”

“Neither have I.”

The two stared into each other’s eyes, silently begging the other to be braver.

The echo of footsteps cut their moment off too soon.

Luna let go and turned to look at herself in the mirror.

The door opened and Julien walked back in with the rest of her gang of heirs.

Surprised to still see (y/n) there, Julien addressed (y/n) simply as an extra.

(Y/N) wished Julien good luck and walked out before she lost what was left of her dignity.

Winter break came and went.

The spring musical neared and the only thing (y/n) could think of was Luna La’s peach lip gloss.

Forbidden stares in class, stolen glances as they passed each other in the halls, it was torture for them both…even if they couldn’t admit it to themselves.

Julien, true to her word, opted out of the spring musical. So auditions were to start on Friday.

(Y/N) should have been over the moon, but instead she found herself wanting to be in Luna’s glow instead.

(Y/N) couldn’t focus, and she knew she’d fail the audition if she couldn’t get her act together.

So the evening before auditions (y/n) forced herself to practice in the theater building basement in a last ditch effort to pull herself together.

“I thought I might find you down here.”

What was once a voice laced with acid had become music to (y/n)’s ears.

Luna stood at the bottom of the staircase, anxiously fiddling with the hem of her shirt.

“What are you doing here?”

“I don’t know. All I know is I haven’t been the same since…..” Luna stared at (y/n), unable to name their sacrilegious act.

“Since what,” (y/n) pressed.

Luna crossed the distance between them. “Are you really going to make me say it?”

(Y/N) sighed. “I haven’t stopped thinking about you either. I can’t even focus for my audition…. I’ve been waiting so long for this moment and I’m going to screw it all up because…”

(y/n) was unsure if she could bring herself to say it, out loud.

Luna bit her lip. “Because?”

“Because I can’t stop thinking about what it would feel like to kiss you again.”

A wave of relief, and fear, washed over Luna. She wanted (y/n), and couldn’t lie to herself about it anymore…. but there was no way in hell she’d risk social suicide to date (y/n).

“We can’t.” Luna wrapped her arms around herself.

Cruel reality had finally set in for (y/n).

“Of course, I was stupid to think a coward like you would take a chance.”

Luna’s arms fell to her sides, fists balled. “I’m not a coward. I just can’t risk my future over someone like you.”

(Y/N) straightened her back, indignant. “Someone like me?”

“You know what I mean,” Luna said with a sigh.

(Y/N) stepped closer. “I don’t, so why don’t you enlighten me.”

“Fine, you’re a broke nobody from the wrong side of the cliched tracks.” Luna mirrored (y/n), stepping closer to her.

(Y/n) had stepped in Luna’s personal space, daring Luna to challenge her.

“I’m not a nobody. I’m gonna be a star one day and I won’t have time to waste on petty, airhead heiresses like you.”

Luna grabbed the collar of (y/n)’s shirt. “Who are you calling an airhead?”

The scent on peach lip gloss hit (y/n)’s nose, and it suddenly set in just how close Luna was. Her eyes darted to Luna’s lips…tantalizing and only inches away.

“What are you going to do about it?” (Y/N) dared.

Luna tightened her grasp on (y/n)’s collar and closed the gap between them. “This,” she said just before her lips crashed onto (y/n)’s.

Sophomore year was supposed to be the year everything changed for (y/n)….and with Luna La now in her orbit it certainly would be.

#luna la x reader #gossip girl imagine #luna la #luna la imagine #gossip girl #gossip girl 2021 #gossip girl reboot

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writemarcus · 3 years

Text

HITTING NEW HEIGHTS

BY MARCUS SCOTT

ORIGINAL RENT STAR DAPHNE RUBIN-VEGA TAKES YOU INSIDE THE IN THE HEIGHTS FILM

Qué quiere decir sueñito?” The disembodied voice of a girlchild ponders. “It means ‘little dream,’” responds an unseen authoritative figure, his feathery tenor with a soft rasp and tender lilt implying there’s more to the story.

Teal waves crash against the white sand coastal lines of the Dominican Republic and a quartet of children plead with the voice to illuminate and tell a story. Usnavi de la Vega (played by Anthony Ramos), sporting his signature newsboy flat cap and full goatee, begins to narrate and weave a tall-tale from the comforts of his beachside food cart: “This is the story of a block that was disappearing. Once upon a time in a faraway land called Nueva York, en barrio called Washington Heights. Say it, so it doesn’t disappear,” he decrees.

And we’re off, this distant magic kingdom ensnared within the winding urban sprawl of farthest-uptown Manhattan, the music of the neighborhood chiming with infinite possibilities: a door-latch fastening on tempo, a ring of keys sprinkling a sweet embellishment, the splish-splash of a garden hose licking the city streets like a drumstick to a snare fill, a manhole cover rotating like vinyl on a get-down turntable, the hiss of paint cans spraying graffiti like venoms from cobras and roll-up steel doors rumbling, not unlike the ultra-fast subway cars zigzagging underground. So begins the opening moments of In the Heights, the Warner Bros. stage-to-screen adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical by composer-lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) and librettist Quiara Alegría Hudes (Water by the Spoonful) that is set to premiere in movie theatres and on HBO Max on June 11, 2021.

This stunning patchwork of visuals and reverberations combine to create a defiant and instantly memorable collage of inner-city living not seen since Walter Hill’s 1979 cult classic The Warriors or West Side Story, the iconic romantic musical tragedy directed on film by Robert Wise and original Broadway director Jerome Robbins. With Jon M. Chu at the helm, the musical feature has all the trademarks of the director’s opulent signature style: Striking spectacles full of stark colors, va-va-voom visuals, ooh-la-la hyperkinetic showstopping sequences and out-of-this-world destination locations.

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A Kind of Priestess

Joining the fray of proscenium stage vets in the film is Broadway star Daphne Rubin-Vega, who originated the role of Mimi in the Off-Broadway and Broadway original productions of Rent. She returns to major motion pictures after a decade since her last outing in Nancy Savoca’s Union Square, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011. When we caught up with Rubin-Vega, she was hard at work, in-between rehearsals with her In the Heights co-star Jimmy Smits on Two Sisters and a Piano, the 1999 play by Miami-based playwright Nilo Cruz, a frequent collaborator. Rubin-Vega netted a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as the enraptured Conchita in Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics; that same year Cruz was awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, making him the first Latino playwright to receive the honor. Despite significant global, social and economic disruption, especially within the arts community, Rubin-Vega has been working throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People around me have [contracted] COVID… My father-in-law just had it. I’m very fortunate,” Rubin-Vega said. “This collective experience, it’s funny because it’s a year now and things seem better. Last year it was, like, ‘Damn, how inconvenient!’ The one comfort was that, you know, it’s happening to every one of us. That clarity that this is a collective experience is much more humbling and tolerable to me.”

The last time Rubin-Vega graced Washington Heights on screen or stage, she acted in the interest of survival and hunger as a probationer released after a 13-year stint in prison and given a new lease on life as an unlicensed amateur masseuse in the basement of an empanada shop in Empanada Loca, The Spalding Gray-style Grand Guignol horror play by Aaron Mark at the LAByrinth Theater Company in 2015. In In the Heights she plays Daniela, an outrageously vivacious belting beautician with a flair for the dramatics, forced to battle a price-gouging real estate bubble in the wake of gentrification.

“She’s like the deputy or the priestess,” Rubin-Vega said. “Owning a salon means that you have a lot of information; you’re in a hub of community, of information, of sharing… it’s also where you go for physical grooming. It’s a place where women were empowered to create their own work and it is a place of closeness, spiritual advice, not-so-spiritual advice. Physical attention.”

She said, “Daniela also being an elder; I think she’s not so much a person that imposes order on other people. She’s there to bring out the best—she leads with love. She tells it like it is. I don’t think she sugar-coats things. What you see is what you get with Daniela. It’s refreshing; she has a candor and sure-footedness that I admire.”

With the film adaptation, Chu and Hudes promised to expand the universe of the Upper Manhattan-based musical, crafting new dimensions and nuances to two characters in particular: Daniela and hairdresser Carla, originally portrayed as business associates and gossip buddies in the stage musical. On the big screen they are reimagined as romantic life partners. Stephanie Beatriz, known to audiences for her hilarious turn as the mysterious and aloof Detective Rosa Diaz in the police procedural sitcom romp “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” co-stars as the fast-talking firecracker, Carla.

It’s been a year waiting, you know. It’s like the lid’s been on it and so we’re just so ready to explode.

Where Is Home?

“Well, Quiara and Jon really expanded on what Lin and Quiara originally created and now they’re partners—and not just work partners, right? But they’re life partners,” Beatriz said at a March press event celebrating the release of the film’s two promo trailers. “What was so gratifying to me as a person who is queer is to see this relationship in the film be part of the fabric of the community, and to be normal, and be happy and functioning, and part of the quilt they’ve all created.”

She continued, “So much of this film is about where home is and who home is to you. And for Carla, Daniela is home. Wherever Daniela is, that’s where Carla feels at home. I thought that they did such a beautiful job of guiding us to this, really, you know, it’s just a happy functioning relationship that happens to be gay and in the movie. And I love that they did that, because it is such a part of our world.”

Rubin-Vega said she had no interest in playing any trope of what one might think a lesbian Latina might look or act like, noting that the queer experience isn’t monolithic, while expressing that the role offered her a newfound freedom, especially with regard to being present in the role and in her everyday life.

“Spoiler alert! I felt like not wearing a bra was going to free me. Did I get it right? Am I saying that gay women don’t wear bras? No, it was just a way for me to be in my body and feel my breasts. To feel my femaleness and celebrate it in a more unapologetic way,” she said, laughing. “To be honest, I was really looking forward to playing a lesbian Latina. It’s something that I hadn’t really explored before. Latinos [can be] very homophobic as a culture, and I wanted to play someone who didn’t care about homophobia; I was gonna live my best life. That’s a bigger thing. It’s also like, maybe I’m bisexual. Who knows? Who cares? If you see that in the film, that’s cool too, you know?”

Stand-out performances abound, especially with regard to the supporting cast; newcomers Melissa Barrera (in a role originated by Tony Award winner Karen Olivo) and Gregory Diaz IV (replacing three-time Tony Award nominee Robin de Jesús) are noteworthy as the aspiring fashion designer Vanessa and budding activist Sonny. Olga Merediz, who earned a Tony Award nomination for originating her role as Abuela Claudia, returns to the silver screen in a captivating performance that will be a contender come award season. However, Rubin-Vega may just be the one to watch. Her performance is incandescent and full of moxie, designed to raise endorphin levels. She leads an ensemble in the rousing “Carnaval del Barrio,” a highlight in the film.

Musical Bootcamp

“We shot in June [2019]. In April, we started musical bootcamp. In May, we started to do the choreography. My big joke was that I would have to get a knee replacement in December; that was in direct relation to all that choreography. I mean, there were hundreds of A-1 dancers in the posse,” Rubin-Vega said. “The family consisted of hundreds of superlative dancers led by Chris[topher] Scott, with an amazing team of dancers like Ebony Williams, Emilio Dosal, Dana Wilson, Eddie Torres Jr. and Princess Serrano. We rehearsed a fair bit. Monday through Friday for maybe five weeks. The first day of rehearsal I met Melissa [Barrera] and Corey [Hawkins], I pretty much hadn’t known everyone yet. I hadn’t met Leslie [Grace] yet. Chris Scott, the choreographer, just went straight into ‘let’s see what you can do.’ It was the first [dance] routine of ‘In The Heights,’ the opening number. He was like, ‘OK, let’s go. Five, six, seven, eight!’”

Rubin-Vega said that she tried to bring her best game, though it had “been a minute” since she had to execute such intricate choreography, noting that they shot the opening number within a day while praising Chu’s work ethic and leadership.

“There was a balance between focus and fun and that’s rare. Everyone was there because they wanted to be there,” she said. “I think back to the day we shot ‘96,000.’ That day it wouldn’t stop raining; [it was] grey and then the sky would clear and we’d get into places and then it would be grey again and so we’d have to wait and just have to endure. But even the bad parts were kind of good, too. Even the hottest days. There were gunshots, there was a fire while we were shooting and we had to shut down, there was traffic and noise and yet every time I looked around me or went into video village and saw the faces in there, I mean…it felt like the only place to be. You want to feel like that in every place you are: The recognition. I could recognize people who look like me. For now on, you cannot say I’ve never seen a Panamanian on film before or a Columbian or a Mexican, you know?”

Another Notion of Beauty

Rubin-Vega’s professional relationship with the playwright Hudes extends to 2015, when she was tapped to [participate in the] workshop [production of] Daphne’s Dive. Under the direction of Thomas Kail (Hamilton) and starring alongside Samira Wiley (“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Orange Is the New Black”), the play premiered Off-Broadway at the Pershing Square Signature Center the following year. Rubin-Vega also starred in Miss You Like Hell, the cross-country road musical by Hudes and Erin McKeown, which premiered at La Jolla Playhouse in 2016 before it transferred to The Public Theater in 2018. With her participation in the production of In the Heights, she is among the few to have collaborated with all of the living Latinx playwrights to have won the Pulitzer Prize; Hudes won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Water by the Spoonful, while Miranda took home the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Hamilton. Speaking on her multiple collaborations over the years, Rubin-Vega also acknowledged having known Miranda years before they would join voices.

“Lin to me is like a little bro or legacy; he’s a direct descent to me from [Rent author] Jonathan Larson, which is a bigger sort of all-encompassing arch,” she said, though she stressed that she auditioned like everyone else, landing the role after two or three callbacks. “Quiara and I have a wonderful working and personal relationship, I think. Which isn’t to say I had dibs by any means because…it’s a business that wants the best for itself, I suppose. […] So, when I walked in, I was determined to really give it my best.”

Life During and After Rent

Rubin-Vega has built an impressive resume over the course of her career, singing along with the likes of rock stars like David Bowie and starring in a multitude of divergent roles on Broadway and off. From a harrowing Fantine in Les Misérables and a co-dependent Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire to a sinister Magenta in The Rocky Horror Show, her evolution into the atypical character actor and leading lady can be traced back 25 years to January 25, 1996, when Larson’s groundbreaking musical Rent, a retelling of Giacomo Puccini’s 19th-century opera La Bohème, premiered at the New York Theatre Workshop. On the morning of the first preview, Larson suffered an aortic dissection, likely from undiagnosed Marfan’s syndrome and died at the age of 35, just ten days shy of what would have been his 36th birthday.

On April 29, 1996, due to overwhelming popularity, Rent transferred to Nederlander Theatre on Broadway, tackling contemporary topics the Great White Way had rarely seen, such as poverty and class warfare during the AIDS epidemic in New York City’s gritty East Village at the turn of the millennium. Rubin-Vega would go on to be nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for her role as sex kitten Mimi Márquez, an HIV-positive heroin addict and erotic dancer.

The show became a cultural phenomenon, receiving several awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and four Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Rubin-Vega and members of the original Broadway cast were suddenly overnight sensations, recording “Seasons of Love” alongside music icon Stevie Wonder, receiving a photo shoot with Vanity Fair and landing the May 13, 1996 cover of Newsweek. Throughout its 12-year Broadway run, many of the show’s original cast members and subsequent replacements would go on to be stars, including Renée Elise Goldsberry, who followed in Rubin-Vega’s footsteps to play the popular character before originating the role of Angelica Schuyler in Hamilton, for which she won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

When the screen adaptation of Rent hit cinemas in 2005 under the direction of Chris Columbus, Rubin-Vega’s conspicuous absence came as a blow to longtime fans. The confluence of pregnancy with the casting and filming process of Rent hindered her from participating at the time. The role was subsequently given to movie star Rosario Dawson.

“First of all, if you’re meant to be in a film, you’re meant to be in it,” Rubin-Vega said. “That’s just the way it goes. It took a quarter of a century but this [In the Heights] is a film that I wanted to make, that I felt the elements sat right. I always felt that Rent was a little bit darker than all that. Rent to me is Rated R. In The Heights is not. It’s also a testament. Unless it’s sucking your soul and killing you softly or hardly, just stick with it. This is a business and I keep forgetting it’s a business because actors just want to show art. So, it’s really wonderful when you get a chance to say what you mean and mean what you say with your work. It’s a really wonderful gift.”

Rarely-Explored Themes

Like Larson’s award-winning show and the film adapted from it, In The Heights is jam-packed with hard-hitting subject matter, addressing themes of urban blight, immigration, gentrification, cultural identity, assimilation and U.S. political history. When Rubin-Vega’s character Daniela and her partner were priced out of the rent for her salon, most of her clientele moved to the Grand Concourse Historic District in the Bronx. Her salon, a bastion of the community, is met with a polar response when she announces she’s joining the mass exodus with the other victims of gentrification who were pushed out by rising rents. The news is met with negative response from long-time patrons who refuse to take the short commute to the new location. Daniela counters, “Our people survived slave ships, we survived Taino [indigenous Caribbean people] genocide, we survived conquistadores and dictators…you’re telling me we can’t survive the D train to Grand Concourse?”

The question is humorous, but also insinuates a more nuanced understanding of the AfroLatinidad experience in the Western world. The film also looks at the American Dream with a naturalistic approach. Leslie Grace, who plays Nina Rosario, a first-generation college student returning from her freshman year at Stanford University and grappling with finances and the expectations of her community, noted that while her character “finds [herself] at some point at a fork in the road,” she may not have the luxury to be indecisive because of the pressures put on by family, community and country.

“The struggle of the first-generation Americans in the Latino community is not talked about a lot because it’s almost like a privilege,” Grace asserted. “You feel like it’s a privilege to talk about it. But there is a lot of identity crisis that comes with it and I think we explore that.” Speaking on the character, she elaborated: “Home for her is where her heart is, but also where her purpose is. So, she finds her purpose in doing something outside of herself, greater than herself and going back to Stanford for the people she loves in her community. I really relate to where she’s at, trying to find herself. And I think a lot of other people will, too.”

Worth Singing About

For Miranda, a first-generation Puerto Rican New Yorker that grew up in Inwood at the northernmost tip of Manhattan before attending Wesleyan University where he would develop the musical, this speaks to a larger issue of what defines a home.

“What does ‘home’ even mean? Every character is sort of answering it in a different way,” he said. “For some people, home is somewhere else. For some people, home is like ‘the block’ they’re on. So, that’s worth singing about. It’s worth celebrating in a movie of this size.”

Given the current zeitgeist, it’s no wonder why Chu, Hudes and Miranda decided to pivot with adapting the stage musical for the big screen, leaning in to tackle the plights and predicaments of DREAMers [children of undocumented immigrants seeking citizenship] stateside. In one scene, glimpses of posters at a protest rally read “Immigrant Rights are Human Rights” and “Refugees Are People Too.” Growing up in a multicultural household as a Latina with a Black Latina mother, a white father and a Jewish American stepfather, Rubin-Vega said she was used to being in spaces that were truly multiracial. Nevertheless, there were times when she often felt alien, especially as a du jour rock musical ingenue who looked as she did in the mid-1990s through the 2000s.

“Undocumented people come in different shapes and colors,” she noted. “To be born in a land that doesn’t recognize you, it’s a thing that holds so much horror… so much disgrace happens on the planet because human beings aren’t recognized as such sometimes.”

The film “definitely sheds light on that, but it also talks about having your dream taken away and its human violation—it’s a physical, spiritual, social, cultural violation,” Rubin-Vega said. “There’s a difference between pursuing dreams and being aware of reality. They’re not mutually exclusive. What this film does, it presents a story that is fairly grounded in reality. It’s a musical, it’s over the top… but it reflects a bigger reality, which is like an emotional reality…that people that are challenged on the daily, have incredible resolve, incredible resoluteness and lifeforce.”

She said: “Growing up, looking like me, I got to ingest the same information as everyone else except when it came time to implement my contributions, they weren’t as welcomed or as seen. The dream is to be seen and to be recognized. Maybe I could be an astronaut or an ingenue on Broadway? You can’t achieve stuff that you haven’t imagined. When it talks about DREAMers, it talks about that and it talks about how to not be passive in a culture that would have you think you are passive but to be that change and to dare to be that change.”

Dreams Come True

Dreams are coming true. Alongside the nationwide release of the much-anticipated film, Random House announced it will publish In the Heights: Finding Home, which will give a behind-the-scenes look at the beginnings of Miranda’s 2008 breakout Broadway debut and journey to the soon-to-be-released film adaptation. The table book will chronicle the show’s 20-year voyage from page to stage—from Miranda’s first drawings at the age of 19 to lyric annotations by Miranda and essays written by Hudes to never-before-seen photos from productions around the world and the 2021 movie set. It will be released to the public on June 22, eleven days after the release of the film; an audiobook will be simultaneously released by Penguin Random House Audio.

Hinting at the year-long delay due to the pandemic, Rubin-Vega said, “It’s been a year waiting, you know. It’s like the lid’s been on it and so we’re just so ready to explode.”

Bigger Dreams

“Jon [Chu], I think, dreams bigger than any of us dare to dream in terms of the size and scope of this,” Miranda said. “We spent our summer [in 2018] on 175th Street. You know, he was committed to the authenticity of being in that neighborhood we [all] grew up in, that we love, but then also when it comes to production numbers, dreaming so big. I mean, this is a big movie musical!”

Miranda continued, “We’re so used to asking for less, just to ask to occupy space, you know? As Latinos, we’re, like, ‘Please just let us make our little movie.’ And Jon, every step of the way, said, like, ‘No, these guys have big dreams. We’re allowed to go that big!’ So, I’m just thrilled with what he did ’cause I think it’s bigger than any of us ever dreamed.”

Speaking at the online press conference, Miranda said, “I’m talking to you from Washington Heights right now! I love it here. The whole [movie] is a love letter to this neighborhood. I think it’s such an incredible neighborhood. It’s the first chapter in so many stories. It’s a Latinx neighborhood [today]. It was a Dominican neighborhood when I was growing up there in the ’80s. But before that it was an Irish neighborhood and Italian. It’s always the first chapter in so many American stories.”

#Marcus Scott #MarcusScott #Write Marcus #writemarcus #Encore Monthly #theatre #Theater #Musical Theatre #musical theater #daphne rubin vega #rent #rent musical #Jon M Chu #lin manuel miranda #in the heights #Anthony Ramos

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