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I know a fair amount of the visitors to this site are not from the United States, so for those who don't know, today the U.S. celebrates Memorial Day. Memorial Day started as a way of honoring the Union soldiers who had died during the Civil War, but these days its mostly just an excuse to fire up the grill and have a few beers. The first recorded celebration was in South Carolina by a group of slaves who had been freed by Union soldiers and has since evolved into a memorial for soldiers that have died during all of the United States' military conflicts. There are a fair amount of websites out there devoted to Memorial Day and U.S. veterans, but a lot of them tend to be fairly corny, so I won't bother linking to them. For a pretty interesting discussion of the impact of U.S., Canadian and British forces during WW2, check this out.
As with most other holidays that aren't named "Christmas", its been a bit of a challenge finding any hip hop songs that deal with Memorial Day or even just the topic of the armed forces in general. There is a rap album that was put together by U.S. soldiers that are currently fighting in Iraq, entitled Voices From The Frontline. Its been fairly well reviewed, though just about every reviewer admits that the rappers aren't all that good. I'm not going to put up a track from that cd because (a) the combined forces of the RIAA and the U.S. Military coming after me is enough to give me nightmares and (b) the military seems to be getting enough recruits without me helping their cause.
As far as mainstream rappers go, the most successful artist who was also a member of the armed forces is former No Limit soldier Mystikal, who fought in the Army during Operation Desert Storm. The only other hip hop artist I can think of would be Mr. Boombastic, Shaggy, who also served during the first Gulf War in the Marines. Shaggy has dropped two (musical) bombs in a row and seems to be headed towards retirement, while Mystikal is currently serving a six year bid for "Sexual Battery of Infirm and Extortion," (just a typical Friday night, right?) and is also facing charges of tax evasion.
In honor of Memorial Day, I am putting up a track that features former Army combat technician Mystikal, on a remix of R&B singer Joe's Stutter. This is the unreleased "double take" remix, which is fairly similar to the remix that was available on the b-side of the single. Its a lot more pop than what I normally put up, but the sample (also used on the Pharcyde's classic Passing Me By) is pretty dope. This song is notable for the extremely poor choice of using Mystikal on an R&B song. Mystikal's shouting, stuttering cadence quickly kills any romantic vibe that Joe's singing generates.
(track after the jump -->)
5/29/2006 9:02:59 AM posted by Fresh