Meet The Nominees Vol. 12

A Tribe Called Quest

Not to default too easily into “back in my day” territory, but I so loved the late 80s/early 90s era of hip-hop. At that point the art form was still new enough and unformed enough that the boundaries were seemingly reset with each new emerging artist. A Tribe Called Quest was one of the foremost examples of this burst of creativity as they broadened the musical palette of hip-hop immensely.

They initially emerged as part of the loose collective of artists broadly known as the Native Tongues. As opposed to some of their colleagues in that movement who focused on Afrocentrism or psychedelia, ATCQ leaned heavily into incorporating jazz samples into their sound. An easy way to differentiate yourself from the pack is to create a signature style, and it is a fact that no other band of their time sounded exactly like they did. And I know that the majority of fans hold a lot of affection for the late Phife Dawg, but Q-Tip is the one who really stood out for me. He is one of my all-time favorite rappers, I so love his smooth flow.

Their run of classic albums was superb; 5 consecutive releases that all became standards of their genre. The mix of personalities was somewhat combustible, so it’s a bit of a surprise that they lasted as long as they did. It’s heartening that they were able to put their differences aside long enough to begin work on a reunion album while Phife was still alive, and the promotional run they ran following its release served as a fitting tribute to their fallen friend.

It’s tough to gauge their chances at election. This is their second consecutive nomination, which suggests that they got solid voting support last time around. At the same time, although voters have dipped their toes in the hip-hop water in recent cycles, there has yet to be an election that inducted 2 acts in the same year & I believe that Missy Elliott is likely to have stronger support this time. In my eyes they should be a slam dunk choice, but it seems that it won’t happen quite yet.

If elected, would they perform at the ceremony? - Probably not. My suspicion is that they feel the final album along with its tour is a good way to close the curtain & to properly honor Phife Dawg.

Biggest Billboard Hot 100 hit - Award Tour

My personal favorite - Bonita Applebum

Possible Side Category Inductee - The Previous Nominees

For better or worse, in recent years the Hall has begun to use the side categories as an alternate entrance for artists that had received multiple nominations but not enough votes to get in. I get that it’s a way to clear ballot space, but sometimes the fits can be a bit awkward. For example, because they pioneered electronic music, one can make a strong argument that Kraftwerk’s Early Influence induction was warranted. LL Cool J and Judas Priest as Musical Excellence winners seems to be a bit more of a stretch.

Still, I have little quarrel with the Hall trying their best to honor worthy artists by any means necessary, and I see no reason why it wouldn’t happen again this year so it’s worth taking a look at acts with multiple past nominations that are not on this year’s ballot. The MC5 and The New York Dolls are both strong Early Influence candidates. I don’t know if you could truly call either of them punk rock bands, but both acted as clear bridges to what became punk. Fela Kuti is another clear choice, especially now as the Afrobeat sound has become increasingly prominent in mainstream American music. He could warrant either Early Influence or Musical Excellence.

Less clear is what the Hall wants to do with Chaka Khan. She has been nominated thrice on her own and 4 times as part of Rufus. She clearly has a lot of support, but not quite enough yet. Is a Musical Excellence prize in her near future? There are other acts who had collected multiple nominations a few years back but whose candidacies might still be active. War could qualify as an Early Influence, The Meters could warrant a Musical Excellence induction.

The Fosbury Flop

There has been a small number of athletes that were so transformative that they literally revolutionized their sport. One such athlete was Olympic gold medal high jumper Dick Fosbury, who passed away earlier this week.

Previous to Fosbury, the majority of jumpers took a relatively straight path to the bar and used a scissor kick to leap over it. After much trial and error Fosbury determined that the way to best optimize height was to approach at an angle and then make a sharp 90 degree turn before planting and clearing the bar backwards. This technique was dubbed, sometimes mockingly, the Fosbury Flop. He flopped all the way to a gold medal victory in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and as a result that style grew in popularity at an exponential rate. Nowadays virtually every world class high jumper jumps in this manner. Over the years there have been countless athletes that have succeeded at the highest level. Few made their mark the way that Fosbury did.

Final Oscar Thoughts

There are two perennial Oscar related postmortems that warrant mention. First off is the annual complaint over who gets left off of the In Memoriam montage. To be fair this is a thankless task for the producers as they need to honor background people who may not have been familiar to casual fans along with the famous actors that have passed in the previous year. Having said that every year there are multiple fans and more importantly surviving family members who feel disrespected by a particular omission. Sometimes those feelings are a little overblown. I mean, everyone loved Leslie Jordan but I never thought of him as a film figure. While watching this year it seemed to me that the montage ran significantly shorter than it normally does, therefore the list of those neglected was pretty lengthy. Setting aside Jimmy Kimmel’s Robert Blake joke, no Tom Sizemore? No Anne Heche? No Paul Sorvino???? Melinda Dillon was nominated twice, for Pete’s sake.

And then there is the quarrel about specific victors and who they defeated. All 4 winners in the acting categories were wonderful feel good stories, yet at the same time I can’t help but feel bummed over Angela Bassett. Just like Jamie Lee Curtis, she has been a much beloved star for years with a career filled with award worthy performances. I definitely noticed she appeared to wince when Curtis’s name was announced as the winner. Additionally I didn’t see the camera cut to her at any point during Curtis’s speech. Was she seething in her seat and the director chose not to show her, therefore creating an uncomfortable scene? I don’t know. Hopefully her time will come; Angela Bassett is one of our most talented actresses and it would seem wrong for her not to eventually win a trophy.

I don’t want the genuine disappointment over Bassett take anything away from Jamie Lee Curtis. I respect the hell out of both her career arc and her public persona. In an industry that frowns on allowing women to age naturally, she essentially said “screw that!” As too many actresses undergo bad plastic surgery or Botox themselves at a sadly young age, Curtis has always embraced the aging process. Her hair turned gray, so what? She developed wrinkles, no big deal. Why not make commercials for Activia? We all age, she takes pride in her maturity. Embrace that.

He’s Japan’s Problem Now

The last couple of weeks of spring training are often worrisome. The last thing a team wants is for a player to suffer a season altering injury when they’ve made it this far and the games that count are in sight. See Pedro Guerrero in 1986. This year that worry is stronger than normal, particularly on the pitching side. If a hole in the rotation suddenly pops up it must be tempting for teams to internally discuss one particular free agent pitcher. At the same time that possibility would cause a conscientious fan to fret “they would actually consider signing THIS guy?”

That’s now all off the board, as Trevor Bauer has agreed to terms with the Yokohama Bay Stars. Now that he’s gonna be pitching on the other side of the world, he will be completely out of sight and out of mind. Even if a team is tempted to say screw it and try to ride through the blowback it’s not gonna happen this year at least. Once again, good riddance to bad rubbish.

Championship Droughts

In recent years the “championship or bust” mentality has grown increasingly prominent. It makes sense, after all the entire reason to compete is to win. Where I believe it goes too far is when you constantly hear the thought that a season without a title is a complete failure. MLB & the NBA have 30 teams each, there are 32 in the NFL & NHL. Are you trying to tell me there are 29 or 31 fanbases in each league that are wasting time following their favorite teams each year? Of course it’s a great feeling to celebrate a championship but for all of us the majority of seasons end watching a different group of fans experience that joy.

With that out of the way, there are multiple teams for whose turn at winning a championship is long overdue. Taking MLB as an example, with 30 teams in the league it means that any franchise that has gone more than 30 years without winning that piece of metal can legitimately say “we need this.” 16 of the 30 teams have won at least 1 title within the past 30 years. Joe Carter touching them all happened exactly 30 years ago, putting them right on the border, so for the sake of this argument let’s say that fully half of the league’s teams are facing a notable drought.

Clip and save for future reference if you are looking for your “if my team won’t win I’ll root for these guys” bandwagon club. From the American League the teams are Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota, Oakland, Seattle, Tampa Bay, Texas, and Toronto. The Senior Circuit clubs in that boat are Cincinnati, Colorado, Milwaukee, New York, Pittsburgh, and San Diego. Some of these teams have more realistic hope than others, so choose wisely.

Revisiting Presence

The other day I felt like spending some time with an album I haven’t listened to in a long time so I pulled out my copy of Led Zeppelin’s Presence. This album has long been considered the runt of their catalog. Sure, it sold approximately a bajillion copies, but each of their other studio releases is brimming with multiple songs that are staples on classic rock radio, yet this one contains none of the best loved Zep tracks. You may occasionally hear Nobody’s Fault But Mine if the DJ feels like digging a little deeper, but otherwise this album hasn’t established much of a (clears throat) presence.

So, is the album worthy of a major reassessment? Yes and no. I like the throwback feel that Candy Store Rock has, but I wouldn’t say anything on the collection would be one of my 20 favorite Zeppelin tracks, or even top 30. At the same time, there’s nothing on it that makes me want to reach for the skip button. Yes, I can still say that it would rank as their weakest album, but it’s still a solid piece of work.

Fade To Black

If you’ve made it this far, you’ve already had a more enjoyable Ides Of March than Julius Caesar did. Too soon? Thanks for reading everyone.