Kick It To the Beat
J-Live
The Best Part, 2001

Last night I went to a fundraiser for a really talented musician (DJ/Producer/MC/Engineer etc.) and friend of mine, Probe DMS, who had a heart attack less than a month ago — at the age of 29. Crazy…also crazy is that he performed at it. Needless to say, it was a very surreal night (the post title is a paraphrase of something he said between songs).

The organizers didn’t state it explicitly but I’m pretty sure that he doesn’t have health insurance. The scenario sounds very familiar - “please support (artist name) who is battling (or recovering from) (insert health problem) exclamation point” and I always find them sad but this was the first time I felt connected. And that, in turn, made all of the people involved in other similar benefits a little more real to me. [Insert statistics-based political rant here] but really…what’s the deal with this country? We get a few things right (a few…not that many) but the fact that anyone can end up in debt for ten years-to-life for receiving a week or two of middling medical care…? It sounds like a jail sentence, right? In some ways it is…but you gotta wonder what you did wrong.

“Kick It To The Beat” is a minimal Pete Rock-produced “this is how hip hop is supposed to sound” track that Probe rhymes on with the inimitable J-Live. This was one of my favorite J-Live tracks (there are a lot to choose from) long before I even realized it was Probe’s verse that starts it off.

If you know Probe (or if you don’t) you can donate here.

>> songs are available for two weeks [6.1 MB]

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 15th, 2006 at 6:31 pm and is filed under Music Appreciation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.