8.11.2005

Thursdays with Thurl

Hello, I’m Thurl Bailey. You may know me from the Utah Jazz, the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Utah Jazz. I am also an actor, a singer, and a motivational speaker. Your are now a guest in my palace of love. Every Thursday, only on FreeDarko.com, I will be providing the soundtrack to your lives. Specifically, I will be posting a few hoops-blogosphere-relevant musical delights from my archives. Let me now turn it over to my good friend, TrentonHasslesCarmelo.

Thanks, Thurl. So, that’s the deal. We welcome comments, suggestions, and requests. It’s hard to say exactly what will pop up on Thursdays with Thurl, but suffice to say, the selections will be more “What the Kidd Did” (Jason Kidd) than “Whats Up Doc” (Shaq/Fu Schnickens). More “Now You’re Mine” (Gangstarr) than “Basketball” (Kurtis Blow). And more Etan Thomas’ slam poetry than Wayman Tisdale’s smooth jazz. Oh, also, we are doing this sort of half-ass—through yousendit.com (no telling when the link might expire)—as FreeDarko is not a true audioblog. Before we get into this weeks goods, I want to remind you that if you search the FreeDarko archives, you can find previous audio posts, including the FreeDarko anthem, 4-Ize’s “Ron Artest,” Ultramag’s “NBA All-stars 1989” (courtesy of Cocaine Blunts + the only known mention of Randy Pfund’s name in a rap song), and Young Gunz’ laughable New Jersey Nets rendition of “Takeover.” With that said, let’s get into today’s gems:


“The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh,” recently re-released on DVD, is a cult classic (starring Dr. J and many other 70s hoopsters), with a ludicrous plot about some psychic named Mona (played by Stockard Channing) who advises that a struggling NBA club form a team of only players born under the sign, Pisces. The soundtrack is still hard to find, but I did manage to get my hands on this nice groove by Phyllis Hyman, which absurdly enough is a plea to the psychic, Mona, to guide the Pittsburgh team in the right direction. I would give my left leg to see this movie re-made with LeBron cast in the Dr. J role:

Phyllis Hyman – Magic Mona

There was a time—in the early/mid 90s—when hip-hop was good. It was a time when you would leave school in the middle of the day to cop Wu Tang Forever (cf. Catchdubs), when people thought Foxy Brown and Shyheim were the same person, and when Cypress Hill still had credibility. Around this time, I was buying on average an album a week, and I believe that period of reckless spending ended upon picking up “From Where?!?!!!” by (Mad) Skillz. It was with this album that I realized that punchlines and Large Professor cameos do not a classic album maketh. A lot of these albums were simply not timeless, with Skillz epitomizing this truth. However, the man resurfaced many years later with an unreleased album full of Neptunes gems, and for whatever reason (I can’t remember the backstory, but I’m sure you can google it), shortly after the 2004 NBA Finals, he released this mixtape diss to Shaq, enlisting the help of fellow sometimes-Virginian, Ben Wallace. My guess is that Wallace had no idea what he was getting into:

Skillz feat. Ben Wallace – Shaq Diss


This last one is a somewhat disappointing mini-bio of Kevin Garnett, done by Styles P (sometimes) of The Lox. It was included in a KG commercial for And1 Shoes, which indicates how old it is. For Timberwolves fans, this was a time of hope. It was also the last time Styles P would be even remotely associated with the state of Minnesota.

Styles P – Kevin Garnett Commerical

Thurl and I bid you adieu. Come back next Thursday for more instant classix.

6 Comments:

At 8/11/2005 11:34 AM, Blogger Ken said...

-I'm the hoopa
-hypa
-protected by viper
-when your on the hoopa yo you betta decipha
-in other words you better make a funky decision
-or i'm a be a Shaq-knife and cut you with precision
-forget Tony Danza I'm the boss
-when it comes to money
-I'm Mike Ditka's boss...

It's always has bugged me that Shaq rhymed boss with boss.

Not as much as when the Fresh Prince woke up the next day after being terrorized by Freddy and then called DJ Jazzy Jeff who informed us that it's 3 in the morning. But still..

 
At 8/11/2005 11:44 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I believe there was a cd called "The NBA's Best Kept Secrets" or something like that that had players rapping. I never found it just heard about it. I have however, had copies of Dana Barros and his hit "Check It" and Cedric Ceballos with his song featuring the godfather of Gfunk Warren G "Flow On". Good stuff.

 
At 8/11/2005 12:06 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

this site is so good.

 
At 8/11/2005 12:17 PM, Blogger Ken said...

I had it on cassette. Which was later seized by my friend's mom along with the first Spice 1 and the Menace II Society soundtrack. I never saw those cassettes again. That friend grew up to look like Lil Wayne (sans platinum grill) and is now in prison.

Did anyone ever hear the K.O.B.E. song? Or the ones that AI did that got him in trouble with David Stern? I missed those.

 
At 8/11/2005 12:44 PM, Blogger Brown Recluse, Esq. said...

i have both "basketball's best kept secret" and the kobe 12". i also have the mp3 of AI's song that i got from cocaine blunts a minute ago.

watch this space!

 
At 8/11/2005 1:00 PM, Blogger Ken said...

Does anybody remember Reg E.Gaines "Please Don't Take my Air Jordans" MTV Poetry Unplugged style. Reg E. Gaines would go on to be spokesperson for L.A.Gear's FLAK shoes. In the commercial he rhymed while sitting on the rim Michael Bivins style.

 

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