there's a 1st time for everything...

...1st crush
...1st kiss
...1st speeding ticket
...1st court date!

so its only right that the we kick off the season with...the 1st song, "The Lookout."

one day, it all stopped. i stopped listening to the radio and stopped watching videos on BET. truthfully i think i stopped watching videos when THE BOX was bought out and became MTV2. the available music choices no longer appealed to me. i found myself -- *gasp* -- becoming an adult!

eehhh...not really. i just didn't feel right complaining about the music that didn't appeal to me without atleast seeing if i could create songs that did! so i bought AcidPro and started making beats...sonically REPULSIVE, AWFUL beats! so i took a step back and started to rely on my fundamental knowledge of sound recording (its funny how you think you know what you're doing only to realize...you don't) and got better with each new beat.

a few months past, i start feeling limited with my use of samples and software. so i forked over some $$$$ and bought me a Roland Fantom-S...great b'day present! history repeated itself b'cuz my initial beats -- though sonically better -- sounded like a room full of 2nd graders with instruments on a sugar rush after recess!

Bayer? Excedrin? Ibuprofen? just make the noise go away!

and it did...eventually. i got to the point where i started playing tracks for friends who told me what they thought of my "creations." sometimes your friends ain't so forthcoming with honesty, cuz well...they don't wanna discourage you. so i took it as a good sign when nobody would immediately eject my CD from their car stereo.

confidence building, i purchased more gear and began some recording session. most of those sessions were attended by the Good Brethren Petey Jakes -- known to some of you as Panama Jackson, known to me as...Pimpion.

the innanet made Pimpion famous, it made him an author. he wrote for websites, he wrote his own blog! i contacted the scribe and asked him, "yo...have you ever thought about being a rapper?"

"not really. but i'm sexy," he said.

"okay? what the hell does that have to do with you rappin'?," i asked.

"i don't know," he replied. "i'm just sexy."

and if u ask him again, he'll tell you the same.

after sitting through several recording sessions wondering "why doesn't someone stop swinging that cat from its tail? oh wait...you're actually recording her vocals?", Pimpion -- inspired by the 69th Beat -- decided to get acquainted with the mic.

['til this day he is only one of two people to guess the sample in the 69th Beat upon the 1st listen]

"is this thing on?", he asked.

"yep. sure is," i said.

without a moments hesitation, Pimpion gave life to the plight of learned and well-meaning negro males everywhere!

streets is watching, but i'm watching back...
i don't tote no guns, no rocks, i rock a backpack...
i'm on the lookout for folks that don't know how to act...
i'm on the lookout cuz i'm young, gifted and black...

you can never forget your 1st, b'cuz the mere thought of it rekindles the memory that's so hard to let go.