Talking to @JPederson96 in the super secret discord server (even more exclusive than secret slack) and the topic of Emo music came up. I expressed distaste at first, but then realised there was actually a few Emo and Hardcore songs I had a soft spot for. This got me thinking about how diverse my musical tastes actually are and how many different musical styles and scenes I've got involved in over the years, inspiring me to take a journey through my musical past. Shout out to the homie dimzy for being my muse on this one.

I was originally going to do this as one single post, but it's going to be too damn big and I'd really like if people actually had a listen to the songs, so I'm going to break it up into a series.

12 and 13: Eminem and Heavy Metal

Like most white kids growing up in suburbia at the turn of the millenium, I had a massive hard on for Eminem. The guy was actually pretty good back then - not quite sure what happened. This was one of his first joints I really enjoyed and think it still stands up: vinyl crackling, crunchy drums - this was straight up hip hop, not that comedic pop stuff he got into later:

This was also about the time Dre's Chronic 2001 dropped and I definitely banged a lot of that, as well as the D12 album Devil's Night. I don't want to get too bogged down in hip hop right now though, as this music became a huge part of my life later down the track and still is to this day.

Other than that, I played a whole lot of Metal - not straight up Death Metal, but the sort of stuff goths and elitist metal-heads look down on - Slipknot, Mudvayne and Sepultura's later stuff. Even though everyone hated it and it was widely touted as their worst album, I loved Sepultura's Nation:

Mudvayne's Severed from the LD.50 album was also a favourite, I was listening to this song earlier and again now and still really like it 16 years later. I love the contrast between the growling and singing (I guess this is what the goths hated?) and he even breaks into a sort of rap style at 2:03. As soon as I hear the intro riff to this I experience a wave of pure nostalgia and when the heavy guitars come in, I start gently head banging (more of an autistic rock XD):

As far as Slipknot goes, Wait and Bleed is probably one of my favourite songs, though I actually didn't hear this til later on - when I was 13 it was all about their second album IOWA. The little old lady who used to own the indoor skatepark used to bang this on a Friday night. I remember getting amped to this and busting massive indy airs over the fun box - damn son - what a rush! Here's People = Shit:

14 and 15: Tupac and West Coast Rap/G-Funk

Even though Tupac Shakur had been dead for sometime, he was HUGE at my school and the posthumous album Better Days dropped when I was in year 8. No one in my area played New York Boom Bap (more on that later), only those "queer cunts" one post code over played that shit - round my area it was all about that west coast G-Funk. Hit 'Em Up pretty much sums up the local vibe - this is why I never heard Biggie til later on - why would I listen to Biggie when Pac utterly destroyed him on this joint and I quote "fucked his bitch"?

This was one that would be played at every party - guaranteed: 2Pac and Dre's California Love. Even though it's rather light on the G-Funk whistle, this is what springs to mind when I think about west coast rap. In fact, when I mentioned to my fam the other day that I wanted to take a trip to LA and they asked why, I just put this song on:

Another absolute classic: Snoop Dog 's Gin and Juice. Whether you're sipping on gin and juice, or chilling with a beer and blunt, this track is the absolute shiznit - and they really pump that g-funk whistle!

We're already up to 7 songs and I actually want people to listen to each joint so I'm going to leave it there. Keep an eye and ear out for the next post in the series, where I'll cover the rest of my 14th and 15th years; my brief foray into Punk music and the start of my love affair with underground rave music: Happy Hardcore, Hardcore and Trance.

If you managed to listen to all these songs and enjoyed this post, please leave a comment below - I'd love to hear from you!