“Jump” Kris Kross, #AtoZChallenge

“It must be nice to like Taylor Swift. There’s always something on the radio you’ll like.”

My 13-year-old daughter crosses her arms and stares out the window in a huff as I turn up “Shake It Off” for probably the thousandth time that week.

This is a pretty typical morning commute for us. My nine-year-old and I start to belt out whatever song Ariana Grande is singing and my 13-year-old turns it to the classical station just to piss us off.

She hates Taylor Swift. And One Direction. And Selena Gomez. And Justin Bieber. Her hate list goes on and on.

The list of what she does like is a lot shorter – Weezer and Cake. That’s about it. The music on her iPhone is almost identical to my CD collection circa 1996 (minus the Mariah Carey). And since most stations don’t play a lot of Weezer and Cake, the radio makes her very grumpy.

Or it did until a couple months ago. My brother Tim (see, I told you there were more) told me about a new classic hip-hop station in our area so I turned it on just to see what was playing. It was “Jump” by Kris Kross. My daughter didn’t touch the dial. She left it there for the whole car ride.

It turns out she likes classic hip-hop. Beastie Boys? She likes ‘em. The Sugarhill Gang? Yep. Run DMC, Young MC and MC Hammer? To be perfectly honest, I don’t think she’s met an MC she hasn’t liked.

As a peace offering, I’ve been making her a hip-hop playlist on Spotify. I included all the stuff my sister and I used to listen to when we were her age – DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince, Salt-N-Pepa, Rob Base, Heavy D and The Boyz, J.J. Fad. And of course,  Kris Kross.

 

 

Bonus Track: “Regulate” Sesame Street version

I’m not sure if you’ve seen any of these Muppet videos, but they are the shiz-nit. I kid you not. I know this doesn’t start with “J” but its fits in with the whole hip-hop theme and in my opinion this one is the best. You can find a lot more of these on YouTube.