In 2016 I was working as a patient caregiver at a psychiatric hospital in Charleston, South Carolina. I got into that job following a couple years of complex self-improvement work and independent psychology studies. After a few months of successful employment, I started to consider how I could use the skills I was learning at the psych hospital to benefit more people. I figured if I could make a positive impact on those who were experiencing psychosis and addictions, then I could definitely help people who were facing everyday challenges.

I ultimately opted to perform street outreach. I printed a sign that read “Free Life Advice and Motivation” and I began spending one day per week on a street corner in downtown Charleston talking to anyone who came to me for my services. The premise was simple: I stood silently and waited until someone approached, then I let them discuss their troubles and served as a sounding board to help them reason through their problems and get motivated to address them. I accepted no money for my services and had nothing for sale. I ended up doing this for more than 125 hours over the course of a year, during which time I spoke to hundreds of people. The photo on this post includes an action shot of me. I wish I had that same energy and dedication today!

One time during my advice gig a middle-aged man approached and started recounting his past as a musician and his subsequent downfall from fame. He said he was once in a hiphop group with his brother, had a video on rotation at MTV, and even had an album certified gold by the RIAA. Having spent months working in a psychiatric hospital listening to everyday people tell me that they were famous actors, musicians, and world leaders, I quickly concluded that the guy was experiencing some kind of delusion…until he pulled out a sheet of lyrics he’d scribbled on a notepad and riffed a couple minutes of refined bars.

I went home that night and Googled around all the keywords he mentioned. Lo and behold, I found a 1989 MTV music video on YouTube for a song titled “Do It to the Crowd” by a rap group named Twin Hype, featuring a much younger version of the guy I spoke to earlier that day. They were an incredibly talented trio (counting DJ King Shameek) and I listen to them to this day. Shown here are sealed copies of their two LPs that I found floating around online.

As I’ve posted about earlier, I collect sealed music singles that are either personally meaningful or artistically timeless. Both of these are subjective, of course, and many will probably disagree with my judgment on the latter. Either way, here are some highlights from my growing collection.
My favorite one is “Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind, which I feel perfectly captures the simultaneous optimism and cynicism of the 1990s. It meets what I call the ‘Voyager Test’: A song I could provide to a future generation or alien species that epitomizes an era of American culture. Bonus points if the cover includes a KMart sticker.

I posted a couple months ago about my recent ‘discovery’ of hiphop group Public Enemy. At this point I have 15 vinyl singles, 5 vinyl albums, a handful of CDs/cassettes and 3 sealed live VHS tapes. I try to only collect sealed or promo copies because those are much more rare than open/regular copies. My crown jewel so far is a good condition vinyl promo of It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, which is widely regarded as one of the greatest hiphop albums ever.

I’ve picked up pretty much every album/song I’ve wanted so at this point I’m focusing purely on sealed and promo copies. Not sure when I’ll consider my collection complete, but that’s the fun of collecting. The ironic part about it? I don’t own anything that can play vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, or VHS.

Shown here is my growing collection of Public Enemy singles and promos.

I listen to many genres of music and while I’m generally knowledgeable about hiphop, I’m most familiar with rap released from the day I entered middle school to the time I stopped going to bars/clubs (so about 1998-2013). The only old-school hiphop I know well is NWA and its associated West Coast OG acts.

That changed a few months ago when I stumbled across the music video for Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” on YouTube. I’ve known about Public Enemy for years thanks to playing hundreds of hours of Tony Hawk 2, but I never sought out Public Enemy music so their catalogue never crossed my horizon. I was immediately amazed by the sampling, lyrics, and overall ingenuity of “Fight the Power”. It felt transcendent of time, as if simultaneously vintage and futuristic.

That started me down a Public Enemy rabbit hole. Although only a handful of songs speak to me, I regard the ones that do (“Fight the Power”, “Hazy Shade of Criminal”, “Welcome to the Terrordome”, “By the Time I Get to Arizona”, “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”) as musical masterpieces. I set out buying any singles and promos of these songs that I could find, keeping a special focus on buying sealed examples. I feel that singles celebrate a landmark achievement and deserve to stand on their own; plus, singles and promos are significantly more rare than albums.

Yeah boyeeee!