Dig On The Smashing Pumpkins' "Siamese Dream"

P&B brings you the "Dig On" Classic Album Series. We'll delve into our vaults to discuss the records that have profoundly impacted our musical tastes. The albums we present are considered essential to anyone's record collection. In the end, you can't understand the present (or future) until you "Dig On" the past.

(photo via pushingvinyl.blogspot.ca)

"And it's a chance I'll have to take.

And it's a chance I'll have to break."

-Lyrics from The Smashing Pumpkins' "Luna"

Like many others, I associate music to specific memories and times in my life. There are albums that I can't even listen to anymore because I get blasted with some serious post traumatic stress (Sarah McLachlan's Surfacing). And other albums bring me to an amazing, happy place. "Siamese Dream" is one of those special records that uncannily make me calm and remind me of what it feels like to be swept away by a collection of incredible songs.

Dig On Bob Marley & The Wailers' "Babylon By Bus"

P&B brings you the "Dig On" Classic Album Series. We'll delve into our vaults to discuss the records that have profoundly impacted our musical tastes. The albums we present are considered essential to anyone's record collection. In the end, you can't understand the present (or future) until you "Dig On" the past

image via eil.com

When it comes to the music of Bob Marley & The Wailers, the album owned by most is the quintessential Legend, which contains a great cross-section of singles from albums released throughout the band's career.

But for fans looking for a record that captures the true spirit and essence of Marley's energetic live shows, Babylon By Bus is the way to go.

Dig On Black Sheep's "A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing"

P&B brings you the "Dig On" Classic Album Series. We'll delve into our vaults to discuss the records that have profoundly impacted our musical tastes. The albums we present are considered essential to anyone's record collection. In the end, you can't understand the present (or future) until you "Dig On" the past.

(photo via theemergingaddiction.blogspot.ca)

"Who's the Black Sheep, what's the Black Sheep?
Don't know who I am, or when I'm coming so you sleep
Wasn't in my room, wasn't in my sphere
Knew not who I was, but listen here"
- Lyrics from Black Sheep's "The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)"

This album holds a special place in my musical upbringing. It was the first hip hop album that I listened to from start to finish in the golden age of the cassette tape. Fast forwarding and rewinding was an art, but I never found a need to do so with this classic. At this point in Paq-history, I was a young teenager trying to break away from my parent's collection of classic rock records to find my identity. 91 was a special year in music and Black Sheep was at the fore front for me. This was the soundtrack for the summer of 92. My neighbours and I built a treehouse to this amazing album and I'm surprised that the tape didn't snap from overplaying. We put so many nails into that poor tree that I'm surprised it's still standing today. We had high hopes for our new floating base of operations, including multiple levels. In retrospect, "A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing" was the first true hip hop building block in my musical foundation.

Dig On N*E*R*D's "In Search Of..."

P&B brings you the "Dig On" Classic Album Series.  We'll delve into our vaults to discuss the records that have profoundly impacted our musical tastes.  The albums we present are considered essential to anyone's record collection. In the end, you can't understand the present (or future) until you "Dig On" the past

image via flipbundlez.info

Neptunes' Alter-Ego Project Provides The Perfect Soundtrack to 'Guys Night Out'

The Neptunes production crew, made up of the Virginia-based duo of Pharell Williams and Chad Hugo, took the R&B, Hip Hop, and Pop music worlds by storm with their signature production style starting in the late 90s and well into the 2000s.

Their production sound is instantly identifiable.  You always know a Neptunes produced track when you here it.  Smash hit songs such as Usher's "You Don't Have To Call," Jay-Z's "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It To Me)," Justin Timberlake's "Like I Love You," and Snoop Dogg's "Beautiful" are just a few of the joints that come to mind when thinking of that classic Neptunes flavour.

Dig On Led Zeppelin's "III"

P&B brings you the "Dig On" Classic Album Series.  We'll delve into our vaults to discuss the records that have profoundly impacted our musical tastes.  The albums we present are considered essential to anyone's record collection. In the end, you can't understand the present (or future) until you "Dig On" the past.

(Photo via cat-bluesstuff.blogspot.com)

"I've been working from seven, seven, seven, to eleven every night, 

It kinda makes my life a drag...

Baby, Since I've Been Loving You, I'm about to lose, 

I'm about lose to my worried mind."

- Lyrics from Led Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Loving You"

Led Zeppelin could be the "Dig On" artist for the next 9 post (ok 8...still can't get into "In Through The Out Door"..."Hot Dog"...really??), but I'll focus on "III" for this edition of our continuing series. I can't speak for Turnbull, but Zeppelin deeply influenced my musical tastes and set a standard for all rock music that I listened to following my dive into the band's catalogue. My introduction to "III" came via my uncle, who had an amazing vinyl collection.

Dig On Jay-Z's Unplugged Album

P&B brings you the "Dig On" Classic Album Series.  We'll delve into our vaults to discuss the records that have profoundly impacted our musical tastes.  The albums we present are considered essential to anyone's record collection. In the end, you can't understand the present (or future) until you "Dig On" the past

image via geminihiphop.com

Hip Hop Kingpin Becomes Affable Showman for this Intimate, Stripped-Down Performance

"Welcome to Jay-Z's Poetry Reading!"

These are the first words uttered by Mr. Shawn Carter as he takes the stage for what will turn out to be an exclusive, intimate performance.

Jay-Z: Unplugged, released on December 18th, 2001, is the record that changed my attitude towards the hip hop superstar.

Dig On Madvillain's "Madvillainy"

P&B brings you the "Dig On" Classic Album Series.  We'll delve into our vaults to discuss the records that have profoundly impacted our musical tastes.  The albums we present are considered essential to anyone's record collection. In the end, you can't understand the present (or future) until you "Dig On" the past.

(Photo via sweetmelissarecords.com)

"Spot hot tracks like spot a pair of fat asses

Shots of the scotch from out of square shot glasses

And he won't stop 'til he got the masses

An' show 'em what they know now through flows of hot molasses"

- Lyrics from Madvillain's "ALL CAPS"

My introduction to Madvillain came via CMJ, the must read music magazine/bible for college radio stations, which I read when I was Music Director at CKDJ in Ottawa. My curiosity was tweaked thanks to a picture of a dude wearing a metal mask and the other with a do-rag. The reviews on "Madvillainy" were all decidedly positive. So there I was, the music guy who prides on knowing all that is "cool", puzzled as to why I hadn't picked up this album yet.

In Which We Provide An Update On Elements of P&B Cool

(Photo via flickr.com)

I got inspired listening to some old records last week. I was dying to write about it, but didn't have the context or a good reason to post up on it. So I passed it by Turnbull and we both agreed that we need to show our love for the back catalog. Least to say that we were both in like Kanye West and an "artsy" nude female photo shoot. We are proud to present the "Dig On" series, which will be a bi-weekly post that explores the classic albums that shaped our music tastes. You can expect the first volume this Sunday, and it will alternate with the always wicked Friday Flashback.

(Photo via thecrashcity.com)

In other news, we added a new link to our approved blog section. TheCrashCity is a great site that brings together news with a focus on Hip Hop and R&B culture. Please make sure that you head on over and show them some love!

Finally, we are going to beef up some of the pages available on the blog with some additional content, particularly the "About Us" page. Get your subscription on to make sure that you stay in loop, whether it's via RSS, email, tumblr, twitter, facebook, google+ or a good ole bookmark in your inet browser of choice.

We always love receiving comments or feedback on what we're doing, so take a minute to drop us a line (paqman@paqmanandbull.com or turnbull@paqmanandbull.com). Think we missed out on an important story? We are open to ideas for posts. Wanna see more on a specific topic? Let us know. Do you think we should be more like Perez Hilton? That will never happen. Having said that...

-Paqman