Clee: Hey LaJuan. I say HEY Juan. Juan, take those dang headphones off your head son. Man, you can't even hear folks when they're speaking to you.

LaJuan: Oh yeah, What's up Mr. Clee, fellas. I was list'nin to this slammin mix by Coolio.

Clee: OK... Man Coolio did alright on that music awards show after Stevie Wonder bailed him out. But the live musicians, those violins, were kick'in too.

Ron L.: Stevie always sounds as good live as he does on records. I don't know how he does it.

Clee: From the minute that song started, I thought that if Stevie were there it would be righteous and...

LaJuan: Wait, hold up Mr. Clee. All my momma talked about was Stevie Wonder singing Coolio's song. Why do y'all think that old head should be with my boy on stage.

Clee and Ron L.: Ha Ha Ha Ha...

LaJuan: What, what's up?

Clee: Juan, homey you don't have a clue. Stevie made that song twenty years ago.

LaJuan: Huh, I thought it was original music.

Ron L.: Little brother, what rapper do you know that has created his own music? And those braids, Stevie wore them years ago - he just didn't look like Buck Wheat about the head.

LaJuan: It just seems to me that y'all are just too old to even be interested in music.

Clee: Negro please. Now I was a rising buck, much like yourself, in the seventies. That's when I couldn't hear nothin but the sound in my "head phones" except of course all the babes callin my name. But I digress, anyway, seventies music was the best music ever produced by mankind. You see, man has had vocal talent ever since Adam and Eve but the instrument, recording and acoustic qualities never measured up. That is until the seventies. That's when all of the human, natural, and manufactured and technological entities were on one accord. The music was simply over whelming. That's why the rappers won't let it die. And now, the technology just simply overwhelms the vocalist. Electronic boxes have replaced musicians.

LaJuan: Yes sir.

Clee: Sounds like I'm boring you. OK, I'll leave it alone except for this one last thing. Three words, Isaac to Isaac. That "old school" is a tough jam but no body and I mean no body is supposed to mess with anything that the Isleys did in the 3+3 days. Those boys are messin with "Groove with You" and that is supposed to be an untouchable serious classic.

Ron L.: I knew I recognized that tune from somewhere.

LaJuan: I hear ya, but right now I'm gonna put these headphones back on.

Clee: Hey Jimmy, come on, you're next.

c. 1995, Thomas E. Smith.
From The Head Room. (Republished with permission.)