When Sunday comes I know it’s still the weekend but also know I need to slow things down to prepare myself for the work week. I usually kick things off with a nice cup of coffee and clean up the living room from the night before. Nothing crazy… Just folding up some blankets and straightening up a bit. I might also get some ironing in which to me is one of the more mindful chores I have in my arsenal. I surprisingly love ironing! In the kitchen I put all of the dishes away and start to think about what I’m going to make for breakfast. But breakfast will have to wait as I like to let my wife sleep in. Once I know she’s getting ready to get up, I will start the breakfast process and get some tunes going on the Sonos speaker. On Sunday mornings I have millions of albums at my fingertips but it’s jazz rap that I go to in order to set the mood. It’s all about vibes for me and hearing a jazzy beat with some good lyrics gets me where I need to be on Sunday morning. And even better, my wife can vibe to it too. For this Sunday, I’m starting with “Not Really” from Homeboy Sandman.
So now the vibe is set for this Sunday morning. While you might just let your Spotify feed you your music I like to flip the script and use my memory to think of all of the songs that share this kind of mellow vibe that Homeboy Sandman got me going on. But I will go wayyyyy back to 1991 to “Peachfuzz” by KMD. While hip hop heads know all about KMD, KMD included Zev Love X and his little brother DJ Subroc. You probably know Zev Love X as MF Doom who has been putting in work in the culture since the late 80’s. Still active too! Props to the God! RIP Subrock.
Alright…. We’re now starting to catch a vibe so we gotta keep it going to set the tone of the morning. Here is “What We Do” from the legendary Roots crew. And I just found something out that just absolutely blew my mind. I have listened to this song at least 100 times and know all of the words. How did I not figure out that Raphael Saadiq was on the hook? This dropped in 1996 and I’m just figuring out that this is Saadiq? I love hip hop. The gift that keeps giving.
So now we’ve stayed on the East Coast a bit so we should start making our way back across the States. As we do, let’s drop off in Minnesota to hear what beat Ant has cooked up for Slug to rhyme over. This is “Sunshine” from Atmosphere. I’m going to assume that we all know this song but maybe not? This track screams summer and it pushes me to get done with my chores so I can begin to feel that sunshine on my skin. While Slug took off on his 10-speed on this track I’ll be grabbing my skater and hitting the smooth streets over by my parents house here in San Diego with my childhood friend Ryan and his son Zach. It’s quotes from Slug like, “The weather is amazing even the birds are bumpin’” that push me to go outside on a day like today.
Now that Atmosphere got me outside, I’m ready to have a great afternoon under the Cali blue skies. For those coastal vibes I can think of only one song that would fit my mood. Here is “The Wiz” from People Under the Stairs. Thes One really did his thing on this beat. Is Thes ever reads this, please get at me! Need this instrumental. Got big things planned for it. I hit you up a few weeks ago but it probably wasn’t the right timing. Soon it will be and we will be building together homie. Props to PUTS!
Have I mentioned that I’m OCD? Well, never clinically labeled this but to take you inside of my head, I am ready to delete this whole article and start over because the next video might throw things off. But nope…. I’m just going to keep going. Are you up on YBN Cordae? Yeah he’s a new cat but don’t let that scare you off. He reminds me a lot of Chance when Chance dropped Acid Rap. Here’s “Been Around” from YBN Cordae. Love the vibe he’s on with this.
To close this video mix out, I gotta kick the ball over to my man The Grouch who is from the Bay but now lives in Maui. The Grouch is a founding member of the Living Legends and the tone he set here isn’t just Cali. This is a global banger. Positive message, positive vibes, happy thoughts. Here is “Breath” from The Grouch. Corey, you inspired me to not care about the color of my skin and instead put all of my passion into the hip hop culture. I am successful in my career because of hearing your positive messages in your music. You’re not just a member of the Living Legends, you sir are a LEGEND.
Thanks for following along! I hope I was able to set the vibe for your Sunday with these tunes. Below is the full Spotify and YouTube playlists with nothing but mellow jazz rap vibes. Cheers y’all! Thanks for reading!