LOVESICK

Apparently, rapper Guru of Gang Starr would have turned 64 today had he survived cancer. Sadly, he didn’t (having passed at the age of 48)—but in remembering his musical legacy, I’ll always appreciate his albums Step In The Arena and Daily Operation with DJ Premier during their Gang Starr era, as well as his two volumes of Jazzmatazz, which helped bridge jazz and hip-hop closer together.

But the one track I was kind of obsessed with as a teenager was “Lovesick.” Though it had a simple, jazzy boom-bap sound (sampling The Delfonics’ “Trying to Make a Fool of Me”) and a pretty basic beat and rhyme scheme, there was a sincere, fresh quality to it that made it compelling at the time. It captured that early,’90s New York atmosphere—subways, basketball courts, cool looking baseball caps and jackets, and fresh vinyl and CD imports (The Adventures of Slick Rick and the Boomerang soundtrack, I distinctly remember) smuggled from America to Gloucestershire by one of our school friends returning from family holidays in the U.S.

It reminds me of us South West partial-wiggas watching Yo! MTV Raps for the first time and playing B-ball in hidden gardens near Randwick and Paganhill on hot summer afternoons—talking rubbish and daydreaming about girls at school. Often, I'd psych myself up by listening to that song on my Sony Walkman before the more competitive basketball nights run by my 'big bruv' at Roxborough House Youth Centre. I also included the track on an audio cassette compilation (alongside The Chi-Lites’ “Have You Seen Her” and The Pharcyde's “Passin' Me By”) for Gorodish to listen to in his apartment—between our NYC-themed movie sessions on his small Panasonic TV and VHS player, and while he was preparing to return to the Big Apple with his pal, Lloyd. I still clearly recall him telling me, upon his return, about his newfound love for Peach Snapple—how he and Lloyd would sit on the fire escape outside the hotel apartment where they were staying, drinking chilled bottles of them on hot evenings as they tried to cool off from the heat, like they were in their own version of Do the Right Thing.

Somehow, everything seemed connected back then in my mind—even the random little things but it's the soundtrack to those times that brings it all flooding back.

Strangely enough I've been struck
Affected by her smile
And yo, her style is worthwhile
And knowing that I'm deep like a river
I feel I should give her
Things that those others can't deliver

Happy days.