I read something that triggered a thought, that triggered a search on Apple Music, that was met with the old (and familiar) frustration - I have this on CD, but it’s not on streaming.

Just for kicks, and beyond pulling up the YouTube bootleg versions I assumed were there, I asked Perplexity about it.

Now, this doesn’t happen often, but when I went searching for the obscure early 2000s Def Jux rap group Hangar 18, AI was able to tell me that (paraphrased): “You’re right, they’re not on streaming platforms, but if you look them up under the artist name Alaska_Atoms you can find that record.”

It feels like one of those video game secrets.

The 80s kind, where the programmers would embed an easter egg that if you knew exactly how to term something, you could find it.

I don’t know if this is a label related thing or whatever else, but I do know it’s just outside of the normal search term territory and - I don’t care what the real story is (OK, I am curious, but) I just was excited to play the song.

See, when it was snowing, and I’d be out walking the dogs, I’d randomly think of this line, “I’m all ski’d up on a beatslope.” I always thought it was fun to say. I just thought of it long enough this morning to think about how I wanted to look the group and that album up, assuming I’d have to wait to find the CD in storage to actually hear it (unless YouTube could bail me out).

The record, named The Multiplatinum Debut Album, is as dated as it is misnamed. I mean that in the best of ways. Because the title makes me laugh and the songs are totally listenable, even if I think you had to be there to get it. Probably. In 2003, this was the peak lyrical miracle era. We were post-Black Star/Mos Def/look how far we can take this Kool G Rap thing, and in fairness, Atoms Family, which birthed Hangar 18, was a part of that 90s New York scene responsible for all of this.

I remember seeing Hangar 18 open at a show with some friends who weren’t all as into the underground stuff and a few of them LOVED these guys. I could see why. It’s like watching somebody with crazy technical abilities do anything. If you haven’t encountered it before, it is a - well, lyrical miracle of sorts.

Hangar 18 was basically the Big Pun “dead in the middle of little Italy” thing for whole songs.

And that’s how a line like “I’m all ski’d up on a beatslope / nose bloody, high elevation ‘cause the beats dope" gets stuck in your head. Oh, and I’m not convinced on the replay they say the word “dope” now? It’s so funny how that’s what my memory said but, 2003 was a long time ago, and Rap Genius is of no help. Paging Jeff C., if anybody knows, it’s you.

Anyway.

The song that made its way onto too many mix CDs of that era for me though was “Keeps It Movin'“

Listen to the vibes. Not those vibes. The vibraphone vibes. And the string hit. The idea that they started with a ridiculous SNL reference. It was simultaneously something my friends would make but also something none of my friends could quite pull off. It’s the kind of record that forms the best type of parasocial relationship, where you wished you did it and could brag about it. This was almost always the case with the stuff coming out of Def Jux in that era for me.

The internet time machine is mostly undefeated. You should search for stuff and see what memories come up. This one has me smiling ear to ear.

ps. And don’t even get me started about “Boombox Apocalypse” or the (related) Cannibal Ox/Alaska collaboration, “Atom”.