Radio LBB: Generations of Felt

‘So, what music are you into?’ 

We’ve all had it, a question that rears its head in interviews, dates, around dinner tables and at any relatively new meeting of people and one that, personally, I find impossible to answer simply. 

Perhaps that is because of the job I do and the need to be something of a musical chameleon to do it well, or perhaps as I’d like to think anyway, it’s due to the expansive exposure I have had to music and the influence it had on me from a very young age. 

My Dad is definitely the linchpin to it all, a musical fanatic with a taste as varied as my own and never one to shy away from a party - music is synonymous with his every being. From an age earlier than I can remember he used to pick me up and dance around with any number of reggae, soul or rare groove hits playing, tracks like ‘Expansions’ by Lonnie Liston Smith, ‘Wicky Wacky’ by the Fatback Band or anything from Luther, Marvin or Bob Marley would fill the air (and the street) with their ‘smooth vocals’ or ‘wicked basslines’ and he’d be off. I often ponder on how much being rocked to sleep to whatever it was my Dad had playing could really have an effect, but one thing’s for certain, I absolutely love the stuff. 

Aside from funk, soul and reggae which I’d call a cornerstone of my musical fandom, I went through many different stages of ‘loving’ artists and genres, some which I’d be more than happy to talk about and some which I’d prefer we categorised under ‘guilty pleasure’. One such being Robbie Williams. It pains me to admit it but that '90s/early '00s Pop bug definitely got under my skin for a bit and in particular Robbie’s cheeky chappy persona just seemed to resonate. But, as quickly as I’d bought all the albums, or as quickly as I’d had them bought for me by my Uncle, I’d moved on. 

Amongst all the Robbie albums, my Uncle, seemingly attempting to save me from myself, also slipped in an absolute classic from De La Soul. ‘3 Feet High & Rising’. What. A. Banger. I’d never heard anything like it, parodying a game show, with lyrics tinged with humour and samples rooted in genres I’d loved for years, unbelievable stuff. Once I’d heard that all I really began seeking out was Hip Hop; Gang Starr, Tribe, Brand Nubian, KRS-One, Big L, Heltah Skeltah, I loved it all and the list goes on and on. 

This seemingly fed my taste for a while as through the 2000s, Eminem, 50 Cent, G-Unit & D’Angelo featured heavily on my new iPod, as well as a lot of the again heavily sampled R&B that was on the radio, which I’ll argue to the death was a helluva lot better back then. 

Finally, in an attempt to keep this concise, I’ll just quickly dip into my late teens/early twenties where electronic music and in particular dubstep and grime became a major influence. Skream and Benga, Newham Generals, BBK and DMZ were all favourites, anything with one of those basslines that vibrates your whole chest was good with me and the dark lyricism with clever wordplay resonated as it had done for me years earlier on the Hip Hop tracks of the '90s.

Now being that I am in my thirties this is not where the journey ends and I could go on to talk about Afrobeats, Roots Reggae and Dancehall, '60s/70s rock or the whole bag of guilty pleasures a lot more controversial than Robbie. However, as I said at the top - I find it impossible to really answer this question fully and concisely and rarely do. So whilst I go and have multiple ‘dammit, I forgot so and so’ moments perhaps this playlist will provide a better insight than I ever will.