Crash

LPs : Flood :: MP3s : Crash

I'm still in mourning for my 500gig external hard drive that died in 2008 (or what I like to call it, The Crash of 2008). It was probably karma that took my precious mp3s away*, for what I have no clue. What I do know is that I lost some great tunes I've been collecting for over eight years, most which I can't find again**. Like what you ask? Let me run down a list of some I could remember:

• various Prince bootlegs like Charade and Livesexy
• various Dilla beat tapes including the original Ruff Draft and Jaylib unreleased instrumentals
• some VonPea and Donwill solo tracks before they became Tanya Morgan
• some Dilla samples that were nicely complied
• some songs my friend in Akron made before she became a pastor
• instrumental of Little Brother's "Nic's Groove" as well as various LB and Nicolay tracks that were on #thatsite
• A DJ Jamad mix I used to play almost weekly
• A Brown Sugar Era D'Angelo song maybe only three people have
• A Nujabes album (RIP)
• the Samurai Champloo albums
• some japanese jazz albums
• various samples I used/wanted to use

Just typing those make me tear up. It's especially hard when you hear random people mention songs, you go to your music folder (or drive), and you get this.

I know various DJs who look down on mp3s and while I agree there is a warmth not felt through digital formats, mp3 collectors have more in common with their vinyl counterparts than both sides would admit. Both look for that one perfect tune. Both have a secret stash. Both can tell you a story about a particular acquisition. Most importantly, both love music.

But the one main commonality is how painful the lost of a music collection is, which goes back to the first sentence of this blog. In my hearts of heart, I still think Beats, Rhymes, and Life suffered when Q-Tip's wax collection got destroyed in a flood (or was that a fire)***. I remember reading that RZA got flooded THREE TIMES. I'm pretty sure at one point most of my favorite producers got hit with this causality.

With the advent of digitizing music and Serato/Scratch, vinyl collectors at least have a back up plan, but what about the mp3 collectors such as myself? What hard copy do we have of files we have a history/memory with? Easy answer would be to back up your files, but even that is not fool proof. I guess in time someone *coughGooglecough* will come up with a way to archive mp3s, especially with digital downloads are becoming more and more common.

Until then, here is a 40oz to pour for the mp3s that are no longer here. We miss you.

1Luv2U,
Prov!?

To Have & To Hold - Taster Tape from Jony Lyle on Vimeo.

*If you believe in stuff like that
**Actually I could, but that would be way too time (and money) consuming
***Remember this was around the time Tip was in his "hood" phase, making tracks like "Gangsta Bitch" (RIP Apache), Tiger's "Who Planned This", and Mobb Deep's "Give Up The Goods". Straight bangers