Drawn From Obscurity (Vol. 2) - THE NOSTALGIA

It's 2021. We have this COVID-19 ongoing now pandemic. We also have many self-proclaimed experts on the internet that seem to know THE TRUTH about everything. We also have conservatives, liberals, radicals... We have everything basically because we live in a multi-faceted society where everyone is entitled to and surely have their own opinion. So it seems only logical that it's hard to find understanding and animosity. There's an old saying in my country: ''where there are two persons, there are three opinions''. 

Still, there's one tiny bit of a thing every opinionated adult can agree upon. It's the fact that everyone of us has been a child once and they are nostalgic to specific things from their childhood. So today I want to use a specific record and reminisce about the childhood which in these turbulent times has been put aside a bit while we think about what's happening in 2020's. So let's dust off that ol' record and remember.

Everyone has their own good memories from the past. Depending on the country we live in and the culture, some of those things are related to what we are assimilating while growing up. Might be TV or movies, might be radio, might be toys, might be books. I don't know how many of guys reading this are from the UK, but our todays nostalgic trip should do it only for those of the Britain I guess. Others can try to relate and think of similar shows or books they loved when they were kids. 

So it's Roland Rat Superstar record from 1984. It has some rocky tunes, some funny skits, and, of course, a rap song. From the era when parody raps and abstract but still cheesy raps were popping up left and right. On the one hand, you might call this a way to profit on the entry of hip-hop into the global market any way you can. On another, it brought hip-hop closer to the kids like us back then. So it also inspired the future generation of rappers. No one has done a poll or something, but I assume there should be plenty British rappers to cite this cheesy choon as their early life influence (f.e. Tommy Evans). Maybe to some extent it even influenced Puppetmastaz - German hip-hop group comprised of... puppet characters. 

But in mid 80's, those creepy (by today's standards) puppets and cheesy raps were a thing. And child friendly puppet music albums were a thing even before the rap hit the record grooves. For American audition there were Sesame Street's Bert & Ernie, while UK had the Roland. I am sure other parts of the world had their own childhood heroes as well. I am certain that in 2010's and 2020's the puppetry is not doing so good, and kinds tend to be more reliant on TV cartoons, youtube animated kid shows and CGI on the Pixar or Disney movies. And that's actually good. That's because things always develop over time like the hip-hop went from party-all-the-time-attitude to the main music genre in the world and a part of economy. 

We will always have our nostalgic moments, and today's kids will have theirs. The only thing is not to take them away for them, and not to forget our own. And that's what will make us happy and help us along the way through what the adult days come forward with.  

Peace!

I will add few RRS album preview tracks below. If you interested in the full version, check links below: 

• T1 (MP3 320): LINK
• T3 (FLAC II): LINK

J (Olas un Bekons)