Diggin' On you

I'm in quite the musical mood these days! Songs have been making me reminisce my past quite a bit, and I have to thank a fellow co-worker of mine for this blog entry! 

Last week, she put our satellite  radio on a "Groove" channel at the salon and believe it or not..NO ONE complained!! What a miracle!!! Usually, my co-worker and I will be at the salon for looooong hours to make sure we make our clients look their very best, and what give us inspiration to create different looks is MUSIC. Even though we sit on opposite sides of the salon, we'll communicate often when a certain song strikes a chord with us...and THIS song did just that:

Now where does this song take me back to??? 

1994/1995

I was 11/12 years old and back then, my T.V. shows consisted of Sally Jesse Raphael, Ricki Lake, Montel Williams, Living Single, the third season of The Real World (San Francisco), and music wise, R&B acts such as TLC, Boyz 11 Men, Brandy and Monica (then 14/15 years old) 

and Mariah Carey. 

TLC were on top of their game when "Diggin' On You" came out as their 4th single off their Diamond Ceritied album, "Crazy Sexy Cool". Following their third hit single "Waterfalls", "Diggin' On You" sealed their fate for the next 4 years until they came back with "No Scrubs" in 1999. The album granted them 2 Grammy Awards in 1996, stamping their name in the music industry permanently along with fellow girl groups like En Vogue and Salt-N-Pepa.

What was so cool about TLC was that they had both street and class mixed all into one. T-Boz had her deep and sleek lead vocals, with Chilli backing her up with the upper range hooks and of course, Left Eye with the crazy rap rhymes that have inspired so many other artists out today. In 1995, they were grown women that would make the cameras HOT and so many of my pre-teen friends fall in love with them (I of course fell in love with their HAIR..go figure right!)

I was able to develop great memories from this era of music simply because I was discovering who I really was as a person. Luckily, no falling in love around this time, but I was developing what kind of music I was really into at the time, I was learning a lot about AIDS/HIV thanks to Pedro Zamora on The Real World episodes, and I was growing to see where I fit in as a gay pre-teen (even though I was in the closet still). TLC for me celebrated individuality, sexuality and creativity on all levels and therefore their music and style really spoke to me in so many ways.

"Diggin' On You" is one of those songs that simply makes you just want to unmask that crush of yours that you've been mushing over in your head for months. Although instead of being the little heart warming tune most pop songs are, its smooth, keep cool vibe allows you to control those emotions and play it off safe and not uncontrollably shake up with butterflies in your stomach. You knew that if TLC can play it cool, then it was REALLY OK to be "Crazy Sexy Cool". 

TLC, you're still on the map of music, and us fans cannot wait until we see you on tour this fall, 

ALL 3 of you!