Old School Mondays:: R.I.P. Teddy Pendergrass

These R.I.P. posts are certainly a double-edged sword, because although they usually allow me to post some excellent songs, it invariably means we've lost another legend. In this case the legend in question is Teddy Pendergrass, former member of the sublime Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, and of course well known for his own solo career. Sadly Teddy passed away last week at the age of 59 from colon cancer.

Like any soul legend active in the 70's, Teddy served as inspiration for beatmakers during hip hop's sampling heyday of the late 80's and early 90's, and although the list of songs I could find that sample his work is fairly small, there are some solid jams there. Anytime I think of Teddy Pendergrass and hip hop, I think of one song: Back In The Day by Ahmad, which is firmly entrenched in the "songs I look back on wistfully" portion of my brain (which is kind of ironic, as the song itself is about looking back wistfully). I've posted on Ahmad before, but not Back In The Day, so I'm happy to put it up today, despite the sad circumstances. Seriously, if you remember Ahmad, I'm going to guess the odds are roughly 2 to 1 that you say "Oh, I love this song" whenever you hear this one.

There's more Pendergrass-related goodness to be had though, a little D.O.C. anyone? If you know our history, you know that we take any chance to post some D.O.C., and so here's Portrait Of A Master Piece. You can add to that some gangster shiz from both coasts: Can I Kill It from Compton's Most Wanted and Mobb Deep's Cradle To The Grave. One has to think that Pendergrass might've had a bigger solo career without the car accident that left him paralyzed, but his catalogue is still very full and his life was, by all accounts very rich, pre and post accident. So RIP Teddy, and enjoy these songs.

MP3:: The D.O.C. - Portrait Of A Master Piece

MP3:: Compton's Most Wanted - Can I Kill It

MP3:: Ahmad - Back in the Day

MP3:: Mobb Deep - Cradle To The Grave

VIDEO:: Teddy Pendergrass - Love T.K.O.

Labels: Ahmad, CMW, Hip Hop, Mobb Deep, Old School Mondays, Teddy Pendergrass, The D.O.C.