Author: Francis Fay

Magic in the Hamptons by Social House ft. Lil Yachty

Remember that guy I told you about earlier who told me to “stop hitting the ball like a f****** p****?”

Turns out that guys one of my best friends.

We played a little together during high school but our friendship didn’t blossom until after. We’d spend the summers in between coaching for our alma mater as a way to kill time before next season.

He was our backup QB – a little flatfooted but dude could absolutely sling it. Also one of the brightest football minds I’ve been around.

I remember I actually got my license suspended heading into my sophomore year of college (one too many speeding tickets back at G-Vegas) and I made him drive all the way to pick me up before work.

He lived a block away from work.

Anyways, turns out those car rides we started to get pretty close. I guess there was some good that came out of a suspended license after all.

We started working out together over the summer. I was a DB but needed to get some cardio in, so I would run routes while he threw me the rock.

What started out as a summer workout buddy grew to a lifelong friendship in the Spring of 2020.

One day I was drinking a Pilsner, the next I was sent home. My abroad roommate was out that same night. Trump closed the borders and we were done.

The beginning of covid actually felt a lot like when Squidward moves to squidville. The routine of doing nothing with nothing to worry about was nice. All for about 4 days and I started to lose my mind.

That’s when my boy reeder and I had the summer of our lives. We were getting the band back together.

Just us, a ball, a speaker, and the skokie playfields.

We must’ve went out there nearly every day. It was like football was the boogie board we rode in the midst of all the craziness around COVID. It was one of the best times of my life. I’m glad I got to share it with one of my absolute boys.

Anyways, he played this song as an absolute throwback during one of our workout sessions. It always reminds me of a chaotic time, yet we made the most with what we had when all we had was a football field, ball, speaker, and an undersized slot with a flatfooted QB.

Solid Gold by PNAU

If you know me, you know I like to make people laugh. I like to say I have a quirky sense of humor… a quick wit.

For some it takes some time to get used to, for others they would rather I just shut the f*@& up altogether.

However, I came across my neighbor in college who got it right away. I’d say we share that among many other things. She might have a way larger sweet tooth than I do, but we’ve been close ever since.

My second semester of senior year, my core group of friends were fortunate enough to live across a group of gals in Pratt frat. We go on annual trips memorial day every year since post grad.

They say college is a roller coaster, but if you were there for it, second semester at my college was like raging bull at six flags except you didn’t have a seat belt. You were just holding on for dear life not knowing what to expect with COVID rules out the wazoo.

Deep into our last semester, we got word that tides would turn. An email went out that if we got our vaccines they would start lifting some mandates and we wouldn’t be held as hostages anymore.

My friend and I piled into her Acura MDX and headed for our shots. Sun was out, vibes were high, and we took the backroads all the way down.

She played this song on the way there. I had never heard it before, but it was the perfect vibe for a windows down drive.

At this point in the college rollercoaster, it was the equivalent of the slow ride up to the top. We knew the drop was coming, and no matter how bad we wanted to look back, we just enjoyed the last of the ride it had to offer.

We got our shots. We were free.

It also happened to be the first night we were allowed down at our local bars again. Our campus was located on a hill, and I swear it was like the stampede down to try to get any of the last spots on the outdoor patio. I wouldn’t have been surprised if we lost a few soldiers along the way.

Ever since this day, this song has been deep in the rotation ever since. It always reminds me of one of my closest friends, the friends I was able to make across the hall, and those last drops of the college experience I was able to soak in.

Sometimes living on campus all four years has its perks.

Running Out of Time by Tyler the Creator

I still keep in touch with a core group of friends from high school. We go on a summer trip once a year. It’s been a tradition since our freshman year of college. We still go to this day.

We decided to go to Windsor Canada going into our junior year of college. Mainly because the legal drinking age was 19 which was perfect.

It also happened to lineup with the debut of Igor, Tyler’s fifth studio album.

This trip was a little different for me than the debauchery that had occurred in the past. I remember my dad was so mad I was going. “WHY do you need to go to WINDSOR for your trip?!”

Dad…so we can DRINK!

We had a huge heart to heart. He’s been sober for my whole life… We have a little case of the Irish flu that runs in the family.

Even though I was allowed to go, I felt guilty the whole ride up. I made a pact to myself I would tone down on the debauchery for the weekend, almost live alongside the fun while still partaking, but not to the fullest extent.

Anyways, the album dropped I believe on a Saturday. Tyler sent out a warning that the best way to listen would be front to back with no skips. This would also not be like any of his previous work.

And he was right — it was better. Way better actually.

I will admit though, the first listen was confusing. I pulled up a chair on a dock that looked out on a grey lake out in Windsor and let the tracks run its course.

The album kicked off with the song he had rolled out with which was IGOR’S THEME. I remember watching the skit in my college dorm with all of Tyler’s yellow heads over the buzzing intro, with one peaking its head out just enough for you to notice it moving to the drums. Honestly, the rollout of the album was awesome between that and him falling off the ladder in A BOY IS A GUN.

Anyways, I sat out on that lawn chair on the dock and listened front to back. I didn’t really click for me at the time. I was expecting a combination of raps and bars, but rather got a story. A deep dive into Tyler’s love life. I love when artists take that leap into doing their thing. It’s like he’s had this in his back pocket his whole discography and finally felt comfortable enough to pull it out and share with the world.

It’s a beautiful album through and through. When I got back from Windsor I got really taking my dog on some long walks to kill the time while I was home and when I got to go back to school. Me and Brad man bumped a lot of IGOR that summer. I look back on that fondly.

Do Better by Ab-Soul

One of my favorite parts of music is the fact that you can follow an artist’s discography and see exactly where they’re at in life. Each album serves as a blueprint for their current state. If you put enough of them together, you can notice a few common themes between the bunch.

Take Tyler the Creator, Schoolboy Q, Mac Miller, and Ab-Soul for example. If you look at their work in chronological order, they all follow the same common themes: start out as chaotic (in Tyler’s case shock culture. Dude was rappin about some wild shit),rapping about the lavish lifestyle that comes with fame at a young age. Drugs, sex, you name it. But as time goes by, you notice they all gradually start to move to music on reflection/peace. Their voices, sounds, lyrics, themes all change. Some even start to sing. They grow out of their old shells and move to their wiser, older selves.

It’s fascinating to see the yin and yang of music and how it coincides with the way of life. Those who want chaos eventually want peace.

I’m happy to see that Ab-Soul is now thankfully in a peaceful state. For a long time, it certainly wasn’t that way.

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One of my best friends is getting married in a few weeks. He got a place back up in the burbs so I decided to go visit him. We watched a severance for 6 hours straight… one of my favorite nights I’ve had in a long time. I headed up around 1am.

I had this song on repeat the whole way home.

I’m not perfect by any means. The repetitive nature of the chorus does a great job of reminding me that. It’s something I say to myself often.

We all have our flaws, vices, habits. Some easier to share than others.

Right now I’m great – I’m “back” if you will, in this very moment. But these last few months, year, even years in a lot of ways, have been very hard.

I haven’t dealt with those hardships in the greatest of ways. I’ve let a few things linger. I’ve realized some of the greatest qualities about me sometimes bring out my worst habits. I’ve let my bad habits write checks that I’ve had to cash out on my behalf way too many times.

But, like all things, life goes on, and this too shall pass.

At this point in my life I feel the connection between the albums mentioned above. I’m fortunate enough to say I’m at a point where I can put the chaos aside and seek peace. I think the more battle scars I wear the more clear the picture becomes. It’s all about just putting thought into action.

Anyways, it’s comforting to know even my most streamed artists have their battles. Mr. Soul is one of the best to do it when it comes to wordplay.

Just another reminder that we’re never alone. You’re never alone.

Difference Maker by Needtobreathe.

Kairos. Senior Year. 2016.

I used to go on these religious retreats back in high school called Kairos. Students would gather twice a year to share witnesses of God all while spending three nights in Cabrini retreat center. A truly wholesome moment among the absolute chaos that is senior year of high school. A moment to not worry about what college you were going to attend or what costume you were wearing for turnabout to just be totally present.

I was a retreatant my junior year and then became a leader on the upcoming retreat in December (shoutout 47). They did a little ritual where they would kidnap the upcoming leaders in the back of a car with a blindfold followed by a celebratory dinner. A group of many different personalities with many different backgrounds all piled in the trunk of a suburban and went to ridgeview grill that night.

That memory sticks with me to this day. The relationships I made with my team stick with me for a lifetime.

The whole fall we spent getting together on Sundays preparing for the winter retreat. When I look back on this point in time, everything just clicked. I was in the midst of senior year football season all while preparing for this unique retreat experience shortly after.

The leaders gave these presentations called “witnesses”. They were essentially these talks we would present in front of the group where we witnessed God at some point in our lives. We would play songs in between to break up the speech.

One of my co-leaders picked this as her song. We weren’t particularly close – she was my high school ex’s close friend. I’ll also be the first to turn off gospel when it’s on the FM radio.

We ended up having a great conversation during the retreat out of the blue. I remember it vividly. I think that’s what drew me to the retreat – the power of presence and limitation can go a long way (limitation meaning not having our phones like we always do in life) in tandem with a draw to God’s word.

This song reminds me of a beautiful conversation during a simple time.

New Faces V2 by Mac Miller

“I was not on planet earth when I made faces. Nowhere close.” – Mac Miller (2014).

My best friend who’s the music nerd showed me this mixtape in a Subway in high school. One of the best summers of my life – nothing but riding bikes, jailbreaking phones (cause that was the cool thing to do back in the day), and sports on sports. A perfect summer encapsulated by a perfect mixtape.

It’s chilling knowing some of the best times of my life up to date were written while Mac was at his most desperate.

Actually looking back on it this was a mixtape era riddled with drug fused genius. Mac with Faces, Chance with Acid Rap, Vic Mensa with Innanetape. Each rapper had a story, and each drug served a purpose.

This song in particular is special because it had Earl. A young Earl, too. One that was hungry, like they all wanted to outdo the other. The whole song sounds like one big buildup, only for Mac to steal the show by the end.

I hadn’t given a whole listen of the mixtape since I heard it was getting released on Apple Music back in October of ’21 during my last semester of college. My sister was getting married that weekend so I was going to drive home from Ohio on Thursday.

I had gone out the night before driving 6 hours (smart man) and woke up in an absolute blender. I ran over to the gas station, bought a tin, coffee, yellow Gatorade, popped on Faces and made the trek home. I was catching up with a girl that night I had gone to college with and was couch surfing my roommates new apartment who had moved into the city alongside some friends home for another birthday.

I don’t know why I remember this so well. I think it’s because the core memory of this mixtape being played on my hungover ride home is intertwined with the memory of my sister embarking on a new path in life. One that necessarily didn’t involve me. On the same side of the coin, I was visiting my best friends who were once my roommates months prior. I had taken a fifth year to play one last semester of football while they decided to graduate.

The memory of this album being played while I went to visit friends and family starting new paths back home always sticks with me. I was on one path, some of the closest people I have to me were on another. Mac was there to bridge the gap between us as I drove home severely hungover that day. Almost like it was all going to workout somehow. I’ll always be thankful for that.

One More Drink by Ludacris ft. T-Pain

If there was a gun to my head and I had to rap one song.

Word for word. Bar for bar.

It would be this song. Without question.

Man…the memories of peak 3rd-4th grade. This is one of those songs that you idolize as a kid, singing every word without a care in the world only to realize the fourth grade you was absolutely wildin’ back in the day memorizing a song like this.

I’d also argue this was peak music video era. The video starts off with Kat Williams hosting a DDA meeting (Drinking Dates Annonymous) welcoming Ludacris to the group. From there Luda illustrates a beautiful disaster of his drunken fiascos anywhere from hooking up with a girl with a “mean overbite” to gnawing off his arm after a sloppy sesh. I’ll leave the link to it here.

We really need to bring music videos all the way back.

Anyways, I would go over to my best friends house and we’d spend majority of the morning watching Luda sip from a ginormous cup while T-Pain played devil’s advocate on his shoulder. Right up until we had to pile in his Nissan before little league baseball.

I like to put these songs in the “ignorant bliss era”. Are there any from yours you look back on and can’t believe you used to spit bar for bar back in the day? I’d love to hear.

March Madness NCAA Theme Song (CBS College Sports March Madness Theme Song)

I mean….cmonnnn do I even need to say anything else?!

Happy March Madness day, everyone. One of the best sporting events of the year, riddled with Cinderella and powerhouses going blow for blow while attending the big dance.

Before we even know it we’ll see the next Robert Mason, Jack Gohlke, Gordon Heyward, Norfolk State. We’ll cling onto it for dear life while we watch in amazement. Everyone loves a good underdog story.

This song and time of year screams nostalgia ultra (shoutout Frank).

Being in middle school in the computer lab doing my best impersonation of James Bond trying to override the WiFi code so we could watch ball instead of working on inquiry. One of my friends actually watched one of our teachers enter in the password. I still remember it to this day.

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Luckily the march madness website came out when I was in 7th grade and we didn’t have to worry about that. As long as you had a TV provider and a lookout for the teacher coming your way, we’d watch ball all day without a care in the world.

Those middle school relationships were special. I’ll have to write a tribute to the boys soon.

Flash forward to freshman year of college, March Madness always landed on the beginning of spring break. The coaches would have us complete a brutal workout the Friday morning before spring break every year, almost as if it was a get out of jail free card.

We called it “the trail of tears”.

To put in perspective, our strongest player ended up in the fetal position by the end. If you have ever met me, you know I am certainly not the biggest or strongest. You can only imagine what kind of condition I was in.

I was supposed to go home right after. Instead, me and my PC all went to tequillaville and watched the games all day.

Enjoy the day, family. Get those games on the other monitor and soak in the madness.

Willie Burke Sherwood by Killer Mike

I’ve been in a rut. This weather hasn’t helped either.

Sometimes I catch myself going through the motions. Others I find myself thriving. I guess sometimes it’s hard to find that consistency.

Luckily, I’m fortunate enough to have friends who tell me what I need to hear.

I was playing pickleball with one of my best friends. We’ve been 10-0 since we joined the league. He’s the better of the bunch, that said we really haven’t faced anyone worth a try.

But sometimes that’s the most dangerous place to be in life – the tallest midget. Thinking you’re good enough until someone punches you in the mouth. Everyone’s due for a wake up call.

We played a few exhibition games before heading home. Next thing we knew we were down 10-2.

My friend said “I’m going to say this as nice as possible…stop hitting the ball like a F****** P****.”

Boom – just like that I was up. A little rattled, sure, but I snapped out of it. I played this song on the way home.

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I’ve been a killer mike fan for a while. To me this is one of his deepest cuts. Rapping to his intelligent yet insecure young self about the rap path he will choose and what he will overcome. It’s a strong exercise to write a letter to your younger or future self. Like you’re writing in the mirror.

Sometimes you just gotta be the main character, play some killer mike and get back in a groove.

Bad Habit by Steve Lacy

My older brother hates admitting he’s wrong. I think he just has a hard time giving credit where credit is due.

There are a lot of things I look up to my older brother for, practically everything really. He’s really good at a lot of things. Very smart as well.

We cross paths on our taste in music from time to time, however it’s rare. He likes Dave Matthews, I like Mac Miller, we both like Jack Johnson which is a story for another time.

There’s a science to having the power of the aux cord. You need to have an eye and an ear alert at all times. One eye is on the road while the other is looking around catching the vibe from the passengers. When you get the “what song is this?” you know you’ve made it big.

I had that power when Steve dropped his most famous song, however this was before the TikTokers got their hands on it. I played it for my brother and I could tell this was the one he would finally add to his playlist.

A few weeks later, we all went to Starved Rock State Park which a trail about an hour out of the city. I took my old pup brad, he took his dog coco.

We had a beautiful sunset on the ride home. Joey had aux (rightfully so – his car) and had some oldies on. Out of nowhere, out came Steve Lacy.

Neither of us said a word. The music said everything that needed to be said on that ride home.