Earlier this morning, as I sat in front of this very computer screen, trying to push through the disappointment of what happened in DC on Wednesday, I was going to write about the events that precipitated the Long Hot Summer of 2011 as this week’s Flashback Friday Moment. But, in listening to my Windows Media Player as I was typing, a track that I hadn’t heard in years started playing and it caused me to pivot completely. The track instantly reminded me of one of the most aggressive and reckless moments of my life. There will be another day, another time to cover the events that had me on edge for an entire summer. This week’s moment in the Flashback Friday series is all about Dwele’s “Know Your Name”.
How I first came across this moment? It all started on a Thursday evening in mid-September 2005. I was in my Moody Air Force Base dorm room doing homework while listening to whatever tracks were playing on Music Choice R&B Soul. I was in my zone…even had the red and black lights on. Then, it happened. Dwele’s “I Think I Love U” started playing and the beat instantly drew me in…so much so that I had to pause my homework and walk over to the television to see what new sound that was. I peeped the name of the album and did a quick Yahoo! Search, which revealed that there was a new album, Some Kinda…, was dropping on October 5. I copped the album from the FYE in Valdosta Mall and listened to it in my Pontiac Grand Am on the way back to my dorm. I was digging the opening track—“Holla”—on the strength of the Poppa Yo tribute and the smooth beat. I got to Track 3—“Know Your Name”—and I was captivated by the words. The beat made it that much better. I listened to the rest of the album, including “I Think I Love U”, which was Track 9, but nothing really stood out like Track 3…at least, not in the way it appealed to me.
What it meant to me then? Honestly, it was just another really good track on a really solid album initially. But then October 21, 2005 happened and that track took on a completely different meaning to me. What was supposed to be a simple solo dolo Friday evening consisting of me eating at Loco’s after which I would check out Roll Bounce at the Valdosta Stadium Cinema turned into me being peer pressured, by my colleagues in the CES Customer Service Office, into going to Rick’s Someplace Else nightclub instead. The change of plans and the extremely long wait for the women to get “club ready” led to me listening to the entire Some Kinda… album before we even made that trip down Bemiss Road. With the lyrics from several tracks on the albums fixated in my brain, I was feeling myself and made an aggressive play by dropping lines on a Valdosta State chick at the club and ended up doing some reckless: engaging in a one-night stand. It all kinda played out like “Know Your Name” too. In the immediate aftermath, the track came to symbolize a more loose side of myself that I didn’t quite think existed.
What it means to me now? I haven’t really listened to the track and the album all that much in the last few years…mostly because I feel it’s kinda dangerous. Like I wrote, it has me “feeling myself” when listen to it and I got a nice guy, gentleman reputation to uphold. It was good to hear it earlier.
