Photo by Jonathan Bachman
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I’d like to introduce a new segment to the Blog of New Orleans: D-West’s Ultimate Playlist. For the entirity of this season, we will be talking with the Hornets’ David West on a regular basis (around twice a month) about his greatest passion after basketball: music. For those of you who don’t know, West’s mother worked with Atlantic Records before he was born (she quit to be a stay-at-home mom and raise a future NBA All-Star). West also has his own recording studio in his North Carolina home where he produces beats for the heck of it. This week’s playlist revolves around the theme of songs that gets West pumped up to play - all explanations are from the man himself.
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- “Many Men” by 50 Cent – This is a song that’s been on my iPod since I got it. It talks about just understanding that no matter what kind of success you have there are always going to be people out there that don’t want to see you do well. There’s always going to be people out there that are going to doubt you and some that hope that you don’t do well. Not everybody is going to be a fan.
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- “Everyday Struggle” by Notorious B.I.G. – The same theme, I guess. It’s just the idea, man, every day is something new, every day is a different challenge. You just got to keep going at it. With those two songs in particular, just listening to what they’re talking about in the songs and trying to apply it to your life and interpret it the way you see it, it just drives you. You think about some things that you’ve been through in your personal life and with songs like that it puts you in the right frame of mind.
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- “I’m Illy” by T.I. – It’s the same type of song with that feel, it’s just a patter I have. You just feel the passion in his voice, you feel what he’s singing. When you feel it, it just sounds like it’s genuine, you know what I mean? When you listen to what they say, you can get a sense about whether or not an artist is being genuine. There’s two types of artists. For the longest time, music was an art form that people could express what was going on socially, what was going outside of newspapers or outside of what was being shown on T.V. They give a voice to people who don’t have a voice. That’s when you get a genuine artist, it’s a person that gives you an idea about a different perspective that they don’t get on a regular basis or that isn’t mainstream. Especially when it comes to hip-hop, when you get hip-hop in its truest form it’s people that are telling stories and relaying things to the public that you don’t see on the news or read in a newspaper. Then the other side is entertainment, just entertainers that don’t have a lot of substance, you just have to take it for what it is. Like Soulja Boy, he’s just entertainment.
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- “Let the Beat Build” by L’il Wayne – I’m feeling that new L’il Wayne track. I like the old sample that he uses and the way that old sample comes in and how that sounds.
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- “I Can’t Believe it” by T-Pain featuring L’il Wayne – You know he’s rapping about strippers and all that but I like him, I like the type of music he makes. Since I moved down to New Orleans, the type of music I listen to is still kind of the same. Coming down the New Orleans you may hear more Southern rap and Southern hip-hop, but I like what I like. But some of the things you can appreciate down here, some of the live bands that you hear. Whenever we have a Hornets event we always have a live brass band and that stuff is ill.
