As I write this, it’s the morning of Father’s Day. My 4 year son is asleep on the couch where we had a slumber party last night and my wife is asleep. These early mornings are when I have time to spend with my music while I’m alone for a bit. And on this morning, there’s one track I am playing on repeat. It’s a track from Ed O.G & Da Bulldogs called “Be a Father to your Child” and it’s a song I play every Father’s Day.
It’s a track that I first heard back in 1991 while I was 11 years old setting up the VHS recorder so I could time it right to record the Saturday airing of Yo! MTV Raps. Yo! MTV Raps would air on Saturday mornings which would often be at the same time as Little League games or other youth sports I was playing at the time. Ed O.G & Da Bulldogs bust onto the scene with their single, “Bug-A-Boo” which is a track I wasn’t hip to way back then. Straight off the album, Life of a Kid in the Ghetto which dropped in March of 1991. But to get to the track “Be a Father to your Child” we can’t skip over this.
Just watching this video takes me way back to those Yo! MTV episodes and seeing Dr. Dre and Ed Lover doing their thing with various interviews of the who’s who of hip hop. It always gave me a great glimpse into the culture that I only got to experience in my Walkman. The next single from Ed O.G & Da Bulldogs was probably their biggest hit, “I Got to Have it”. Looking back at this whole album, these were great singles being dropped. Ed O.G & Da Bulldogs were from Boston, MA and at that time, nobody had made it from there.
The next single that dropped was the one that really hit me. The beat was jazzy hip hop at its finest… the lyrics were so good. the music video? on point… but the message… the message man!!! While I loved my gangsta raps, I also loved the different stories that emcees were telling in their tracks which exposed me to a world far different than mine. Pac had “Brenda’s Got a Baby” and Too $hort had “The Ghetto”… both tracks that I love. But then this track from Ed O.G & Da Bulldogs hit and wow… I saw the video at the same time of hearing the track for the first time and I was glued to the carpet I sat on right in front of the TV where the volume was low because I didn’t want my parents to hear that I was listening to rap music. Here is “Be a Father to your Child” which I play every single Father’s Day.
Every element of the track is beautiful. There just aren’t many 5 mic type songs where every piece of the track is perfection but this hits it out of the park. The message was so powerful. As an 11 year old I just knew my surroundings… My mom and dad were together and they were both very involved in my life. I honestly just thought that this was the same for everybody until I listened to lyrics of same of my favorite rappers and tracks way back then. When I learned that there were a lot of kids where their fathers just bounced it made me so sad. It made me feel for them and it made me grateful for what I had at home. This is why hip hop will forever be my favorite music genre. Sure the beats can knock and there might be a catchy hook or two that you remember but full compositions like this are what I’m here for as a fan.