high fidelity

ripping my entire 200+ cd collection has long been on my 'to-do' list, and recently, my current cd rack has been hitting its capacity. i finally got around to buying a couple new shelves for my cds, and i figured now is as good a time as any to get around to getting all those cds on my computer.

yes, i still buy cds. i think the artists deserve to get paid for their work. shit, they give me a lot ... i give a little back. that being said, i have nothing against downloading either. take zion i, for example. i downloaded their first album after a recommendation from a friend. since then, i've bought three of their albums and seen em live a couple times ... and probably more importantly, i recommend them to others. none of that probably would have happened if i hadn't originally downloaded their first album.

anyway, like rob from high fidelity (which is what i settled on), i found great comfort in sorting my music and find great comfort in knowing my musical collection is now organized exactly as i want it to be. since my last rack was almost completely full, i didn't have the free space to keep the cds as i wanted them in there, and i was growing more and more frustrated with not knowing exactly where a particularly cd was. with my new shelves now only being half full, i was able to get them exactly like i want. i don't sort my music chronologically or alphabetically. my grouping probably only makes sense to me and a few others. the cds are grouped by associations. for instance, there is an la underground group, containing j5, dilated, ozo (because of j5), beat junkies, etc ... an okayplayer group, containing the roots, mos, kweli, common, jean grae, etc.

a few thoughts:
- only two groups did not fit in a single section. the gang starr group, which include premier mixtapes and guru solo releases, and the tupac group. i have more than 15 cds in each of those groups, and it's fitting that they are my favorite group and my favorite mc.

- why did i buy the pj soundtrack and the space jam soundtrack???

- who is militia?

- my biggest challenge was figuring out where to put the beastie boys. i eventually settled with grouping them with the ny heavy hitters group, which includes rakim, krs, jay-z, redman, etc.

- despite long discussions over wingmen, i had no idea jerry bruckheimer worked on top gun. i noticed that fact on the soundtrack case, which is a great soundtrack btw.

... and now that i see so much free space on my cd racks, i feel compelled to go out and buy some new stuff. yes, i did preorder j.dilla's the shining and the roots game theory, but who wants to wait for those to come in (even though they should be here any day now). i think i'll stop by best buy today after work and pick up the new cut chemist and the new outkast. it's too bad i couldn't turn my change into a best buy certificate.