My Gen X Playlist: He Got Game – Public Enemy featuring Stephen Stills

I started playing basketball when I was 6 years old. All of my siblings played, too. Both of my parents played in high school and my dad played in leagues until he was almost 70. Over the years, dad was the coach and mom was the team mom. You can say we were a basketball family.

I played until my thirties. In the later years, we were more concerned about where we were going to eat and drink after the game than tip off.

I once played in a church league. I played for my friend’s church and had to make a conscious effort to watch my language. Before the game, one team opened with a prayer. At the end of the game, the other team closed in prayer. Nice. Our team had a rule. Whoever scored the least amount of points had to say the closing prayer. Needless to say, there was very little passing and a heck of a lot of three point shots towards the end of the game.

I remember the exact moment when I decided to hang up my basketball shoes. I managed to twist both ankles in a game the night before. Swollen ankles in work shoes, limping the streets of downtown on my way to the office. That sealed it. My basketball days were over.

Do I miss it? Well, yes and no. I miss the competitiveness of the game, but I don’t miss the aches and pains. Injuries take longer to recover as you get older. Now I’m good catching a game on TV or from the stands. Before we moved, we had season tickets to our college basketball team. It’s a little far to drive for a game now. Besides, I don’t mind watching from the comfort of my own home. Twenty five steps from the couch to the frig for an ice cold beer. Roundtrip, that is. That’s plenty of exercise for my game right now.

Public Enemy opened for a U2 concert I saw in Los Angeles. I wasn’t familiar with their music, I just remembered the guy with a big clock around his neck. Public Enemy created He Got Game for the Denzel Washington film. It’s a cool collaboration with Stephen Stills.

“The goal was to enhance [‘For What It’s Worth’], to take it to another level,” Chuck D told Rolling Stone in 2012. “I totally hate when somebody takes a classic and desecrates it. I like Jimmy Page and P. Diddy, but what they did to ‘Kashmir’ was a debacle. They are giants in their own way — and you can print this — but that was a fucking travesty. When I get involved with a classic, I knock the fucking ceiling out of it or I leave it the fuck alone.”

– rolling stone

I still don’t know much about Public Enemy, but this song is pretty damn good.

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For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

If man is the father then the son
Is the center of the earth
In the middle of the universe
Then why is this verse coming
Six times rehearsed
Don't freestyle much so
I write 'em like such
Amongst the fiends
Controlled by the screens
What does it all mean
All this shit I'm seein
Human beings scream vocal javelins
Signs of a local nigga unravelin'
My wandering
Got my ass wondering
Where Christ is
In all this crisis
Hatin' Satan
Never knew what nice is
Check the papers
While I bet on Isis
More than your eyes can see
And ears can hear
Year by year
All the sense disappears
Nonsense perseveres
Prayers laced wit fear
Beware
2 triple 0 is near

It might feel good
It might sound a lil' somethin'
But damn the game
If it don't mean nuttin'
What is game who got game
Where's the game
In life
Behind the game
Behind the game
I got game
She got game
We got game
They got game
He got game
It might feel good
It might sound a lil' somethin
But the fuck the game if it ain't saying nothin'

Damn was it somethin I said
Pretend you don't see
So you turn your head
Race scared of it's shadow
Does it matter?
Thought areparations
Got 'em playin' wit the population
Nothing to lose
Everything's approved
People used
Even murders excused
White men in suits
Don't have to jump
Still there's 1001 ways
To lose wit the shoes
God takes care of ol' folks and fools
While the devil takes care
Of makin' the rules
Folks don't even own themselves
Payin mental rent
To corporate presidents
1 outta 1 million residents
Be a dissident
Who ain't kissin' it
The politics of chains and whips
Got the sick
Missin' chips and championships
What's love got to do
Wit what you got
Don't let a win get to your head
Or a loss to your heart
Nonsense perseveres
Prayers heed wit fear
Beware
2 triple 0 is near

It might feel good
It might sound a lil' somethin
But damn the game
If it don't mean nuttin'
What is game who got game
Where's the game
In life
Behind the game
Behind the game
I got game
She got game
We got game
They got game
He got game
It might feel good
It might sound a lil' somethin
But the fuck the game if it ain't saying nothin

There's something happening yeah
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I've got to be ready
It's time we stop chilling
What's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Order that millennium
Just be killin' 'em
And that's scary
Like lies buried in a library
When did the state pen correct anything
When piles of us still be catchin' the bus
When stacks of cats still packin' laundry mats
Paid the preachers back but where the teachers at
I ain't even got to ask it
At who's underpaid and got fouled at the basket
I can't blame the envy at who be gettin' all the benjis
And takin' grants for granted
Last I checked pyramids weren't built like projects
Or on those government checks, ha
Modern day thugs ain't got no guts
Pardon the expression, under governor nuts
Last time in a church be the last time in a church
Dead pledged alliance to many CDs and movies
Leaving reality believing fantasy
Bleeding fatalities, too many formalities
Prayers laced with fear, beware
2 triple 0 is here

It might feel good
It might sound a lil' somethin
But damn the game
If it don't mean nuttin'
What is game who got game
Where's the game
In life
Behind the game
Behind the game
I got game
She got game
We got game
They got game
He got game
It might feel good
It might sound a lil' somethin
But the fuck the game if it ain't saying nothin