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  Release Date: April, 2006
  Website: Soul 2020 Website
  Label: Soul 2020 Recordings

Soul 2020 “Introducing Mike & Ike” Album Review
I’ve passed up a lot of opportunities in my life. Some have revolved around jobs that I wasn’t ready to take. Some have revolved around places I wasn’t ready to move to. And yes, some have revolved around feelings I wasn’t ready to acknowledge. But only over the past couple weeks have I realized how significant these decisions can be, and how easily things can slip away.

I guess this whole story begins about six years ago. It was around that time that I met a young lady who would become one of my best friends. Cool chick … you know, fun, smart, interesting, sexy. Just my type, too. But for some reason, I slipped into that friend zone somehow.

I must admit, a lot of it had to do with fear and insecurity on my part. I mean, I wasn’t trying to have no girl at the time. Just out of college, I was looking to start my career and accomplish things, not mess with all the trouble I thought a woman would bring. And after spending years witnessing the hell my parents went through, I didn’t really trust the concept of love or relationships. Like many hip-hoppers with messed up family experiences, love just didn’t seem feasible or realistic for me in today’s crazy and seemingly hateful world.

See, when critics of the hip-hop generation make their undereducated generalizations about the culture, they often fail to acknowledge one major factor of the generation’s experience: The Concept of Love. The hip-hop generation, more than any other, has felt the strains of broken homes and single-family upbringings; the strains of yelling, or fighting, or dishes breaking; the strain of witnessing a relationship fall apart. Now whether or not these critics may realize this, such experiences often leave young people in fear and disgust of love, a concept which seems to be glorified in theory yet often humbled in practice.

Therefore, in an attempt not to get serious but still manage to get laid from time to time, I kicked it with mostly shady chicks. You know, women who don’t know how to treat a man, don’t know how to act right, and don’t know how to show appreciation for a damn thing. Looking back, I think I did this purposely to prevent myself from having to man up and deal with something real. Perhaps that was that opportunity I just wasn’t ready for.

The Opportunist Hip-Hopper
Yet the whole time, I continuously noticed this friendship building to levels of major significance. Damn, man, I could talk to this girl about anything. Share any of my feelings without feeling like a punk or worrying about being judged or clowned on. Take her out and have a good time without feeling like I had to holler game constantly. And more than anything else . she read my articles. One of the few of my friends who consistently reads what I write. For those of you who are writers or artists, I’m sure you understand how important that is. It seemed like something that was probably going to happen eventually. That is, of course, until about a month ago when she told me she was moving to New York City.

For the first couple weeks, I tried to act like it was no big deal. I kept doing my thing, not really stressing the fact that my best girl friend was leaving. But it kept weighing on me, and I started thinking that I may have made a mistake by waiting so long. It was right around this time that I received an underground CD in the mail called “Introducing Mike & Ike” by Soul 2020 recordings.

As I do with new albums, I threw the disc in my car on the way to work and listened to the first minute or so of each song, until I hit track ten, a song entitled “Keep Up.” For some reason, I was feeling the vibe of the song, and decided to play it through. Man, I can’t even begin to tell you how much this song hit home with what I was feeling at the time. The following verse seemed to exemplify what had been going on in my head for the previous two weeks:

If you want it you gotta get it, life’s too short for playing games
Too short for pointing fingers, too short for naming names
Too short for wasting time trying to find things to blame
Too short to wait a long time to start chasing dreams
Or to spend your whole life trying to chase the cream
Just to look back, realize you never gained a thing
At least nothing you will carry to the grave
Live your own life, man, forget being a slave
I mean slave for the government, the sex, or the dough
Slave for that crack, heroin, or line of snow
Slave for the love of others who you’ll never know
You want to slave? Be a slave for your soul
And do what it tell you, man, it never lie
You’ll never know what could have been if you never try
I ain’t saying it ain’t hard, and that you’ll never cry
But if you stay scared of heights, man, you’ll never fly

I listened to the CD all day at work, and seemed to play track ten one hundred times. That night after work, my lady friend and I went to get a couple glasses of wine and I decided finally to “keep up.” I offered to help her move to the big city, and she accepted. From then, it was pretty much on. For three weeks, we ignored our fears and doubts and decided to be together, regardless of what we might have to face when I left New York City. And I gotta tell you, it has been among the best times in my life. I am reinvigorated. I am motivated. I am inspired and ready to make something happen again.

Time Don’t Wait, Homie … So Keep Up
But most of all, I have learned a very important lesson as relates to my life. The lesson that TIME WAITS FOR NO MAN. Never again will I pass up an opportunity like this. Never again will I let my fear and insecurities prevent me from chasing the things I want. And never again will I let something I want slide by me. Not without a fight at least. If I do, I am destined to live a life of unfulfilled regret.

Now I’m not trying to say that I owe this realization to the Mike & Ike album. I think these events were somehow intended to teach me this lesson about life. Mike & Ike just happened to be bumping in the background while all this happened. And that’s what good hip-hop does, at least that’s what it has always done for me. It helps me relax, speculate and go over things in my head so I can figure this shit out for myself. It is the soundtrack for the movie of my life.

So for all you cats who are stuck waiting for something, realize that time waits for nobody. Man up and make things happen in your life. Get up and move somewhere. Take that job. Tell your best lady friend how you feel. If you don’t, she might end up in NYC, and you might never have the opportunity to get that back. Peace.

Introducing Mike & Ike
As for the album, I can’t seem to take it out of my CD player recently. Although this article centered on just one song, the entire album is tight and noteworthy: Great soulful and jazzy production, good rhymes and lyrics, and a couple great deep and inspirational tracks.

But most of all, it all contains this same positive “Keep Up” frame of thought throughout the album. And after learning more about the two lyricists, I can see why. Ike is a high school teacher, and Mike is in medical school studying to become a physician. Their music is something they do on the side for love, and I respect that because I see myself in it. Like Mike & Ike, this hip-hop stuff is something I do out of love, not for money, and I truly believe that such contributions help the culture progress and will continue to aid its growth in the future.

So support real life hip-hop and check out Soul 2020 Recordings and “Introducing Mike and Ike.”