Sunday, April 8, 2007

My experimental phase


I really had many experimental phases in my life. There was a collector phase (which still lasts), football phase, artist phase, poet phase, and 3 music phases. My first phase was a collector phase, and I think we all had this phase. When I was a kid I used to collect cartoon figures and sticker albums like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mickey Mouse, He-Man...

Then when I was second grade of primary school I started collecting music magazines, and this lasted till second grade of high school. I spend too much money on these magazines, and all my relatives that live abroad, used to send me foreign magazines. In sixth grade I started to collect CD’s, by the time I was 18, I had around 200 CD, I would spend 100 KM on CD’s, everyone called me DJ, because I was a ‘’music database’’ for everyone, especially when I began to work in the internet club. Why did I say this phase still lasts, because now I collect tech stuff like mobile phones, memory sticks, digital cameras etc.., and I must say this is the most expensive phase I’ve ever had.

I also had a football phase, since my father played football for 30 years, he trained me, but soon I realized I'm not into football, and that phase ended. Then there was a poet and an artist phase, which also
didn't last long, again my 2 uncles were writers, and my father, brother, and uncle are artists, but these phases didn’t last long too. I can say I’m good with drawing, but I draw only when I need to.

Now, music phases. As I sad before, I had three phases connected with music, because my first experience with music happened when I was 4 or 5 years old. My brother who is 8 years older than me, really likes music, he has around 500 CD's, 200 records. So at the age of 5 I already knew songs by Pink Floyd, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, EKV, Azra.... My first music phase started when I was second grade of primary school, I liked this group called ET (Electro Team), their songs were half in Croation and half in English, ofcourse I knew all their songs by heart, I wanted to buy special outfits that they used to wear, just to be like them, I had all their LP’s, many posters etc. This phase ended when I was fifth grade, when I discovered Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, No Doubt, Hanson etc. At that time I used to listen everything I liked, but I had my two favorite groups, the Spice Girls and the Backstreet Boys, I’m so ashamed when I write this now. I had hundreds of posters, and all kinds of stuff with their picture or logo on it, again, my relatives from all around the world used to send me some material, and I traded with everyone who came from Germany, England or any other country. So I really had a lot of stuff. I dressed like BSB, and I had a hair style like Nick Carter, girls in school used to call me Nick. The funny thing was that I also listened to many other music types, back then and people were surprised, because of that. Fortunately this phase ended when I was eight grade. Why?

I discovered Hip Hop. Man, I was so into Hip Hop and all the music types that were connected with Hip Hop like Hip Hop Soul, R&B, Soul, Neo Soul, UK Garage (2 Step), and also some Raprock. It was all about Hip Hop in my life, clothes, hair styles, way of speaking, walking…. I had this friend Sanja, and I hooked her up to Hip Hop too. We were always together, rapping or dancing to hip hop, talking slang. We watched all the movies about Hip Hop culture, and we used to draw graffiti. We were always together, everyone thought that we were dating, but nothing ever happened between us, because I knew her since I was second grade, so she was almost like my sister. Since I live in a small town, people considered me a freak show, because of the baggy clothes, cornrows, skater and basketball shoes, hats, and caps. When I had the cornrows, people stared at me all the time. It was funny, I was the only one different in the whole school, all the other pupils looked the same. Me and Sanja also planned to perform Ready or not by the Fugees, on traditional summer New talents show in our town. I used to download beats from the internet, and we rapped to it. I remember when we watched the movie Save the last dance, we were mesmerized by the Hip Hop club Steps, ofcourse we watched many times to learn the moves, our dream was to make a Hip Hop party. I’m telling you it was all about Hip Hop, back then, Outkast, Fugees, Q-Tip, Common, Timbaland…I studied history of Hip Hop, I even did some classes in my school, because our music teacher didn’t know anything about Hip Hop, so she asked me to write a term paper about Hip Hop which she is going to use later on. I did that, and didn’t have to do anything else till the end of the year. Funny thing was that I didn’t smoke, drink alcohol, or swear, and I still liked Hip Hop, I just liked the music, and the culture of Hip Hop (graffiti, baggy clothes, hip hop dance..), I didn’t like stupid rappers, only those who had something smart to say, because in the beginning Hip Hop had completely different meaning and goal, than it has now. Now it’s all about how much money, girls and gold you got. In this movie called Brown Sugar, which was very important to me, you can see what I’m talking about. Main song in that movie was An ode to Hip Hop, song that I used to relate to, preformed by Erykah Badu, you can see the video at the end of this essay.

Looking back on all of these phases, I’m sure glad that’s something in the past. Experimental phase is something we all had, or still have in our lives it can happen to teens, and adults too. It’s the time when we experiment, when we’re trying to find ourselves. Experimetal phase can sometimes be dangerous, for example if you experiment with drugs, you can have serious consequences but mostly it’s harmless, and funny part of our life. I can’t really compare myself with Chaim, because my parents never banned me anything during my phases, they knew me, they knew I’ll never do anything bad. But I can compare myself with Chaim, at the time when I converted to Islam, although it’s not the same, because Islam is not a phase to me. I had the same problems he had, I had to hide my books about Islam, I had to hide when I prayed…until my parents find out about it. They didn't,understand Islam, they thought it was something crazy, but thanks to God, everything turned out right, and now they've accepted me as a muslim. To conclude I think that the purpose of an experimental phase is knowing yourself better. They say that picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s a photo of ‘’my phases’’ !(feel free to laugh :))


Love Of My Life - "An Ode To Hip-Hop" - More amazing video clips are a click away

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Salih.
I have promissed to put a comment on your blog. To be honest I haven't red all your posts, 'cause I don't have much time in this Internet club. Just to say I looovee your blog. And, just go on.O, and I like that photos of your experimental phase all collected in one.See ya in class. Dzeny

Sanja M said...

Nice pictures and blog