June 23, 2008--Damn the iPod.

It will not now and nor will it ever be the cassette tape. Sure, it's fancy and plays music with a clarity that has yet to be surpassed. But a pod-mix just doesn't sound right. There is an art to making a mixtape, an ebb and flow. The beauty of it is that it makes the common man a composer. It blends the music and forces the listener to find the intended groove and see the musical vision.

My dad made mixes all the time. It wasn't so much a hobby as a carefully crafted surgical procedure. So this is my ode to the summer mixtape and to cassette tapes everywhere buried in boxes behind old times that spoke of restlessness and resilience. This is for the flowers that grow every year without insistence, and the breeze that moves without command. This is for summers gone by and the summers to come. This is my all-time summer listening list.  Now press Play.

TOP 5 SUMMER RAP JOINTS

1. "Summertime"

D.J. Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince

Summertime (the season) just called me and said this is the official anthem of its life.

(mix with Summer Madness—Kool and the Gang)

2. "Today Was a Good Day"

Ice Cube

Mama cooked the breakfast with no hog...

This is Ice Cube at his best, telling the story of a day where everything just seems to fall into place, which summer, in theory at least, is all about. The potential of summer is one long, endless day when everything works out, when the sun and the shade provide the yin and the yang.

This song holds in it the potential of an endless forever and foreshadows a kinder, gentler Ice Cube who would shift from hardcore gangsta rapper to comedic movie dad.

(mix with "Footsteps in the Dark"—Isley Brothers)

3.  "A Rollerskating Jam Named 'Saturdays' "

De La Soul

An ode to roller-skating and the relief of Saturdays after a long work week. It is the carefree playfulness that summer embodies. This song makes you want to dig out your rollerskates (real roller skates, not those ice skates with wheels) and Walkman and go bobbing down the sidewalk.

(Mix with "Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll" by Vaughn Mason and Crew)

4. "Paid in Full" (The Coldcut Mix)

Eric B. & Rakim

"Thinking of a master plan/cuz ain't nuthing but sweat inside my hand/So I dig into my pocket all my money is spent/So I dig deeper still coming up with lint"

The best ode to brokeness with a plan. This song is everything that a broke summer can been. It is the inner vision of a one-time stick-up kid who has renounced the seedy side of life to try to come up with arguably the best one-verse rap in the history of rap while managing to stretch this mix to seven minutes long.

(Mix with "Don't Look Any Further"—Dennis Edwards)

5. "Around The Way Girl"

LL Cool J

A girl with extensions in her hair...

This is an anthem to the quintessential summer lady who exists in theory. She is the woman who has a "Fendi bag and a bad attitude" and "Bamboo earrings, at least two pair." All while she is standing at the bus stop (hood rich!). She is not ghetto but she is quite ghetto-ish--maybe boughetto? She will get dressed up to walk around her neighborhood. And isn't this what lazy summer is really all about? Being dressed up with nowhere to go.

(Mix with "All Night Long"—Mary Jane Girls)

RUNNER'S UP

"Still Not a Playa"—Big Pun

"Beautiful"—Snoop Dogg featuring Pharrell, Uncle Charlie Wilson

"Flava in Ya Ear" (Remix)—Craig Mack

TOP 5 SUMMER CRUISIN' SONGS

1. "Cruisin'"