#365songs (99 / 365)

I spent a summer with the preposterously titled Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty and I still kind of regard it as an inflection point in my relationship with hip-hop. Previously, it was a "sometimes food" but after the immensely likeable Lucious it started to make its way into the regular rotation.

I don't know if I burned out on this album or if my tastes in rap just shifted — probably some of both — but I don't listen to Lucious much anymore; playing it while writing this, I'm struck by how Big Boi's cadences and delivery remind me of Deltron 3030, which is maybe why I had such a soft landing with Lucious.

I got into this album when I was in my 20s, working at Trader Joe's and doing some math tutoring, and so my most concrete memories of it are listening to it on the bike ride to and from where I did my tutoring, and putting "Shutterbugg" in a mix that I'd sometimes get to play at Trader Joe's before the store opened.

I had a co-worker there who was astonished that an egghead like me would be into Sir Lucious Left Foot and started calling me "Lucious" in a way that I think was about 70% affectionate and 30% making fun of me. Over time I got kind of surly about feeling stuck working at a grocery store and this co-worker started antagonizing me a little more, but for a while it was like: Finally. The appreciation for my eclectic music taste that I've always wanted and, frankly, deserve.