“…Put on that Bobby Womack.”

Sometimes relating to how things were “back in the day” proves to be a bit tough for this 24-year-old.

For me, back in the day is my Beta copy of Ghostbusters, Food Fight for Atari and Prodigy on dial-up (not the rapper or dance group; the online service, young’n…).

Not to say I don’t understand the concept of reminiscing, for perspective’s sake. But a lot of the time, suggestive insight from my elders just makes me feel like my current generation is in some futuristic, hand-held micro-universe, just waiting to self-destruct.

For instance, when my mom says, “Oh, back in the day, we used to go downtown (Detroit) and do all our Christmas shopping.” To outsiders, that might seem plausible. To me, it’s Norman Rockwell. A cushy cover-all of how things were when times much simpler…and less boarded-up.

Still, ignorance is far from bliss and I do my best to get up to par on everything pertaining to my current foot by foot, even if it means digging through crates, my parent’s respective brains and my local public library’s…free Internet. Another more carefree, way I dampen my built-in in sponge is by sampling a vast array of music from all genres and time-periods.

One song, in particular, that takes me back to a time completely unfamiliar to these baby blues is Ahmad’s aptly-titled, “Back In The Days.”

Through his nasally-voice and over pronounced story-telling, the West-Coast one-hit wonder takes listeners through a temporary time-warp back to 1985. Over a knock-out Teddy Pendergrass sample, he begins his first verses by telling tales of BKs and Gazelles, ding-dong-ditch and JJ Fad’s “Supersonic” (all of which are things I was introduced to specifically by this song).

To conclude the 1994 crossover hit, the then 18-year-old South-Centralite recollects himself. He speaks, rather eloquently I might add, from a current perspective about how each morsel of his aforementioned upbringing and every decision he’s made since. Through the course of the song, he shows how these elements ead him on a path directed “on the way up.”

Yet, with seemingly better days ahead for a mind obviously capable of crafting hits, the Left-Coast emcee would eventually end up giving up rap to become a full-time minister. An insightful decision, to say the least. One he possibly might’ve regretted later in life.

So, even though sometimes Ahmad still probably sits to reminisce…he is a prime example of the term, “back in the day.”

However, his example taught me that things never remain the same. While the past is something to mull over and pull from, it’s also something I take it in stride as it applies to my daily routine. While we all relish in the ways things currently are, or used to be, for that matter, I feel we should never sit and reminisce too long.

If we do, we might just loose sight of what’s ahead, and that is truly the only thing that matters.

Ahmad – Back In The Days