Old School Minute - The Box

Now, before I talk about something really cool, I'm going to have to mention something pretty uncool. So, for some reason, a few weeks ago, this song popped into my head:

I have no idea why. But, whatever, it was definitely a very funny one-hit wonder from the 90s and listening to it again made me smile. But the real cool thing this song made me remember came not from the video directly, but from the logo in the top right corner of the video.

The Box was one of my favorite things about growing up in the 90s. Now, if you don't know what The Box is (or you want to take a trip down memory lane) check out this short Wikipedia article HERE. Cliff Noted, The Box was a music video channel. Why better than MTV? First, you didn't need cable to view it. Depending on where you lived. In Cleveland, I believe it was channel 23, and you could get it with just a pair of rabbit ears which was great for the music video lover on a budget (which me and my cousins who I watched it with were around this time). But even when I got cable at my house, I remember more than once unhooking the box to watch The Box. Why? Second, the viewers picked which videos The Box played. No, not in half hour chunks like Direct Effect or TRL, but always. It was like a music video jukebox controlled by people in your viewing area. Pretty rad even by today's standards. Basically, you would call up a 1-900 number and for a few bucks you'd pick a song and it'd play in about half an hour (give or take, depending on request traffic.)

I watched The Box a lot when I was younger, and like I mentioned before, it was a favorite with me and my cousins who I hung out a lot with in the middle school/high school days. Although we watched The Box frequently, we only called to request a song one time. It was “Champagne” by Chris Rock. It seems like an odd choice, but you have to remember The Box was so awesome, it rarely wasn't playing something we loved, so there was only one time we felt the need to take matters into our own hands. And in retrospect, the song is still pretty fucking solid. Now, when I first mentioned the song, you may have thought of “No Sex In The Champagne Room”. Not that song. This song was just called “Champagne”, and it was an insanely perfect parody of the the “shiny suit” era of rap music.

I don't know what's funnier, the fake Tiger Woods cameo or the real Nipsey Russell cameo.