"Make 'Em Scream Like I'm Keith

If you let me tell it, ever since I was a kid I was destined to be a Major League Baseball player. Yessir, I was supposed to don the pinstripes as the shortstop for the New York Yankees. So yeah, Derek Jeter took my spot. No hard feelings though. He did pretty well I guess. Well, at least the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame thinks so. But I digress. All the way up until I was senior in high school I was a 3-sport type of dude. Baseball, Football and Basketball, yeah that was the ticket. Then there was one day I was chillin’ at home listening to the radio and I hear this ad lib in a monotone voice, “Ooooh! Oh yeah.” It was fluid over what was considered at the time the newest sound in music. When I say probably 90% of the top R&B songs on the charts was produced by this kid from Harlem and leader of the iconic R&B group Guy. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m talking about the one and only Teddy Riley. The creator and pioneer of the sound called the New Jack Swing.

He has broke hits with some of my favorite artist such as Michael Jackson, Mary J. Blige, Heavy D., Al B. Sure, Guy, Redhead Kingpin, Wrecks-N-Effect just to name a few. But the one artist and song that changed everything was from another Harlemite by the name of Keith Sweat and the song was called “I Want Her.” I have always loved dancing. I will goes as far as to say I am a dancer to the depths of my bones. It felt like the timing of this song was coinciding with the fact that I had a crush on who would eventually become my high school crush. It felt like each melody, each lyric was telling the story of how I was feeling about this girl from high school. You know those high school crushes. They basically haunt you through your teens especially if you don’t act on them. Oh man and this song had a break I felt was specifically for dancers and pictured choreography in my from the first time I heard it.

This song made want to be an artist and a performer. Sports were the furthest thing from my mind. And of course like any other real life high school-teen movie there was a talent show. So I got together with two of my best who were also dancers and I talked them into performing “I Want Her” and along with another dance routine for the talent show. We agreed I would do the lead vocals and I brought to life the choreography from my mind to life to excitedly teach my friends the piece. We worked so hard on this song and finally came the day to perform it. The nerves, the jitters and the excitement all boiled in one which also was a performance for my crush who I knew would be in attendance.

I couldn’t make this up if I wanted to but the day of talent show my crushes little sister wanted to come to the show. She’s always been my little cheering section to gain her sister’s affection so I told her I would pay for her taxi to the show. When I taxi arrives I go out to pay the taxi for her and I hear a familiar song start playing from the auditorium. Low and behold it was Keith Sweat's "I Want Her!" So I grabbed my crushes little sister and ran to auditorium. I told her I had to go. I looked on stage and my buddies were looking lost because they were forced by the director to go out before were scheduled to perform.

So yes, you guessed it. I ran down the aisle and jumped on stage making it look like a part of the show while the crowd went bananas. The relief on the faces of my friends were priceless. We gathered ourselves and we rocked the stage. I'll never forget one of my classmates who pregnant at the time screamed, "After I have this baby, I'm yours!" My crush was enormed by our performance which changed our relationship for the better. This also when I realized I love the reaction from the crowd when I hit a homerun. But there is no feeling and I mean no feeling like the crowds response from a concert. Until this day and this many years later "I Want Her" takes me back to when I was a teenager bitten by love, music, and performing. The Craig Mack line from "Flava In Ya Ear" (Remix), "I step on stage and make 'em scream like I'm Keith" are the realest lyrics I've ever heard.