C-Bo - Money By The Ton - 1998

C-Bo - Money By The Ton - 1998

“I put it down, pound for pound, surrounded by the millions

Fancy cars, movie stars, tryin to make a billion”

A few months back one of my best friends, Galen Kennedy, passed away. We had been speaking occasionally — having conversations about how hard it could be to navigate the world, future plans, interpersonal frustrations, and — as always — rap music. I’d had the idea for this little newsletter for a while and was trying to convince him to partner with me. I felt it would be a fun distraction from some of the issues he was dealing with, a constructive direction to channel one of his passions, and a good excuse for us to be in contact more regularly. He was reluctant to commit to the project but that didn’t stop him from occasionally sending me like, 30 songs in a single evening  — YouTube links, audio files, or whole zip folders full.

Galen was the first person I lived with when I moved out of my parents’ house and had a huge impact on the person I ended up becoming. We looked and acted like brothers, and would celebrate birthdays (“Boyce Street Boss-querades”) together since ours are a day apart. We also shared similar anxieties, neuroses, and sleep issues. I jacked slang, dance moves, and a large portion of my sense of humor from Galen. It was through him that I first heard drum and bass and industrial music. He loved Joni Mitchell too, and rightfully gave me a bunch of shit for listening to Beach House. His knowledge of rap music was impressive — he’d done these deep dives into different regional scenes and was always torrenting, researching, and burning people CDs. C-Bo’s 1998 hit “Money By The Ton” was a favorite of his, and he played it often in our apartment.

I’ve been listening to it a bunch lately and thinking about a particular night — Galen sitting quietly at the kitchen table surrounded by little scraps of paper, drawing and chatting. He was calmly waiting until midnight when his direct deposit would go through and he could go to the gas station for a beer. When his paycheck touched down we made our trip to the store, likely grabbed bottles of Red Dog or some kind of malt liquor, and played “Money By The Ton” off a torched little speaker while drinking them on the walk back. C-Bo’s rapid-fire list of the luxuries money can provide paired with Mississippi’s soulful singing set the mood perfectly for payday. We were living pretty trife at the time, but that night was all Versace cologne, million-dollar homes, big-bodied coups, and whatever else C-Bo was talking about. Life’s a trip! I would’ve never guessed an anthem about stacking up literal tons of money would end up making me want to cry whenever I listened to it.    

One of the hardest things since Galen has been gone is discovering a song I know he would’ve loved and not being able to talk to him about it. The goal of the newsletter is to continue the tradition of our correspondence by sharing songs paired with quick, informal write-ups. I’ve been putting off getting started, but today is Galen’s birthday so it felt like the right time.

Galen hanging with Cellski:

Galen and his Lil B skateboard: