i against i

Many years ago, I was probably in middle school, I saw a 30 second clip on MTV that blew my brains across the room. It was a grainy, black and white promo clip of "i against i" by The Bad Brains. I'm pretty sure it was my first exposure to hardcore punk. I'm not sure of the context that the clip was played in, but I remember feeling that I was on a mission from God. As soon as I had enough money saved up, I bought the first Bad Brains album. Through the magic of YouTube, I found that clip that had me so completely transfixed. I've since tired of hardcore punk. As has most of the world. But, damn, listening to the Bad Brains is like listening to Sam Cooke. It's so transcendant. They just completely went beyond what anyone else did with the genre, creating something timeless, exciting and visceral. Of course, as any one who spent so much of their early career melting people's faces off, they faltered later on in their careers. But, man, the early face melting is totally worth it.