Summer Hip Hop Cooking Playlist with Foodie and DIY Chef Mecca Bos
Summer is here, and if you’re cooking or BBQing at home, you need a hot playlist for that hot kitchen! As always, Loud News Net has you covered with Mecca Bos’ summer hip hop cooking playlist on Spotify.
Upbeat Cooking Music – Food and Hip Hop belong together
“A cooking playlist is different from a regular playlist,” Mecca Bos elaborates from her South Minneapolis home. “First of all, I wouldn’t even want to cook without a playlist. At every restaurant I’ve ever worked in, music has been absolutely integral to the experience, and anyone in the restaurant industry knows that morale is ALWAYS tied to that radio. Don’t ever take away a cook’s music!”
If you can’t take the heat…
Mecca Bos is a freelance food writer, podcaster, blogger, influencer, and DIY chef based in Minneapolis, MN. She was raised on St. Paul’s East side. Her articles have appeared nationally and internationally for VICE, Travel & Leisure, TASTE, and many more. That’s a back catalog of magazines with impressive pedigrees, but Bos’ style is totally unpretentious and deceptively laid back. Deceptively, because a Google search shows she’s been a prolific foodie tastemaker for more than a decade. But in the age of, umm…Instagram injuries… there’s something refreshingly simple about her social media feed, too. Pictures of kitchens that look like real people use them to make food; food that gets eaten with love, not just photographed and reposted. If you look up ‘down-to-earth’ in the encyclopedia, you might just find her social feed, including her Patreon.
Music is the vibe
“If you’re gonna do some heavy-hitting cooking, hip hop and salsa are my playlist recommendations. I might even fuck with some Coltrane, but that would have to involve cooking for a handsome man,” she laughs. “I gravitate toward hip hop that’s a mixture of classic 80s & 90s stuff that I grew up with, tracks from 10-15 years ago (like Kanye’s heyday) and a bit of the newer semi-top 40 stuff. So that’s how I made this [exclusive Loud News Net] playlist!”
‘California’, Childish Gambino
“This song is like fresh coconut water. I went to Belize for a month and tried to download music to my phone as I was running out the door. I knew I was going to be off the beaten path, and I wouldn’t be able to stream music. Managed to get just that one Childish Gambino album, and that was all I had for the whole month! So this became the soundtrack to my trip, especially ‘California’. And that trip came after a really difficult time for me, so for me, this song just ended up meaning freedom, happiness, and dancing on the beach.”
‘Beautiful Skin’, Goodie Mob
“For me, this one is about cooking dinner for a beautiful black man!” Mecca laughs. “Actually, I don’t like the lyrics about telling women how to dress, but this song reminds me how good it is to find someone you actually feel inspired to cook dinner for. Cooking for someone is romantic! I like when he says ‘you’re my sister, my lover, and my friend’”.
‘Might Be’, Anderson Paak
“Food is my love language; it’s how I show people, love, it’s how I show lust; food is my life. I love the lyric where he said ‘you ain’t live long enough to have a bitch this fine / all my chicks cook grits and roll blunts at the same damn time.’ That’s just hot! And I love it when musical artists put references about cooking into their songs in a way that’s classy. That’s just dope, and his songs sound so good! I’d make vegan grits and greens for Anderson Paak.”
‘Left My Wallet in El Segundo’, Tribe Called Quest
“One of my top songs of all time. The storytelling is masterful; it takes you on an adventure. And in that adventure, they go to a restaurant and order food! It’s exactly the right kind of song for cooking. My favorite line is ‘Ali said PAY for lunch / so I did it.’ It’s so good! And he left his wallet there because he was looking at a beautiful woman, which is so typical. Tribe deserves a permanent seat on your cooking playlist for this song! You just can’t dislike this song. It’s simple and elemental, like a good sandwich.”
‘Shoop’, Salt-N-Pepa
Salt-N-Pepa’s Ike Turner-sampling 1993 hit is one of Bos’ early favorites. “A classic! This is cake with sprinkles. Everyone likes cake; even if you don’t like cake, you’re still going to have a bite. Wholesome and fun. It’s like Little Richard said: ‘it’s gonna make your big toe shoot up in your shoe’. This song is so good, it takes me right back to high school.”
Keep it cooking and keep the music Loud!
Message from The Mean: There you have it, Mecca Bos’ summer hip hop cooking playlist. Dope to see some essential A Tribe Called Quest and local Minneapolis flavor of Atmosphere on the list. I dig it. Don’t forget to follow her on Instagram. Hopefully, these songs bring you smiles in this hectic time. Music heals. I hope everyone is safe and healthy. Follow us on IG, Twitter, and all other social media @loudnewsnet. Keep fighting for what is right. PEACE.
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