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But snap–watching it was like instant 1997. I’d forgotten pretty much everything about the song and its video, probably because I’ve talked or even just thought about the “Benjamins” rock remix maybe three or four times total since it was in heavy rotation. For instance, I had completely forgotten that the Lox was on the song at all, and that Styles P wasn’t. (By the way the new Styles album, Time Is Money, is pretty decent, with a good Talib/Hi-Tek collabo and an ominous, Scott Storch-produced track that makes excellent use of the late, great Gerald Levert.) I forgot how potty-obsessed the video makes Puffy out to be (foreshadowing!)–he enters the high school gym because he has to “take a leak,” and the cover band led by Puffy in disguise exits the stage for a “bathroom break.” I didn’t remember that Lil Kim completely won the “who got more of the rap cut out by MTV censors” contest, coming in with something like a full 50 percent of her verse axed. And like every other human on the face of the planet, I had completely suppressed any and all memory of the band Fuzzbubble ever having existed. You can find their Web site here, but I have to warn you in advance that clicking on that link will expose you to Fuzzbubble’s music.
Now, back to the forgetting.
