Christmas Gift for Teenage Boy

December 9, 2004 11:57 PM

Christmas gift for a boy aged 13 going on 18? [+]

As far as I can tell all he wants to do is hang with his friends, listen to hip hop, and dream about being in South Central LA - which is hard when you're in Auckland, New Zealand. I really don't want to get him another hip hop CD about shootin' and rootin'. When I was his age I would have killed for a chemistry set, or a remote control car, or a microscope, but I don't think these things would go down well with this lad.

posted by TiredStarling to shopping (5 comments total)

Buy him any CD by Pitch Black (dub-techno-breaks) or The 88 by Minuit (breaks w. vocals). Teach the li'l bastid some local culture.
posted by i_cola at 1:01 AM on December 10, 2004

If he is into making up raps and beats or might get into it does he have any kind of recording device on which he can record and mix himself and his friends? A few Christmases ago I gave my (sounds similar) nephew an easy-to-use old lo-fi 4-track casette recorder (a Fostex X-15 that can bounce to add more tracks) and a pretty cheap microphone. It cost me about $50 and he immediately started recording himself and his buddies and was soon buying his own recording equipment. Now he is into ProTools and HD recording and he's teaching me stuff. He outgrew that scene and those friends but he still really loves recording.
posted by Cryptical Envelopment at 1:10 AM on December 10, 2004

How about an MP3 player to put his music onto? You can pick up a 128 meg one pretty cheapily (Creative NX or TX).

Of course he could already have an iPod mini - but if he doesn't have anything of the sort it might be a nice start.
posted by ralawrence at 2:21 AM on December 10, 2004

You should definitely check out the Creative Muvo NX and TX... I just bought one for my 13 year old brother and he loves it. You can plug it in to any computer (the player itself has a USB port on it and it doesn't require any software to use it) and download songs to it via drag and drop. He can make the ultimate mix tape with his friends' music any time that he wants to. They are getting really cheap nowadays too...just got a 256 with FM radio for less than $100 US.
posted by bakerwc1369 at 3:20 AM on December 10, 2004

Goin' on 18, you say? A subscription to Playboy.

(and if he were in South Central, he'd be wishin' he were back in NZ.)
posted by Doohickie at 6:52 AM on December 10, 2004