 The
Remix Albums
 article
0075 added
14.02.04 words Kobi
technical:
QED
2003 saw the beginning of the album remix
craze. Both established and up and coming
producers started snatching up acapella albums and adding their own
instrumentation to the lyrics dropped by rap giants such as Jay-Z and
Nas. By the time you read this more would have come out and they will
undoubtedly all be vying for their space as the heads’ favourite.
|
 God’s
Stepson -
 The
original. 9th Wonder of Little Brother proved his worth delivering the
beats for The Listening, an undoubted contender for 2003’s album of the
year. Nas’ a capellas are replayed over soulful instrumentals which give
the album more of consistent vibe but at times it suffers from having
its edges smoothed. While Eminem’s lumbering instrumental on ‘The Cross’
is transformed by lush keys and ’Last Real Nigga Alive’ makes you feel
glad to have ears, ‘Made You Look’ lacks the same impact you normally
expect after the opening shotgun blast. Not all of the beats used on
this project were exclusively created for it though as 9th freely
admitted (The beat for the cross surfaced again on his recent
collaboration with Pete Rock) All the a capellas fit snugly over the
beats which, unfortunately, was not a trait common to all the subsequent
projects.
|
Hova’s
Son -
 The
first of Lt. Dan’s remix projects, this features Nas over some of Jay-Z
best known beats. The Reasonable Doubt massive will be disappointed as
only ‘Feelin’ It’ from Jigga’s first album made the cut on ‘Dance’, but
Primo’s brilliant ‘Million and One Questions’ holds ‘Made You Look’ down
something lovely. The intriguingly titled ’Money, Cash, Hoes’ with its
hard beat and synthesized effects, is simple enough to give Nas lyrics
room to breathe on ‘Mastermind’ while 2Pac is reunited with his ‘Bonnie
& Clyde’ instrumental on ‘Thugz Mansion’. For all the trainspotters out
there Lt. Dan chops in bar long snippets of the popular songs of
yesteryear as Nas mentions them on ’Last Real Nigga Alive’ - so when
Biggie is mentioned, Primo’s sax stabs from ’Kick In The Door’ are
scratched in while a name check of Ghostface triggers Recon’s ’Ice
Water’. The album’s highlights, however have to be ’The Cross’ over ’U
Don’t Know’ which just makes sense and ‘Heaven’ over Timbaland’s crunk/circus
masterpiece ’Big Pimpin’. The vocals don’t quite sit right (what with
Nas’ sincere lyrics and the double time rap) but that beat still brings
a smile to these cynical chops.
|
Soulmatic
-
 This
is probably what Tony Montana wished he could have been listening to
when he saw that ‘The World Is Yours’ blimp. ‘Epic’ is one word that
springs to mind. ‘Cinematic’ is another. ‘Ridiculous’ is the one I’m
going with, though. Soul Supreme had previously laced the likes of AG,
KRS-One and Big Daddy Kane with beats on ‘The Saturday Night Agenda’ and
if that doesn’t convince you that the boy was serious then you may want
to consider choosing another genre of music as your preferred listening.
Like gabba. Stillmatic heralded a return to form for the lyrical
professor (“keep you under pressure“) and this project captures that
spirit well. The title track is reminiscent of the music played in
movies when the hero returns from a beating/ uses The Force / discovers
that he can see the world is an elaborate computer generated sham.
‘You’re Da Man’ freaks the same sample as ‘Right and Exact’ by Dilated
Peoples, while the soaring strings of ‘The Flyest’ featuring AZ, will
have even the most ardent Hovaphile’s eyes misting up. At a push, you
could say that ‘Destroy and Rebuild’ is a weak link in the chain but
even that will get you in the end. My personal pick of the bunch.
|
The
Brown Album -
 From
Jazzy Jeff’s crew and down with Little Brother, news of Kev’s remix
album surfaced around Christmas 2003. I was desperate to hear it but
have to admit I was a little disappointed. It’s like hearing The Black
Album with all the edges sanded down. ‘99 Problems’ purrs instead of
roaring, and despite the high reading on my in-built funk-meter it just
didn’t tug enough heartsrings. The rolling bassline of ‘Threat’ put a
smile back on my face, but the touchy feely neo-soul of Encore made me
feel molested. And as a rule I get on OK with neo-soul. The
introspective ‘Allure’ benefits from sounding like it was played on a
Rhodes in a basement café with the smoke of incense and ’jazz woodbines’
mingling in the atmosphere, though. Worth checking but by no means a
classic.
|
The
Black Jays Album -
 A
production team made up of Canada’s Kardinal Offishal and Solitair, this
project is an interesting one as the boy’s decided to take the 9 tracks
they remixed to the club - stopping at Timbaland’s yard on the way
there. As a result this album substitutes electronic riddims for the
soul backdrops found on so many of the other remixes. The reggae vibe is
completed by ‘Lucifer’ where Kanye West’s sample of Lee ‘Scratch Perry’
(fellow Piscean y’all!) and a new chorus is added. Not many of the
versions featured original input from the artists on the song structure
so you have to respect Kardinal and Solitair for going out on a limb.
Definitely one for the summer. While drinking rum.
|
DJ
Lt. Dan Presents the Black Album -
 Ah,
the little remix project that could. For me this album succeeded where
other Black Album projects failed because Lt. Dan, being a DJ was not
left as much space to make things difficult for himself. Quite simple,
really. Take a load of classic instrumentals and slap Jay-Z’s acapellas
over them. You want ‘Change Clothes’ over ‘Punks Jump Up’? Today is your
lucky day, luv! Always thought Jay should have been on hand to murk
Biggie’s ‘Unbelievable’? Will there be anything else, sir? Lt. Dan even
has the temerity to throw in a skit culled from LA’s Wake Up Show, which
finds Jay being lambasted by an irate backpacker (If you listen real
close you can probably hear him counting money while the “true b-boy”
berates him for reaching Puffy-esque levels of popularity). DJ Lt. Dan’s
effort is solid without a doubt, and to an extent the nerd from the skit
has a point - It would have been ill to hear Young Hov over this calibre
of beat first time round, but this is definitely a case of better late
then never.
|
Nastradoomus
-
 Doesn’t
the thought of this one just excite your inner backpacker? The Metal
Faced Villain teams up with God’s Son. I hate to rain on parades but
this project was not all that it seemed. It was not handled by MF Doom
himself - the folks at hiphopsite.com made their own remixes and then
sought his permission to release it. The result is the one of Nas’ least
successful albums (minus the mediocre beats, obviously) over Doom
classics. You really shouldn’t need me to tell you that it’s fire. ‘God
Love Us’ is meshed ‘M.I.C Line’ by The Monsta Island Czars, ‘Last Words’
is mixed with King Geedorah’s ’Fast Lane’ while ‘Blaze A 50’ rides on
’Rimes Like Dimes’ . The one song, however that stands head and
shoulders above the rest of the ‘remix’ tunes I’ve heard has to be ‘You
Owe Me’ featuring Ginuwine over ‘I Hear Voices’. There is some kind of
warped genius - maybe even witchcraft - behind this mash-up which
combines Doom’s loopy 70’s porno/cartoon soundtrack with Nas in full
club mode. I’m sure if the mask he was wearing at the time would allow
it, Mr. Dumile smiled when he heard this. All of the acapellas fit
neatly over the tunes apart from ‘Blaze A 50’ which comes off a little
odd as (this is the nerd bit - pay attention) ‘Rimes Like Dimes’ is a 3
bar loop, but you’d have to be pretty tight to complain at length about
it. One to track down.
|
Nastradoomus
2 -
 Not
quite sure of the tip this one’s on. A few of Nas acapella culled from
tracks he has released throughout his career from ‘One Love’, to ‘It’s
Mine’ with Mobb Deep (Doom’s version is a thug disco classic). Newer
efforts such as ‘The Flyest’ slide on here as well - but the project
ends up a little directionless without an album structure. There are,
however. more than enough bangers to keep you entertained.
|
Soul
and Sense -
A bit of a greatest hits package, this one. The be-hatted one mentioned
that he might be going back to his “bitch and wine ways” (and rumours
suggest a return to the straight up boom bap of ‘Resurrection’ and ‘One
Day…’ on his next album) and recent appearances on Kanye West’s material
definitely show the man has not lost his edge. This project,
unfortunately, doesn’t command attention the same way Soulmatic does.
You’ve gotta bear in mind though that Mr. ‘Matic decided to go for
classics like ‘Resurrection’ and while you’ve gotta admire the man’s
pluck for trying to update them. But are classics meant to be updated…..
|
The
Grey Album -
 OK,
this one caught me completely from leftfield. The premise behind this
one is that DJ Dangermouse has taken all his sample material from The
Beatles White Album, hence the title. Clever, eh? This version is
serious though. DM may have unwittingly created a new sub-genre on his
remix of ‘Dirt Off Your Shoulder’. I’m calling it ‘Folk-jiggy ™’.
‘Change Clothes’ sounds like Dangermouse has introduced an MPC 2000 to
the Blackadder theme tune and he even manages to accommodate Pharrell’s
in- fashion-but-out-of-tune-falsetto (C’mon, tell me you don’t catch
joke at the thought of Baldrick singing “Sexy, Sexy”). ‘99 Problems’
finds Jay in rock god mode complete with a chugging riff and some pretty
nifty fretwork providing the backdrop for a trip down memory lane to the
Marcy Projects. ‘My 1st Song’ seems problematic for quite a few of the
remixes with Jay dropping a stacatto flow and DM handles it reasonably
well. Although many may think that ‘Encore’ could not possibly survive
without Kanye West’s anthemic horns, DM’s remix is reminiscent of
‘Takeover’ with Paul McCartney (?) on guest vocals. You’ll have to
forgive me - my Beatles knowledge is limited to Heather McCartney jokes
and the fact that John Lennon went to Amsterdam and got stoned in bed -
big deal. In keeping with the ‘Rawk’ theme Track 11 features a lot of
reversed instrumentation and vocals with Jay-Z offering to introduce us
to what sounds like “devil music”. Don’t listen to it. I did and I’m now
going downstairs to kill my family. In court I will blame rap.
|
The
White Albulum -
 Produced
by Kno of Cunninlynguists, the White Albulum is one of the most
individual projects to have spawned from the remix album phenomenon.
From the dramatic strings of ‘Public Service Announcement‘, to the
lounge lizard vibes of ‘Change Clothes’ complete with Kenny G style sax
(so you can “get your grown man on”), you get the idea that Kno sat down
as his production equipment of choice and decided to take Jigga
somewhere he had never been. There seems to be something about the tunes
Eminem has produced on these projects because they bring the best out of
these beat smiths. ‘Moment Of Clarity’ is so deep you could get lost in
it, while Rick Rubin’s 808’s are given the haul for shuffling samba
drums on ’99 Problems’. Definitely one of the strongest efforts.
|
9TH
Wonder Presents Black Is Back -
And so we come full circle, back to the man who started us off on this
marvellous journey. If you hadn’t guessed before 9th isn’t playing.
Lifting only the heaviest soul samples, 9th confidently stamps his own
vibe, meaning the instrumentation is both so ‘94 and present day at the
same day. All the tracks are present and accounted for here, where other
producers (e.g. Kev Brown, The Black Jays, Soul Supreme) left out some
of the tunes. More value for money over her folks! ‘Moment of Clarity’
chopped loop sounds like it could have flowed from Extra P’s fingers.
‘Lucifer’ is another favourite over here, rejigging DJ Premier’s from
D’Angelo’s ‘Devils Pie’, while the sparseness off the track gives the
lyrics enough room to breathe. 9th reworks his own ’Threat’ twice for
this project and while the first remix is more in the traditional boom
bap mould - it’s the second one that had me open with the lush strings.
“What More Can I Say?” (sorry), the man set the original standard and is
continuing to do so.
|
|
Other
projects to look out for:
- Artist Unknown: Operation Ironman
vols. 1 + 2 (Ghostface Killah and MF Doom mix project)
- The Black Tan Album: iLLMind
- T/B/C: DJ Premier (if
whispers are to be believed)
 Related
Links:
 
|
