563 What's Real? (mixtape)
What is real? How do you keep it real? What is the real hip-hop? Questions
that have eluded and deluded hip-hop fans for many years now. Questions that
have lent themselves to a scene of purists taking themselves too seriously
and forgetting about the music. Which is what it is actually about really.
And that is real?
563’s first mixtape for over a year is a banger. It’s well-researched,
well-selected and with enough on there to keep you remembering why you love
hip-hop and rediscovering old and forgotten classics, B-sides and rareties
from the boom-bap era, the mid-nineties “golden age”. It’s a great concept
that is consistent and banging all the way through. You don’t dare doubt
563’s intricate knowledge of that period and you can’t really question his
selection. From an awe-inspiring (I know, I was there) acappella verse from
a Percee P classic to Pete Rock remixes of Lords of the Underground
favourites, the pace never really relents, even when it segues into grainy
freestyles between Nas, Mobb Deep and Raekwon. Buckwild’s remix of an Alkaholiks track, a great reworking of the forgotten but brilliant Busta Rhymes’
“Abandon Ship” reminding you why seeing him with Mariah makes me so sad
inside. My favourite is a DJ Celory remix of one of my favourite tracks of
all-time, OC’s poignant “Word…Life.” Even the well-known remix version of “Ain’t
Hard to Tell” by (Nasty) Nas feels like a forgotten classic, sandwiched
between others here. “Half-man, half-amazing” indeed.
563 deserves some serious props for this mix. As a package, it offers a lot
more than most random mixtapes of hot tunes that are a dime to a dozen out
there. 563 knows how to pick a concept (like he did with the “Yoga for
Health” tapes) and run the line with it. Even though, he shamelessly flaunts
his anorak-like knowledge all over the project, it is well-mixed,
well-selected, consistent, concept-packed and tight than a miser’s arse. If
you love hip-hop, you better buy this.
That’s what’s real.
- Nikesh
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