|
|
DJ Sensei Presents: Hip-Hop's Finest
Check this remix of Nas' "It Ain't Hard To Tell." Very ill and hard to find. Must have Real Player to listen to the song! Nas - It Ain't Hard To Tell (Dangermouse Remix) Raphael Saadiq - Sky's the Limit Yam Who Remix Nasir Jones - I Can (Creator's Remix) Slum Village - Fall In Love Pharcyde - Ya Mama (Remix) Pharcyde - I'm That Type Of Nigga Dilated Peoples - Marathon play 1 play 2 play 3 play 4 play 5 White label double LP of remixes by DJ Eli presents Cloudkickers Remix EP. Not much info on this, but heavyweight's all over this piece. Unreleased buja shots from: Big L, unreleased Nas!(1), Nas and Mobb Deep collabo!(2), quality MOP(3) (2 x's), Prodigy solo(4), Redman(5), Eve, Rocafella Fam (Bleek, Beanie, Emil, Jay-Z) and more. The overall production is excellent, giving an underground edge to the big mics. And in golden years fashion, Eli drops some amazing beat interludes a la Pete Rock and Premo. Heads wishing their favorite emcees would take it back a couple years, here's your chance. Definitely limited edition, get this mysterious double 12 inch set before it goes to white label heaven. play 1 play 2 Only the foolish will sleep on this one, a reissue of a highly coveted 1993 promo. Large Professor, "the dark vader," drops two crushing beats and fellow Queens All-Stars Tragedy and Havoc handle mic duties. "Funk Mode(1)" sees the live guy with glasses revisiting two of his favorite samples, Gwen McCrae's "90% of Me" and the stupid obese "Power of Zeus" drums, for a monster beat, while on "Pass the Tek(2)" intelligent hoodlum Traj goes it alone over Extra P's Loading Zone loop. Unfortunately we only get one version of each tune, most definitely not radio friendly and no instrumentals, but I'm not complaining. When this first came around as a promo, a few copies showed up behind the most connected counters, and those quickly disappeared. Act like you know. play play play play Not to be confused with the Extra-P files double vinyl, this 12" features a completely different set of Large Professor production gems. Ima gives this one my grab the girl like a six pack recommendation, cause it includes some of my favorite joints. Coincidence that they got Gangstarr's "Gotta Get Over Remix(1)," I've been listening to this Nas freestyle that I downloaded off the internet (cause that's what kids do these days), from the Stretch and Bob show that's got Stretch working doubles of the instrumental while Nasty flips "Memory Lane." Now I can bite that shit. Pho real though, this version might be one of the best non-Premier remixes of a Gangstarr track. That bass line!!! Daper. Also featured on here are 2 tracks from Mad Skillz first LP. Little bit of 95 refresher here, Mad Skillz took NY like a storm in 1995 with a freestyle he rocked on WKCR (available on the "Nod Factor" 12"). After the first single, everyone thought he'd be the next lyrical wonder (with an all star production cast a la Nas), but for some reason or the other it flopped in sales. I was feeling it personally and I ain't the only one that feels that way. These are 2 of the best tracks from the album: the Nod Factor b-side "Skillz in 95(2)" and "Extra Abstract Skillz(3)" feat. Q-Tip and Large Pro on the mic. "Git off the Bullshit(4)" is a lost Extra-P solo cut, not sure from where (Get Off the Bullshit by Large Pro is a track from his Geffen LP play (1) play (2) play (3) play (4) Ghostface is so Godly, it’s ridiculous. Somewhere along the way he basically leap-frogged over the entire Wu to become the crew’s #1 go-to guy, and why not? He sparkles like sequins on any track he touches; anyone remember what G-Dep sounds like? No, but ya’ll remember Ghostface’s cameo on the “Special Delivery” remix. This 4 cut EP brings together some essentials for the fall, beginning with the dumb hot “No Friend(1),” which I think is actually a Method Man song featuring Ghostface. The beat is bright and shiny enough to burn through S.F. summer fog, backyard party perfect. Of course you should all know that Beyonce’s hanging with Ghost and “Summertime(2)” is up next, inviting GF to sprinkle some of his magic on Beyonce’s ballad (was Jay-Z watching over?). All respect due to Jae Millz, whose version was a hot joint, but Ghost jacks(3) the same Studio One riddim from Dawn Penn’s “No No No” and nearly wipes the slate clean. Last but not least is the deceptively mellow “Box In Hand(4),” a slick number that has Ghost dropping some of this best lines on this EP, stuff you can’t translate to paper like “wrist location/keeps circulatin/my wonder twin powers/activation on this station.” What’s he talking about? Ghost could make anything sound hot. -O-Dub play 1 play 2 play 3 play 4 play 5 What a concept eh? New school phenomenon 9th Wonder, the production mind behind Little Brother, grabs the acapellas for Nas' God's Son album and remixes the whole damn thing with original beats calling it the God's Stepson. If nothing else, this has got instant intrigue going for it. It's tough to listen with a fresh ear to new beats under stuff that is already this familiar, but if you give it the time I think this project is quite successful. Forget about comparisons between these versions and the originals, cause they are two completely different things. And the sooner you accept that, the sooner you can enjoy this cohesive fruit. 9th Wonder isn't the kind of producer that makes "jump out your seat" beats or even furious head-nod beats. His stuff is more contemplative and subtly intricate, so there's no way his versions of songs like "Get Down(1)" and "Made You Look(2)" are gonna replace the originals in anybody's club crate. However, the backseat production matches Nas' tones extremely well and often lends new life to lyrics that got lost in overpowering beats. You pay attention more. It never sounds like he just threw Nas on top of something random- the two mesh in your ear effortlessly and the advantage of a one-producer album leads to an easy listen front to back. Also checkout "Last Real Nigga Alive(3), Warrior Song(4)" and his take on "I Can(5)," just for the curious. The only downer is that he had to use the clean acapellas for the whole thing, but it's really not as grating as you might think. There’s 12 tracks here, with “Heaven,” “Dance,” and “Zone Out” left off and “Ether” added on.
How you doin'? I'm DJ Sensei a.k.a. Yosuke Iwai. Born in Tokyo, Japan and raised in Seattle, Washington. Since 1993, "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) I have grown to appreciate the fascinating artform of insightful lyrical rhymes over phat beats, also known as "hip-hop." Many despise it 'cause they are ignorant to the fact that they assume "gangsta rap" is hip-hop and ignore the "art" of true hip-hop. We hip-hoppers know the deal, and the truth that some lyricists spit ill lyrics & knowledge, some are poetic, kick down phat beats, mixes & productions. What I have grown up listenin' to throughout my life are cats who bring meaning, depth and inspiration to their true fans. That's hip-hop to me. Come together globally as "we" expand the population of this genre & move into the next generation where hip-hop is incorporated into all types of music.
|
