“I Confess” is a 1995 single released by Philadelphia rapper Bahamadia in support of her ‘96 album, Kollage. “I Confess” is as Q-Tip, would say, a fly love song, produced by Rap-A-Lot architect N.O. Joe. Joe provides a silky smooth backdrop with warm keys, tapping hi-hats wah-wah guitar and a bass line. The chorus is a sung interpolation of the first verse of “Let’s Get It On” that suites the vibe nicely:

I’ve been really tryin’, baby
Tryin’ to hold back this feelin’ for so long
And if you feel like I feel, baby
Then come on, oh, come on

“I Confess” got a second single release in ‘96 for a 12’ with remixes by the Roots and Erick Sermon. The Erick Sermon remix uses the same beat as Redman’s “Da Bump” (released the same year) and features a shorter chorus and adlibs by the Green Eyed Bandit. His beat has a thick bass line and eerie strings that works surprisingly well with Bahamadia’s buttery flow.

But the Roots’ remix is the real treat here, which pairs a live drums with a soothing bass line and woozy synths. Black Thought does very subtle backing vocals and doubles every line in a subtle but ear catching manner. This remix, more than even the original really captures the weak-kneed feeling of falling head over heels. Damn near perfect. Bahamadia even kicks 3 completely new verses and does the chorus herself:

I con-f-e-double es

Shorty show your interest/put me to a test

Yo my love/I con-f-e-double es

Don’t compare ya to the rest because to me you are the best

I can’t find an mp3 of the Erick Sermon remix (listen on YouTube) at the moment but readers, feel free to share in the comments.

Download: Bahamadia – I Confess

Download: Bahamadia – I Confess (The Roots Remix)

Like my beats harder than two-day old shit

Reviving a long-dormant ML feature, which I haven’t done for almost a year now. For those new to Remix Tuesdays: each RT post finds me discussing a song and a remix of said song, comparing the lyrics and production of the OG to the remix. Today’s subject is “Oh My God”, a single released off Tribe Called Quest’s 1993 album Midnight Marauders in ‘94.

The OG “Oh My God” is an upbeat head-nodder, credited to A Tribe Called Quest (which means Q-Tip did it!). The beat is driven by playful horns, a dusty, winding bass line and crisp snares and kicks. Busta contributes a typically animated chorus that just involves him shouting the song title over and over again.

The “Oh My God (Remix)” can be found on the “Oh My God” 12’ and CD single, and is also credited to ATCQ. The beat is more reserved, replacing the energy of the original with cool keys, harder drums with hi-hats and a creeping bass line. An echoing sax that enters on the chorus, which is performed by Tip instead of Trevor. The drum pattern switches up slightly for Phife’s verse. Tip actually kicks a couple more bars after the nine he does at the end of the original; nothing too special, since he mostly just shouts out NY boroughs and tells the listener that he’ll see you next LP and next cassette!

I’m more partial to the original “Oh My God” because it’s a bit brighter and catchier, but Tip deserves credit for completing inverting the song for his remix; he converted a sunny bit of brag rap into a dark, late night banger.

As a bonus, here’s a crazy live performance of “Oh My God” on Late Night with Conan O’Brie. Tip & Phife improvise some awesome chanting at the beginning and end of the song, while Ali Shaheed does some vicious cutting on the chorus. Love Phife’s hand movements and Tip’s glasses.

What’s your favourite version? Let us know in the comments.

Download: A Tribe Called Quest – Oh My God (ft. Busta Rhymes)

Download: A Tribe Called Quest – Oh My God (Remix)

“Guess Who’s Back” is a 1997 single by Rakim from his ’97 solo debut The 18th Letter. Clark Kent produces the beat, employing hard, stilted drums  combined with a slowed-down keyboard loop from Bob James’ “Shamboozie”. Kent scratches Chuck D from “Bring The Noise” and Rakim for the intro to set the mood:

[Chuck D]: Back once again, it’s the incredible/[Rakim]: Rakim Allah

“Guess Who’s Back” also received a strange music video, featuring Rakim doing some poor acting in a orange robe.

DITC producer Buckwild remixed “Guess Who’s Back” for a 12′ of remixes of the track. Buck starts the remix with a slowed-down scratch of the same Chuck D sample from the OG, then lets the beat drop. Buck’s remix captures a more mellow, contemplative mood, using an subtle string loop and a three-bar piano. Buck switches the drums up, using a mix of crisp snares and shuffling hi-hats. remix. The beat switches up for the second verse. Buck pulls out the main loop, and lets the drums ride out with the occasional appearance from a creepy piano loop.

This is one of the few times where I’d give the original the edge over the remix. Buckwild’s beat sounds like it was intended for another song; it’s an undeniable head-nodder but it doesn’t fit the mood of the track. Clark Kent’s track sounds like a triumphant comeback, and suits Ra’s lyrics and flow better.

DOWNLOAD: Rakim – Guess Who’s Back

DOWNLOAD: Rakim – Guess Who’s Back (Buckwild Remix)

I’ve covered several Buckwild remixes for Remix Tuesdays over the past few months. Catch up:

Beastie Boys

Artifacts

Tha Alkaholiks

Feedback Time: I’m considering changing the title of Remix Tuesdays so that I can post the feature on days besides Tuesdays. Any suggestions? What do you guys think?

Remix Tuesdays is back after a 2 week hiatus and in honor of Raekwon announcing for the release date for Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2 for the 6th time (April 7th, make your calendars!), I’m doing a Remix Tuesdays on a track off the original OB4CL.

“Rainy Dayz” was the final single off Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, and was released on 12′ in 1996. RZA produced the track, pairing hi- hats with mournful, stirring strings. There’s an odd discordant screeching noise every now and then that I honestly can’t identity, and it also plays during Blue Raspberry’s chorus:

It’s raining/he’s changing

My man is going insane/insane

Ghostface Killah drops a verse, naturally. Blue Raspberry’s singing makes the song though: She sings her fucking heart out. Mr. Dalvin, best known for his work with Jodeci, produced a remix of the track for the”Rainy Dayz” 12′.

Dalvin’s beat is essentially a straight loop of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes’ “You Know How To Make Me Feel So Good”. It starts with Blue Rasperry just singing, followed by a simple but effective drum loop then these lush strings kick in paired with a killer bass line. Every few bars, this sweet little vocal sample wails.

The lyrics are completely changed from the original as is the chorus; Rae actually sings the Harold Melvin chorus, even doing a bit of the female part the first time before cracking up. Awesome and hilarious, and it certainly puts his recent antics into context. Ghostface’s new verse is dope, especially when brags about “hitting like a snare from the Delfonics”. Ghost also takes shout-out duties for the outro. The only bad thing you could say about the remix is that it’s basically an entirely new song with no real connection to the original.

Interesting sidenote: according to Discogs, Diamond D engineered and programmed the track.

Check the original sample:

And of course, the rehash: 12 years after OB4CL’s release, Timbaland reheated RZA’s beat for “Rainy Dayz” with tweaked drums for Fabolous’s song “Make Me Better”.

Props to Scott @ HipHopAndBreakz for hipping me to the original sample for this remix.

Download: Raekwon – Rainy Dayz (ft.Ghostface Killah & Blue Raspberry)

Download: Raekwon – Rainy Dayz  [Dalvin Remix]

“It’s A Boy” is a 1991 single by Slick Rick, released to promote his sophomore release, The Ruler’s Back. Rick spits about the birth of his son Ricky.

Vance Wright produced “It’s A Boy”. His instrumental consists of tinny horns, clipped synthesizers and a sloppy loop of the “Impeach The President” break- can you tell I’m not a big fan of Vance’s work on the beat? The chorus consists of an reverb-ed Rick saying “It’s a boy” followed by a baby crying.

Large Professor remixed “It’s A Boy” for the 12′ single release of the song. Large Pro brilliantly flips a Carl Tjader sample, combining chiming vibes and thick bass line. LP adds dusty boom-bap drums and his trademark sleigh bells. Some echoing horns complement the chorus nicely.

The track got the music video treatment featuring a bunch of rappers as adorable children.  There’s a baby Rick, Flava Flav, LL Cool J, MC Hammer, even a tiny 3rd Bass! Wee MC Serch is awful precious. YouTube won’t let me embed the video but you can view it here.

Slick Rick – It’s A Boy

Slick Rick – It’s A Boy (Large Professor Remix)

I’ve covered Large Professor’s remix prowess before but this is the first Remix Tuesdays I’ve written where the remix tops the original in every single way. Vance Wright’s original beat is awful, cheap-sounding and utterly ill-suited to Rick’s lyrics.

“Get It Together” is a 1994 single by the Beastie Boys, released in support of their ’94 album, Ill Communication. It’s a collaboration with Q-Tip that avoids the pitfalls of modern collaborations. Rather than simply tacking on a verse to the end of the song, Q-Tip and the Beasties spend the song trading off verses and bizarre adlibs in a refreshingly loose fashion. Tip is clearly freestyling his lyrics and Mike D, MCA and Ad-Rock go with the flow, shouting adlibs and playing off his verses.

The Beastie Boys produce the track with shuffling drums, creepy, plinking keys, and an ominous, buzzing low end provided by a Moog. Zilla rightly points out that it sounds exactly like an album cut Tip might have produced for Nas or Mobb Deep. For the chorus, the Beasties scratch in a sample of Eugene McDaniels crooning, taken from the latter’s sample staple, “Headless Heroes.”

Get it together/See what’s happening

My favorite part is when Q-Tip screws up his verse at about 3:12 and the Beasties turn it into a chant:

Oh…One-two-Oh my god!

DITC producer Buckwild remixed “Get It Together” for a promo 12′ release of the song. Buck starts the remix off with clattering hi-hats and repetitive, chilly piano keys, and a thumping bass line. At about 0:15, Buck adds sleigh bells and hard snares to the percussion. Every few bars, these distorted echoing horns enter the mix. (You hear these horns in a lot of Buckwild remixes from around this time; listen to his remixes for the Artifacts and Tha Alkaholiks for examples.)

On the chorus, Buck retains McDaniels’ singing and adds scratches of lyrics from KRS-One (“emcees!”) and another 80s rapper I can’t quite place. The lyrics are completely unchanged, since the remix uses the original a cappella. On the chorus, he adds a high-pitched trumpet sample that replaces the aforementioned distorted horns for the rest of the song’s verses.

Buckwild slowed the song’s tempo and his remix turns “Get It Together” into a New York underground record. I love both versions but I gotta give the original the vote because it suits the vibe of the song better. That said, Buckwild’s remix is pretty damn serious too.

Beastie Boys – Get It Together (ft.Q-Tip)

Beastie Boys – Get It Together (ft.Q-Tip) [Buckwild Remix]

For more info on “Get It Together”, read BeastieMania’s scarily comprehensive write-up. They even list and explain every pop culture reference in the song!

Here’s a great live performance of the song from the 1996 Tibetan Freedom Concert:

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Father Time” is a 1995 single by Canadian rapper Saukrates, released as a 12′ shared with Choclair’s “21 Years.” It’s considered something of a underground classic, getting spin on the Stretch and Bobbito show back in the day and chosen for the first Fat Beats Compilation.

Day’s beat immediately draws you in with a hypnotic piano loop, and an odd mix of snares and hiccupping shakers. Saukrates’ lyrics are that classic 90s underground braggadocio. I love the baseball references in the 2nd verse:

A Valentine’s Day of deadly love, powerful like daddy time
Keep checking your watch
Before I’ve tooken your home plate
I’m Jackie Robinson, you’d better dodge Brooklyn
My mack will never crack
So fuck pussy bunting
I got Mother Nature sucking my dick down to nothing

Robbie at Unkut claims Saukrates is taking shots at the Wu here, but I think he’s just referencing a few Wu lines in tribute (he mentions CREAM for example.)

The chorus consists of Saukrates chanting the following lyrics over and over:

And if the time runs out
Then brother you will get turned out
And if the clock keeps ticking
Then nigga you will lose no doubt

Day also produces the remix, with additional scratching by DJ Grouch. Grouch scratches a few time-related lyrics on the intro and scratches Steve Miller singing, “Time keeps on…” on the chorus. Day beefs up the drums on the remix, with a pretty standard snare/hi-hat/kick pattern that still knocks well. The lyrics are unchanged from the original.

There you have it, a Canadian underground classic. Which version do you prefer, the original or the remix? It saddens me that Krates spends all his time nowadays carrying Redman’s weed as part of Gilla House and being the 3^rd best rapper on their posse cuts, after Red and Icadon.

Download: Saukrates – Father Time

Download: Saukrates – Father Time (Remix)

I don’t like to straight up jack people’s links, so I recommend you head to twelve inchers for the full Choclair/Saukrates 12′, complete with instrumentals. Get it here.

One two/who got more style than son do

It’s been a minute, people. My apologies – midterms and essays got your boy busy.

“Thief’s Theme” is a 2004 single released by Nas in support of his double album, Street’s Disciple. Salaam Remi flips the guitar riff and a soaring organ line from the Incredible Bongo Band’s cover of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”(later used in almost identical fashion by Wil.i.am for “Hip Hop Is Dead”). Remi throws a short bongo break on the chorus, where scratches Nas’s lyrics from “The World Is Yours” for the chorus:

The thief’s theme, play me at night they won’t act right/Understandable smooth shit that murderers move with.

Keeping with the theme of the song, the video features people robbing stores in ski masks.

I owe my discovery of today’s featured remix entirely to Dan Love at FDB, who tipped me off to this track at the end of last year. “Thief’s Theme” was remixed by Canadian producer Midas Touch for his online mixtape The Remix Tape Volume 1, which you can download here. Obviously, this remix is internet only, but it’s a shame; Midas does a better job behind the boards here than Nas’ current stable of mostly crap producers.

Midas switches up the percussion to heavy snares and hi-hats. He adds pretty, echoing piano keys and brings in stirring strings and some really dope horns every few bars. Midas also chops us some classic Otis Redding groans and layers them on top. Midas’s take on “Thief’s Theme” is cinematic and sounds like a lost Premier beat circa Moment of Truth – never a bad thing.

Which version is better? I’m leaning toward Midas on this one. Remi’s beat is hurt by the fact that Nas used the same sample for “Hip Hop Is Dead” but two years later. Still a good beat, just feels a bit redundant, I suppose. What do you guys think?

Download: Nas – Thief’s Theme

Download: Nas – Thief’s Theme (Midas Touch Remix)

Note from AM: I’m pretty busy with midterms right now, so I’m bringing back Jorge from Bang The Box for a guest post in the Remix Tuesdays series. Read his last post here.

Huge respect to AM for inviting me back to guest on the Mighty Metal Lungies, but enough pleasantries, let’s get back to business.

From the first lick of Odetta’s “Sakura,” you should know exactly what this is, it’s a classic without need for argument. Spencer Bellamy’s seminal “Tried By 12″ was snapping necks left and right in ’96 with its entrancing yet moody melody and Des’ ominously cold flow. I could break his verses apart line-by-line, but the citation and analysis of the clever wordplay contained within would extended for pages.

Originally touching down on Bellamy’s own 10/30 Uproar, the single was picked up by Chocolate Industries in ’98, and licensed to Ninja Tune in the same year. The beauty of Chocolate Industries backing this track was the onslaught of remixes that followed suit. Enlisting an A-List of abtract and forward-thinking producers for the double twelve, both labels capitalized on the beginning of the glitch-hop movement that is huge today — 10 years later. The release included flips from Ko-Wreck Technique (Push Button Objects & DJ Craze), Phonecia, The Herbaliser, Funkstorung, Autechre, Squarepusher, and Nick Fury to name a few.

Today you’re going to get served up with the video, the original and some of my favorite alternate mixes from that piece of deleted catalog. I’m all about spreading that rarity wealth and all of these hold special places in my history for one reason or another. They not only represent the classic sound, but what was the next business during that era.

Download: East Flatbush Project – Tried By 12 (Original Mix)

Download: East Flatbush Project – Tried By 12 (Ko-Wreck Technique Mix)

Download: East Flatbush Project – Tried By 12 (Autechre Mix)

Download: East Flatbush Project – Tried By 12 (Nick Fury Mix)

Download: East Flatbush Project – Tried By 12 (Squarepusher Mix)

I was going to make it 4 and not 5, but that Squarepusher mix is too funky to be slept on. Playlist all that shit, put it on blast, and enjoy.

Remix Tuesdays forever.

I couldn’t think of a more appropriate song to cover for my return to writing Remix Tuesdays than Diamond D’s 1997 comeback single, “The Hiatus”. It’s been almost a month, folks. Not quite weekly, I know. Shouts to DJ01 for doing his own remix feature.

First, let’s start with the video:

Diamond’s beat centers around stately horns and a mix of light hi-hats and thick kick drums. The chorus consists of a sung “la la la”s from both male and female singers (cue Diamond shouting “Ladies!”) and a scratched hook:

There’s a new hombre in town/it’s Diamond D

Diamond remixed “The Hiatus” for the CD single (pictured above is promo 12′). The beat employs some gorgeous, gorgeous strings, probably one of the dopest string loops ever*.It’s a simple loop of David Axelrod’s “The School Boy” but that doesn’t change how nice it sounds. The remix starts with just strings, and some quiet singing. The “La la la” chorus is resung to the tune of the new instrumental, and there’s more scratching on the chorus. Diamond spits a new, hilarious verse, and Chaddeo and Yogi of CRU come in for guest verses. The drums are a bit harder on the remix, replacing the hi-hats with hard snares. Instant head nod, period – this is what a remix should be.

Let me leave you with my favorite Diamond couplet:

Recline with dimes who blow me and breeze/while your broke ass is home eating baloney and cheese

Download: Diamond D – The Hiatus

Diamond D – The Hiatus (Remix ft.CRU)

BONUS BEATS: Shouts to The Meaning Of Dope, who did a nice feature on their favorite remixes a while back. Worth checking for Diamond’s remix of Outkast’s “Southernplayalisticadillacmusik”, which I’d never heard before.

Ace also did a nice comp of his 13 favorite Diamond tracks. Lots of shit I’ve never heard here.

*”Boom” and “Worldwide” probably have this locked.

[EDIT: I misquoted the chorus, esteeminatti from BronxRap corrected me. Thanks!]