Metal Lungies

Apologies for the week off, I’m back on course with a sureshot remix of one of my favourite songs. Queens-based duo Organized Konfusion consisted of rappers Prince Po & Pharaohe Monch. The song I’m covering today is “Stress”, off their classic sophomore effort, Stress : The Extinction Agenda. “Stress” was released as a single, in both 12” and “cassingle” formats. Each had a slightly different track listing but both had the original version of “Stress”, produced by Buckwild, and a remix done by Large Professor.

The album version of “Stress” features pounding, reverb soaked drum hits and an ill Charlie Mingus sample (from “Chazz Fingers” off Mingus Revisited). “Stress” begins with only a downbeat bassline (reminiscent of Buckwild’s work on OK affiliate O.C.’s “Time’s Up”) and gradually adds the other elements. High pitched keys are played just before the horns come in.

The song is interrupted in the middle by a dialogue interlude where Monch & Prince Po try to get a cab to Queens but the guy drives off. The single version omits the skit in the middle but as far as I can tell is identical otherwise.

The video for the album version is below and mostly consists of OK buggin’ out in the snow, seen through a fish eye lens. I don’t need to tell you how great it is.

As good as the original, this writeup is about the remix. The Extra P blessed remix features new verses from both Pharaohe & Po, along with a verse from the “live guy with glasses” himself. I’ll spare you detailed comparison of the two versions’ verses (compare original VS remix), but Large Pro’s verse is dope and I want to share it.

Now nothing ain’t deeper than having to throw a nigga in the sleeper
Don’t stress, and take that shit from Large Profess’
Cause I be on the train trying to maintain
Getting lower than the whole while the record man gain
And it make me want to sting somebody, with the shottie
Cause I can’t relate to living less than great
So I while I make a fat beat to eat
Some of my mans from John Ball high school are sleeping in the street
That stress shit is ill, if you let it, it will
Having your ass on the staircase smoking a scrill
Never that for me, nigga my name’s Extra P
I can’t afford to be stressed the fuck out in ’93
Or ’94, cause everybody knows my solution
to being stressed is looking at the front door

The remix replaces the paranoid, claustrophobic feel of the OG with a laidback, summery vibe. A warm jazz guitar loop and Extra P’s trademarked sleigh bells reverberate throughout the track. A smooth sax line comes in on the chorus. It sounds like it could be a Pete Rock remix from around the same period. The remix flips the chorus of “Crush, kill, destroy, stress” into a kind of cathartic mantra. A fantastic remix but it would sadly be one of the last few Large Professor remixes for a while, besides some great scattered work over ’95-96, on a Blue Note remix project and his dual remixes of Common’s “Resurrection”.

Organized Konfusion – Stress (Album Version)

Organized Konfusion – Stress (Large Professor Remix)

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Breaking Atoms is on my list of top 5 hip hop albums. And a very unappreciated classic. Hell, it’s even technically a Canadian album! Go read up at Oh Word if you don’t know. And I recently discovered that the group filmed videos for all 4 of the singles from the album, all thanks to John Q at Lyrics to Go.

Here are the videos for all four singles off Breaking Atoms, in order of release:

“Looking At The Front Door”:

“Watch Roger Do His Thing”:

 

“Just Hangin’ Out” (look for the Nas cameo, back when he was the lil’ homey)

“Peace Is Not The Word To Play” (my favourite song off the album)

 

I’m out for the rest of the weekend, so let me ramble a little.

I’ve been writing for Metal Lungies for about 3 months or so now, and I just want to take a moment to thank a few people. My fellow ML contributor DJo1 for reaching out to me about writing for the site. Ivan at Hip Hop Is Read , Jesse from TSOYA  & Gretch at Bounce/oz for giving me an opportunity to write. Anyone who reads the site and especially anyone who cares enough to leave a comment, I do read them and always appreciate them. People who wrote to me after I posted about something they’re involved in (what up Jeff Jank?). Anyone who linked to the site. Artists who’ve reached out to me specifically as opposed to mass email promos. All the sites I read on the regular (too many to name, but check the increasingly long blog roll) and everyone who is contributing to the next Beat Drop post, it’s going to be amazing. Have a good rest of the weekend!

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Shabbat shalom, ML readers! I’ma leave you for the weekend with two of my favourite mashups of recent memory. The rest of the Lungies team are a bit busy right now, so I’ll be doing most of the posting for a bit.

The first is from the amazing mashup/culturejam team, Evolution Control Committee. Off their Herb Alpert/Public Enemy mashup album, The Whipped Cream Mixes. This is song is a mashup of PE’s "Rebel Without A Pause" and and Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass song (anyone know which one?) I’m not going to post the whole album, but you can find it online somewhere. This was actually one of the first mashup albums, pre-Grey Album. What? Yes, they did exist before a capella albums were released officially.

This version of the song is absolutely brilliant.

Rebel Without A Pause (Whipped Cream Mix)

Here’s a sweet promo video made for the song too.

The second mashup is the Al Green/Nas mashup album, Almatic (props to the awesome Dumpin.net for pointing this out to me). This would be one of the best mashup albums in recent memory but for three things:

1) Most of the acapellas are clean versions.

2) It has a bunch of DJ drops.

3) One of the songs chosen is Oochie Wally. There are some things you can’t fix, my friends.

But it’s still very dope. Y’all know I’m an Al Green fan and the beats they sample from his stuff are consistently great. Here’s my favourite mashup of the album, the remix of "Made You Look" mixed with Al’s "Love & Happiness". It’s also one of the few songs that isn’t censored.

Made You Look/Love & Happiness (ft.Jadakiss & Ludacris)

Cop the whole album here, courtesy of the good folks at Swindle Entertainment. You can download the songs individually too, which is nice.

Have a good weekend!

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Today I’m doing an RT on one of my favourite West Coast groups (word to Trav at WYDU). Today I’m covering two different remixes for the Liks’ classic “DAAAM!”, off the equally dope Coast II Coast.

First, let’s go over the original, produced by Alkaholiks member E-Swift. The album version floats on a thumping bassline and a synth-y sample. It brings in the always fresh Nautilus sample on the chorus, which is probably one of the most sampled breaks ever. You can see the video for it below.

 

The first remix is on the original single release for the song, done by E-Swift himself. The “Swift Mix” rocks much harder drums, downbeat piano keys and an upbeat horn sample. It has new verses from each Liks member too.

The second scored its own single, done by DITC producer Buckwild. The Buckwild remix puts a much breezier backing behind the original verses. It floats on smooth keys and what sounds like sleighbells. There’s the odd “Check it out y’all” Big Daddy Kane sample that pops up here & there as well. All three versions are well worth your time, which can’t be said about a lot of remixes.

DAAAM! (Album version)

DAAAM! (Swift Mix)

DAAAM! (Buckwild Remix)

One thing I wanted to ask my readers here: when I do Remix Tuesdays, do you guys want/expect instrumentals or acapellas as well? Or are you cool with standard vocal versions? Let me know in the comments.

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Haha, I keep forgetting about this series but I finally got a new one together for y’all. (sidenote: if anyone really digs these posts, leave a comment. I’m really trying to do these on a weekly basis and a little encouragement would help me out.)

Today’s remix is from the 1996 promotional “O.D.B. EP” release. It has a few non-album goodies on it but the real treat is the remix of “Shimmy Shimmy Ya”, done by Bay Area producer (& frequent E-40 collaborator) Studio Ton. Ton’s remix replaces the dusty drums and and memorable piano sample of the original with a fat bassline, squelchy synths and Zapp-style claps.

ODB raps over his own vocals throughout the song, occasionally shouting along with himself. He even flatly resings the chorus over the original, which is played in the background. Ason also adds a new verse at the end of the song, along with an amusing series of shout-outs. Of course, there are also excellent guest verses from MC Eiht & E-40. They even did a pretty crazy video for it, with fake looking fire effects and some hilarious dancing from ODB.

 

Here’s one of the two videos for the original song for comparison:

 

Listen: Shimmy Shimmy Ya (Studio Ton Remix)

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It’s another Tuesday, which means the latest entry in ML’s ongoing series, Remix Tuesdays (read the first installment here). Today our remix is the Showbiz remix of Diamond D’s ode to the neighbourhood slut, “Sally Got A One Track Mind” off the song’s 12′.(See also: Jonathan Coulton’s song, “The Town Crotch.” Not hip hop, just really funny).

The original version, produced by Diamond, works the classic drum break from “It’s A New Day” by the Skull Snaps and a psychedelic sounding guitar loop from a Tower of Power record.

Fellow D.I.T.C. member Showbiz’s remix of “Sally” has harder drums and really smooth horns that get louder on the chorus. I think I might actually like it better than the original.

Listen to the Showbiz remix here and listen to the original version of “Sally Got A One Track Mind” here.

Props to And It’s Still All Good for tipping me off to this remix.

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I’m using this post to start my new weekly series of posts, Remix Tuesdays.

Every Tuesday, I’m going to upload a dope remix and write a little bit about it. Today I’m writing about DJ Premier’s remix of Da King & I’s song “Flip Da Script”.

Da King & I was a Brooklyn based hip hop group, consisting of MC Izzy Ice and producer DJ Majesty. They put out one album together, 1993’s Contemporary Jeep Music, released on Dallas Austin’s record label (yep, Boyz II Men Dallas Austin). It’s an excellent jazz-rap album with virtually no filter and was very overlooked at the time.

Premo’s remix is based around a jazzy sax line that slips in and out of the mix and a smooth bass line. DJ Premier puts his signature scratches on the chorus, tearing up a sample from Grand Puba’s “Check It Out” , of Stud Doogie saying “flippin’ the script!” (thanks to Mike Czech for identifying the sample!)

The DJ Premier remix can be found here and here’s the instrumental.

Buy Contemporary Jeep Music, it’s worth it!

Bonus links: An interview on the awesome From Da Bricks with Da King & I producer DJ Majesty.

The link to the video for the original song (embedding disabled, unfortunately)

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It’s been wayyyy to long since our last Diggin. I had to throw this one up real quick for you. One of the many unique things Outkast have pulled off, making No Doubt listenable to a hip-hopper. Check the vintage Killer Mike.

No Doubt Ft. Outkast & Killer Mike- Hey Baby (Stank Remix).

Photo credit: ViewImages.

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Bermuda-bred dancehall artist Collie Buddz drops his self-titled debut tomorrow, off the strength of his first single, “Come Around”. You know the song — “finally de erbs come arowwwnd!”

Though I wish dude the best of luck, it’s worth pointing that introducing one’s self to the masses with a weed anthem of such epic proportions as “Come Around” can be equivalent to digging one’s self a hole for self-burial. Sometimes, artists pigeonhole themselves by coming out with a weed-anthem-first-single, so when their next single strays from the topic, people are like, “What gives?” Other times, these artists are true-to-form as being weedheads, and pretty much have no memory and/or work ethic for putting out a quality second single (I’d consider Afroman a prime candidate for that). Peep the following examples of artists who have made classic songs about weed, and not much else. And, unless you’re just mean like that, let’s hope that Collie doesn’t follow in their footsteps.

Download: Afroman – “Because I Got High”

Download: Channel Live – “Mad Izm” featuring KRS-One

Download: The Luniz – “I Got 5 On It”

Download: The Luniz – “I Got 5 On It (Remix)” featuring Dru Down, Richie Rich, E-40, Shock G & Spice 1

[At least The Luniz had the foresight to make a massive remix to their hit. Collie Buddz is off to a good start in that regard, with a “Come Around” remix featuring Young Buck and Tony Yayo, and another remix featuring Paul Wall, B-Real, Shaggy, Aztec and Ray Cash.]

Download: Mista Grimm – “Indo Smoke”

Download: RBL Posse – “Don’t Give Me No Bammer Weed”

[And while we’re on the topic of forgotten rappers and marijuana — hold your head, Paperboy. Before there was ever a Diddy, there was the Ditty.] Sphere: Related Content

Today’s topic is the Crew Cut. I would like to say it’slost in modern hip-hop, but in fact, it is all too overused in the multi-featured power remixes of today. In the old days it would be a test of skill in which MC’s would get together with respected peers and try to outdo each other. Today it has been bastardized as the new way to show off one’s recently acquired artists, or to fit in that special “flavor of the month” MC who desperately needs attention between albums. For a brief monent lets forget that the “one blood” remix ever happened, or that Young Dro’s verse was chosen to bring a close to Jim Jones’ “We Fly High” remix. Let us look back on a time when it didn’t have to be a remix, it came out right the first time.

Marley Marl feat. Masta Ace, Craig G., Kool G. Rap and Big Daddy Kane- The Symphony

This song is what defines a great crew cut. Classic DJ. Epic Performers. And a Fresh Voice (Masta Ace) who would later make big moves in the rap game.

Big L feat. Jay-Z, Lord Finesse, Microphone Nut, Party Arty, Y.U.- Da Graveyard

Not that listening to a Big L track shouldn’t be enough, but with all these other hard hitters! Godamn! Plus we get a great verse from a Younger, faster Jay-Z

Big L feat. Buddah Bless , Herb McGruff , Killa Cam , Mike Boogie , Terra, Trooper J , Twan- 8 Iz Enuff

Speaking of Big L. Check this one for a rare listen into when Cam’ron could actually rap.

De La Soul feat. Q-Tip & Jungle Brothers- B.U.D.D.Y.

ITS A CREW CUT!!!! ABOUT PUSSY! Truly a Classic.

Main Source feat. Nas, Joe Fatal, & Akinyele- Live at the Barbeque

What a classic cut if I could I would keep this cd on it’s own radio station. With that fresh Nas! Too hot for TV!

Go and listen. If the links die…..bug your friends.

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