“The Light” was a second single released by Common in support of his 4th album, Like Water for Chocolate. It’s produced by Jay Dee, before he took on the J Dilla alias. Jay employs an oft used drum break by the Detroit Emeralds and tweaks the snares and hi hats to make them sound extra crisp. The beat is centered around samples from from Bobby Caldwell’s “Open Your Eyes”, in particular airy keyboards from the original’s prechorus. Stuttered piano keys sampled open the song and enter occasionally on the verses. The piano keys sound on the chorus where Jay scratches Caldwell’s vocals:
There are times, when you need someone/I will be by your side
There is a light that shines/Special for you and me
At the end of the song, Jay scratches other parts of Caldwell’s vocals as the song fades out.
A music video was made, costarring Erykah Badu and filled with shots of all sorts of tokens of affection.
Pictured at the top of the post is the 12′ cover. A remix was recorded for the soundtrack to Bamboozled and released as a single. Pictured below is the CD single cover:
Like the original, the remix is produced by Jay Dee. The remix features Erykah Badu singing the original chorus and adding backing vocals during the verses. The song begins with Badu singing the chorus to just handclaps for a few seconds before the beat drops. Jay switches up the drums, utilizing shakers and claps. The piano has been removed in favour of Kraftwerk sounding keyboards and a churning, jazzy guitar loop. The remix also adds a thick, live-sounding bass line and some ghostly sounding vocals that join in randomly on the choruses. Com re-recorded his vocals for the remix, reciting slightly different lyrics more slowly and solemnly.
I do prefer the original, but the remix is interesting for actually featuring the person the song is written about on it. It shows Jay Dee’s knack for completely re-imagining songs through remixing.
Some good hip hop & reggae flavorings is coming from K-Salaam & Beatnick. Whose World is This is in stores July 29th. Download the mixtape NY Is Burning, which features Buju Banton, Trey Songz, Dead Prez, Collie Buddz, and more here.
This guy reprograms animatronic robots at Showbiz Pizza (a sort of proto-Chuck E Cheese to perform pop hits.) The Jeezy verse being lipsynched by a puppet is hilarious.
A few days late on this one, but no one on the internet cares about timeliness, right? The original is my favorite song of the year. Nas kills it on the remix, and Busta may have the greatest laugh of all time.
Rock for a fee not for free/Maybe I’ll do it for charity
Greg Nice beatboxed for T La Rock in the 80s, rapped with Smooth Bee as Nice & Smooth and guested on dope records by the Beatnuts, Gang Starr & Masta Ace, among others. He’s been around forever and people are still paying him to shout reverbed nonsense on a track. Robbie made a similar observation two years ago, which really shows his longevity. Imitatingcats may try for the position but accept no substitutes: Greg N. I. C. E. is the OG hook shouter. I direct your attention to some recent Greg guest spots:
O’Neal McKnight – Check Your Coat (ft.Greg Nice)
Greg did an awesome chorus for Time Machine‘s song, “The Unfortunate Twist”. There’s a great video for the song but it isn’t embeddable. Check it out here.
Some of these videos actually predate the formal creation of the Hiero crew, when Del was associated more with his cousin Ice Cube. Del is probably the best known Hieroglyphics member outside of hip-hop circles , thanks to guest appearances on two genre-crossing Dan the Automator projects, Gorillaz & Handsome Boy Modelling School. I skipped interviews this time around, because of the sheer number of music videos Del has.
“Strobelite Honey” is a 1992 single released by Queens-based duo Black Sheep. The song was the second single released of the group’s debut, A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing.
The song received an incredible number of remixes on 12’s, most of them dance/house remixes, so I’m only tackling the album version and one of the remixes.
The album version, credited to the group, uses house-sounding claps and hi-hats, a guitar loop and a thick, bouncy bass line. The cut starts with some keys and percussion before breaking into the main beat. Dres tells a tale of spotting a honey in the club who looks good under the strobe light, and not so great outside of it. A very literal video depicts exactly what he’s rapping about. It uses a slightly faster, more danceable beat with horns.
The remix, entitled the “No We Didn’t Mix”, starts with wailing trumpets that loop a few times before the drums kick in. These horns reappear on the chorus; the verses employ a funky organ sample and a raw drum break. There’s a less raucous horn loop that blows occasionally. The lyrics are unchanged with a few minor exceptions (for some reason, Dres switches around a few lines in the first verse.) About 1:30, the beat strips down to just drums and some understated keyboards. The trumpet loops come in again in on the chorus and briefly at the start of the verses. An interesting remix that gives me a headache after a while – I think it’s the trumpets.
At the end of the song, Jay scratches other parts of Caldwell’s vocals as the song fades out.
