Metal Lungies

I’ve never seen the original from last year before, and boy was I missing out. Eskay with the find like always. By the way, if Duke wins the championship ML will be shut down forever.

Pt.2

Pt.1

I’m back from my hiatus to resume writing again and of course I needed to write a new instalment of the weekly Remix Tuesday. I had to take some time off from blogging. I had a huge amount of school work and just didn’t have the time. Shouts to Buhizzle for keeping this feature going while I was gone, along with the rest of the ML crew for holding down the fort.

Today I’m covering a classic by Camp Lo, the Bronx-based duo of Sonny Cheeba & Geechi Suede. “Black Nostaljack (AKA Come On)” was the third and final single released off their still-great debut Uptown Saturday Night.

The original rocks an smooth loop of Curtis Mayfield’s “Tripping Out”, and is produced by Camp Lo’s primary producer Ski and Ill Will Fulton. I can’t tell you too much about Fulton as a producer; I think he was an in-house Roc-A-Fella Records producer at some point, judging by his Discogs entry.

You can listen to the original sample below:

Ski and Fulton slightly sped up the intro of the Mayfield song and looped it for that amazing bassline and stuttered guitar. The horns from about the 30 second mark are interspersed at intervals into the main loop. Some nice strings pop occasionally as well. The backing track provides the perfect instrumental for Geechie and Cheeba to floss their blaxploitation-era slang steez over.

Of course, the song becomes even better once you hear it in the context of the music video:

The video sees the group joining an episode of Good Times, (a la Weezer’s video for Buddy Holly), complete with a cameo from JJ Walker! I really want one of those leather caps. Look for the cover of Uptown Saturday Night appearing as a painting in the Evans’ house.

Geechie Suede’s opening verse is one of my favourite Camp Lo verses, simply in terms of enjoyably surreal imagery (is there any other kind of Camp Lo verse?) :

Now here we are star apport a sarsparilla
I’m the Don Ezetti on the Veric Express
We got the Imperio and vino just for the keeper
And yes he be the Cheeba
And yes I be the Sueda
So gimme zigga zigga
And we can get with Kiki
The seventh heaven cloud is for my kufi and dashiki
So you see me on the upper
But it’s always the Lowa
We make it Hollywood cuz diamond crooks is takin’ over

Now, here’s where the remix comes in. The chorus of the album version of the song goes like this:

If you from the BX connects nigga
Nigga come on
If you from the BKs souffle nigga
Nigga come on
If you from the cherry QBs nigga
Nigga come on
If you from the NY you fly nigga
Nigga come on
Nigga come on

In the radio edit (used for the music video), the title of Nas’s next album in the chorus is replaced by “sugah”, which actually works pretty well without seeming forced. And a melanin-deficient individual such as myself can participate in the chorus!

But the radio edit evidently wasn’t enough for Ski and Ill Will Fulton, because they remixed the radio version for it’s own 12′, the one pictured at the top of this post. The remix is amusingly titled the “Xenobia Mix” , presumably for the removal of the n-word in the chorus.

The Xenoboia remix takes most of the original beat, but seemingly beefs up the bass and drums. It replaces the funky guitar line from the original with some ill layered strings. Rather than immediately starting with the beat, the song begins with only the aforementioned strings. Geechi and Sonny go through the modified chorus once, backed solely by the string sample. Just as the chorus finishes, the beat kicks in with that thick bassline and the strings drop out. The strings are integrated into the beat for each chorus and appear again in the outro.

I like them both equally, but it’s amazing how much of a difference the strings make in the remix. Ski deserves more credit for skills behind the boards.

The original “Black Nostaljack” 12” featured a remix produced by Kid Capri on the b-side, that beatjacks Run-D.M.C.’s “Beats To The Rhyme”. The remix features new verses from Camp Lo, Reverend Run and Kid Capri. It might considered a bit of a stretch to call it a remix; the only thing that remains from the original is the chorus, which is shouted by Rev. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Capri remix without him adlibbing over it.

The Lo actually sound pretty good over the Bob James’ sample. “Nautilus” never gets old, does it? You can listen to it on YouTube for comparison’s sake.

Listen to all the versions and let me know which is your favourite in the comments.

Black Nostaljack (AKA Come On)

Black Nostaljack (Xenobia Mix)

Black Nostaljack (Kid Capri Mix Tape Remix ft.Kid Capri & Rev Run)

BONUS BEATS: I would be remiss to not mention Dan Love’s excellent 2-part interview with Camp Lo producer Ski. Read the first part of the interview here at From Da Bricks, where Ski talks about making Camp Lo’s first album, among other things.

Props to Twelve Inchers for the hookup on the Xenobia remix, along with the image at the top.

Pretty damn amusing, I could probably never pull that off. Rhymefest also does No Sunshine off his Michael Jackson tribute mixtape.

He’s back for another week! I’m back too from a little flu battle and San Francisco.

Coolio is helping the whole fam eat healthy!

Jimmy did this in response to his girlfriend, Sarah Silverman’s I’m Fucking Matt Damon. This is the TV highlight of the year (and Oscar night) for us.  So many awesome cameos, the irony in Lance Bass being in it is too great to put into words, nh.

This > We Are The World.

Apologizes for the title all you workplace ML readers.

The Sarah Silverman video after the jump, highlight: the dance off scene.

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Any show that shows Ghostface love on their show gets a leg up in our TV watching preferences, one of those shows is Human Giant.

I could’ve sworn I posted this before, but I couldn’t find it. Anyway, Human Giant is back for a 2nd season (hopefully with another 24 hour MTV take over, which featured The Wire actors, random hilarious actors and white rappers at 3:45 am).

Season 2 premiers March 11th @ 11pm… but that’s not all folks(on that infomercial tip), if you are impatient, you can cop the first episode of season 2 here on itunes. You can catch up on a bunch of skits here or pick up the DVD of season 1 on March 4th.

A season 2 sketch & a season preview after the jump (which was also spotted at our friend @ Know The Ledge):

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Drop everything you are doing its time for some Ghettalian.

This week, before I get into the actual remix writeup, I’d like to highlight two other sites who have been doing this weekly remix thing longer than I have.

More Than Milk do something called ‘Remix Tuesdays’ too but their featured remixes tend to be of the indie/electronic variety. Palms Out Sounds do a weekly Remix Sundays post that’s pretty great. Their Sample Wednesdays are amazing too, definitely worth a look for diggers and expert sample spotters.

The song being covered today is the Ultramagnetic MCs’ “Poppa Large”. The original, found on their second LP, Funk Your Head Up, is dope but the remix off the “Poppa Large” single improves on it in nearly every way.

The original has a laidback drum break and some funky guitar, with looped cheering in the background.. The instrumental is much slower and less, well, frenzied, compared to the remix.

The “East Coast” remix of the Ultramagnetic MCs’ “Poppa Large” is done by a production team called ‘Da BeatMinerz’. Not to be confused with Da Beatminerz, best known for working with the Boot Camp Clik (Black Moon, Smif-N-Wessun, etc.) ; these are an entirely different BeatMinerz, consisting of producers Ike Lee & Aaron Lyles.

The remix starts with a classic James Brown sample “Hit me!” being scratched. Then the ominous bassline comes in, sounding a bit like the bass line from “The Choice Is Yours”. Shortly after that, the frantic horns come in. Samples of James Brown (?) saying “I’m poppa” are integrated into the beat, along with the odd sample of Kool Keith. Keith comes in on this one like he’s possessed. It doesn’t even matter that nothing he’s saying really makes sense. A sample:

I’m a eat ’em wit popcorn and treat ’em like suds you duds
Coming out the wick wack, wicky, wickable wack
Black jack, that’s a fact, writing exact behind your back

I mean, does anyone have any idea what “Poppa Large” even means?

The remix keeps the original a capella, but Keith sound a lot more energized on the remix. That’s the signature of a great beat/vocal matchup.

Also, holy shit is the video fucking amazing. Kool Keith wearing a straitjacket? Kool Keith with a bird cage on his head? Yes please.

Have a listen to both and share your thoughts in the comments:

Ultramagnetic MCs – Poppa Large

Ultramagnetic MCs – Poppa Large (East Coast Remix)

This is ill. If you’re well-versed in your sample history, you’ll recognize a lot of these breaks. 45 King=one of the most underrated producers ever.

There’s another video of him spinning classic breaks here.