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.It fits in perfectly with Nas’s stories of days and nights115past, reminiscing on park jams and kingpins.No surprise it was “Memory Lane” that was singled out by Shorty in herfive-mic review as “my shit.”Despite going along with the track, Premier was still notthrilled with the finished song.This led him to the unusualstep of remixing his own song.Nas heard that beat and wanted it immediately, and he wroteeverything right there on the spot and laid it.It just camedown to me figuring well, I’ll save these last beats.He likedthem, so maybe I can change that later.But he was still downwith it, he was like “yo, it’s gotta stay like it is.” He wasn’tletting me slay him on that one.I said, “let me do an alternateversion and maybe you could add both to the album as abonus,” ‘cause the album was so short.But he was neverreally crazy about that so I was like “alright, fuck it.” So I didit for myself.12What’s immediately shocking about the remix is just howdifferent of a song this is.Where the original is smooth andrelaxed, the remix is angular and uptight.It’s a hardcoreunderground hip hop beat—a great one at that—and itscreeping guitar is undoubtedly dirtier than the nostalgic organthat dominates the original.Yet despite its obvious strengths, the original beat matchedNas’s sentiment so well that it’s impossible to listen to theremix without feeling like the song has lost something intranslation.Like Tip’s remix for “The World Is Yours,”Premier has taken an upbeat soul jam and flipped itcompletely, like he was substituting a picture’s negative for116the original.While Nas’s rerecorded vocals helped Tip’s remix enormously, Premier is dealing with a performance thatneeds no emphasis of its dark side.After all, part of thepleasure of Illmatic is the life that thrives around strife in Nas’s tales; “The World Is Yours” and “Memory Lane” arehope and nostalgia without delusions about your lot in life.Placing these multi-dimensional lyrics over gritty beats makesonly the darkness come through.While Premier wasn’t initially happy with his work on“Memory Lane,” the song’s simple drive is almost definitivegolden-age hip hop.Combined with the imagery and superiorlyricism Nas employs, the song goes down oh so easy.This issummer listening sans bubblegum, a perfect representation ofthe fleeting moments of youth, a standout among standouts.One LoveDespite Gang Starr’s lasting contributions to hip hop and twoclassic albums from Pete Rock and C.L.Smooth, no produceron Illmatic has had more success with his original group than Q-Tip.By 1994, A Tribe Called Quest had already cementedtheir reputation as one of the indisputably great hip hopgroups of all time with three straight classics, People’sInstinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, The Low EndTheory, and Midnight Marauders (which was being recorded at the time Nas was working on his own record; it wasreleased in late ’93).Considering Nas’s ambition and NewYork focus, his decision to reach out to Tip for a beat onIllmatic was inevitable.The connection was made through Large Professor, whoknew Tip from recording sessions in Queens.“Large117Professor told me about Nas and said that he really wanted to work with me and said that I probably wanted to work withhim.I heard him on “BBQ” and I liked him and Professortold me he was working on his album.”The result was “One Love,” perhaps the most challengingsong on Illmatic.Over a largely untouched sample from theHeath Brother s’ “Smilin Billy Pt.II” matched to amasterfully arranged drum track, Nas spends the first twoverses telling his friend in prison about the world outside hiscell, and the third, as discussed in chapter five, confrontinghis demons.It’s a dark and moving examination of thesituation facing young men from Nas’s project.Q-Tipexplained the appeal of the song on the promotional video forthe album.‘“One Love’ is a song dealing with his people, hisman was locked up.Andif you listen to the things he’s sayin’ and the way he kicked it,you know what I’m sayin’, you can tell it’s something that heobviously been through or is going through.”“The song just came from life,” Nas told Rolling Stone in2007.“It’s a song about letters to prison inmates, friends ofmine, shout-outs to childhood friends and their uncles andpeople who were like family to me.I was, again, too young tobe going through all of that.That’s what I think about when Ihear that album.I was too young to be going through all ofthat [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]