2. Clipse - Re-Up Anthem (Nick Catchdubs Remix)
3. T.I. - What You Know About That
4. Bell Biv Devoe - Poison
5. Kandice Love - Amazin'
6. Plan B - Sick 2 Def
7. Lupe Fiasco - Kick Push ft. Pharrell
8. KanYe West - Drive Slow (Remix) ft. Paul Wall, GLC & T.I.
9. Fam-Lay - Da Beeper Record
10. Alana Davis - New Glasses
11. Amerie - Touch (Remix) ft. T.I.
12. Ashanti - Still On It
13 - Christina Aguilera - Ain't No Other Man
14. Dialated Peoples - This Way ft. KanYe West
15. T.I. - Bring 'Em Out
16. Michael & Janet Jackson - Scream
17. Rosco P. Coldchain - Pussy ft. Pharrell
18. Sierra Swan - Sex Is Keeping Us Together
19. Skunk Anansie - Weak
Nothing of much note happened that afternoon. The sun was hotter than usual. That's not saying much for Scotland, but it was certainly a bit hotter than we're used to getting, even in summer. I was out in the back garden at my dad's flat in Wardieburn, shorts oan, taps aff. I'd been trying to read comic books like the massive nerd I am but my sweaty hands were messing up the pages, so I abandoned that idea to continue reading Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex, a wonderful novel about a young hermaphrodites self discovery. The boombox was out and this mix was playing. I'd just made it and I remember thinking how good the Nick Catchdubs flip of Clipse's Got It 4 Cheap mixtape cut Re-Up Anthem sounded in the sunshine. Pairing those crack slinging bars with an excellent, if obvious, sample of Eric Clapton's Cocaine was perfect. It would've been the beginning of summer 2006.
Later that summer I would do my second stint as Technical Director on a dance show my sister and her best friend put on in consecutive Edinburgh Festivals and as summer faded I would end up working at The Southern. At this point however I was unemployed and back living with my pops. This would've been around the time of the van with Malcs and Blair, probably about a month or so before those two days. The winter had been a long and dark one for me. But now the sun was out. As far as afternoons go this one was super chill. Like I said, nothing eventful happened. I mean apart from the new Beyoncé single leaking obviously. That was big. The first taste of her upcoming sophomore record B'Day? C'mon! That's exciting. A Jay-Z feature was the cherry for this Jigga superfan. As soon as I heard it I had to immediately compose this mix so I could have it burnt to CD.
Aside from that it was just a nice calm, sunny day, with just me and my book. And yet as soon as I saw that Clipse remix on the tracklist I thought of that day and as soon as I heard it I was right back there. That summer ended up being a really good one. That might be why this day sticks out. If I remember right, I'd been unemployed for months at this point. It was pretty depressing. There were a few temporary jobs here and there but I'd been on the dole more than working for the better part of a year prior to this. How my dad tolerated my shiftless ass is beyond me. Having some lazy, free-loader kicking about in my flat for that long would have made me wanna... Scream by Michael and Janet is a throwback. When it came out in '95 the thirteen year-old me was a bit disappointed by it, if memory serves, but I don't know what that wee hyper-critical prick was all about; the tune is a straight killer. I think Janet's aggressive sexuality in the extraordinarily expensive video may have scared my pubescent self. There is a sensational mash-up (almost an oxymoron) of it with Beck's E-Pro that may be better than either song separately.
Not long after the day in the van, rehearsals for The Rhythm Project got underway. A project to keep me busy! And lots of pretty dancers to distract me! Things were getting better. Annika and Jenny had asked me to take sole charge of the technical direction of the show this year so it was a lot of work but also a lot of fun. Friends I'd made on the show the previous year were suddenly back in my life alongside numerous new faces. Jenna, Ashley, Alloysious, Kayus , Bilal, Matt and Cleo, amongst others, were a fun cast of characters to work with and get to know. One time shortly before a performance I was playing records as people were coming in and I played the remix of KanYe's Drive Slow with the T.I. feature (probably from this very mix). Kayus hadn't heard this version before and asked me about it. We bonded. Sometimes being a geek can make you look cool. I still know Tip's verse on this inside out.
Over the cinematic strings, sub-bass and stuttering hi-hats of southern rap sub-genre trap music was where I first became aware of T.I. He did, after all, introduce 'the youth to what we now call "trappin"/Considered now a classic, who'd have imagined?' I remember late one night years previously, Luke and I were just hanging out in Gilmore Heights watching MTV Base when 24's came on. We both sat up like 'who's this kid?' To think that trap didn't become really popular over here until nearly a decade later is weird to me. And the genre has changed a lot in that time. Mostly for the worse. But I've been a fan of Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. since that first viewing. He makes a number of other appearances on this compilation; What You Know would have been the most current joint on there, from the 2006 classic LP King. My defining memory of this song however didn't happen until about 8 years later when at a southern rap club night in London called Player's Ball. Me, Nick, Lucy and Robyn were close to the only white people present. It was what I imagine clubbing in Atlanta, Georgia might be like. Awesome, basically. Me and Nick were high as kites. This came on and we were in the thick of it. Shit was wild. Such a good night.
The other T.I. single on the disc is from 2004's Urban Legend LP; Bring 'Em Out. With it's Swizz Beatz Jay-Z-sampling beat it is party ready with its horn's and whistles but it lacks the dark edge I like on T.I.'s more trap-y stuff. It's catchy enough though. Also it was weird to see him performing it on The OC that one time. Man I loved The OC. For the first few seasons at least. Comedic teen melo-drama at its finest. We had a first season finale party at the Gilmore Place flat one time where we all came dressed as characters. Poorly. Except Luke made a hilarious Sandy Cohen. It was a fun night and exactly the kind of lame but awesome shit we always got up to in that flat.
Coincidently, in my memories now Bell Biv Devoe's new jack swing classic Poison also is now intrinsically tied to a TV show; hospital sitcom Scrubs. The song was already legendary but once Turk did that lip-sync and dance the song would forever bring it to mind. I watched a lot of that show. That dance was my favourite moment from it.
Back to T.I. in the form of a feature on a remixed Amerie single. Both versions were from 2005 and bore that unmistakable Lil' Jon, Crunk&B sound. The single never quite scaled the euphoric heights of her global behemoth 1 Thing but is a lot of fun none the less. T.I. doesn't add a whole lot to the proceedings, this verse isn't a patch on the Drive Slow contribution.
Inevitably T.I.'s four appearances here are bested by the ever-present Pharrell and Chad of The Neptunes who manage six productions and features between them on this compact disc. That's not even counting the Clipse track on account of it being a remix. Sierra Swan's glam rock stomp Sex Is Keeping Us Together is a Chad Hugo solo production. It was recorded and leaked to the internet around 2005 but due to label issues the record wasn't officially released until 2008. It is a fascinating oddity as it sounds nothing like anything else in their discography. It's a scuzzy mess. The only clearly Chad Hugo-ish thing about the song really is the weird sci-fi synths that are all over it. But it works, it's a boisterous hoot that I still get a kick out of. I don't know too much of Sierra's other stuff but I really liked her official single from that year also; Copper Red.
Similarly rare but bearing a more classic Neptunes sound is New Glasses by Alana Davis. The drums are snappy, the chords are pretty and the bassline grooves. A decent enough jam it is but Davis' vocals are really quite unremarkable and the lyrics are a bit too hippy for my taste. I can't help but think that over this beat Kelis would have soared.
Not long after the day in the van, rehearsals for The Rhythm Project got underway. A project to keep me busy! And lots of pretty dancers to distract me! Things were getting better. Annika and Jenny had asked me to take sole charge of the technical direction of the show this year so it was a lot of work but also a lot of fun. Friends I'd made on the show the previous year were suddenly back in my life alongside numerous new faces. Jenna, Ashley, Alloysious, Kayus , Bilal, Matt and Cleo, amongst others, were a fun cast of characters to work with and get to know. One time shortly before a performance I was playing records as people were coming in and I played the remix of KanYe's Drive Slow with the T.I. feature (probably from this very mix). Kayus hadn't heard this version before and asked me about it. We bonded. Sometimes being a geek can make you look cool. I still know Tip's verse on this inside out.
The other T.I. single on the disc is from 2004's Urban Legend LP; Bring 'Em Out. With it's Swizz Beatz Jay-Z-sampling beat it is party ready with its horn's and whistles but it lacks the dark edge I like on T.I.'s more trap-y stuff. It's catchy enough though. Also it was weird to see him performing it on The OC that one time. Man I loved The OC. For the first few seasons at least. Comedic teen melo-drama at its finest. We had a first season finale party at the Gilmore Place flat one time where we all came dressed as characters. Poorly. Except Luke made a hilarious Sandy Cohen. It was a fun night and exactly the kind of lame but awesome shit we always got up to in that flat.
Back to T.I. in the form of a feature on a remixed Amerie single. Both versions were from 2005 and bore that unmistakable Lil' Jon, Crunk&B sound. The single never quite scaled the euphoric heights of her global behemoth 1 Thing but is a lot of fun none the less. T.I. doesn't add a whole lot to the proceedings, this verse isn't a patch on the Drive Slow contribution.
Inevitably T.I.'s four appearances here are bested by the ever-present Pharrell and Chad of The Neptunes who manage six productions and features between them on this compact disc. That's not even counting the Clipse track on account of it being a remix. Sierra Swan's glam rock stomp Sex Is Keeping Us Together is a Chad Hugo solo production. It was recorded and leaked to the internet around 2005 but due to label issues the record wasn't officially released until 2008. It is a fascinating oddity as it sounds nothing like anything else in their discography. It's a scuzzy mess. The only clearly Chad Hugo-ish thing about the song really is the weird sci-fi synths that are all over it. But it works, it's a boisterous hoot that I still get a kick out of. I don't know too much of Sierra's other stuff but I really liked her official single from that year also; Copper Red.
Similarly rare but bearing a more classic Neptunes sound is New Glasses by Alana Davis. The drums are snappy, the chords are pretty and the bassline grooves. A decent enough jam it is but Davis' vocals are really quite unremarkable and the lyrics are a bit too hippy for my taste. I can't help but think that over this beat Kelis would have soared.
Pharrell is on his In My Mind flow on the official remix of Kick Push, the lead single from Lupe Fiasco's debut album Food & Liquor. And by 'In My Mind flow' I mean that he's rhyming competently with intermittent groaningly clunky bars; 'I know my dead homies wish they was much gooder then/I mean gooder then, not cuz I'm better than'? The song is an ode to skateboarding culture and growing up and is really quite lovely despite those cringers. That first Lupe album got a lot of spins at The Southern later in the year when it was released, but Kick Push worked for the good weather.
Fam-Lay who was also signed to the Star Trak record label was just unlucky though. And he didn't even murder anyone. Da Beeper Record was released as the first single for his never to see the light of day debut album Traintago. The song is typically weird and brilliant for these guys. One repetative synth stab, snappy clicks and drums and a shark-like bassline that swims below the waterline and occasionally pops its head up. Fam-Lay's flow is slick and varied and at one point he says 'Telling you not that my shit is/Bigger than knuckles on midgets' which is... bananas. But it went nowhere, largely ignored by the masses. A couple of years later it was sampled by The Count & Sinden on Beeper featuring Kid Sister which was a bit of a hit in the Indie-Electro scene. Still not enough to get Fam recognised though. He was shelved and then ultimately forgotten when the label folded. He still sometimes tours with Pharrell and N*E*R*D when the can be bothered to put out a record. If you're willing to root around online you can find a whole host of excellent songs meant for his lost classic.
The Star Trak forum, which later became the grindin.org forum, was where I found most of these songs. It was amazing to have a community of nerds as obssessed with The Neptunes sound (phooom phoooom) as I was. Rarities and unreleased stuff would always find its way onto the board. Stuff you could only get there or on the #theneptunes mIRC channel. And it was there that I first came across the version of Amazing with only Kandice Love on it. I was already aquainted with the beat as I owned LL Cool J's 10 album from 2002. The beat is improved upon massively when shorn of LL's corny seduction bars and replaced with additional Kandice vocals. It's super cheesy but it suits Kandice's voice much better. This beat should never have ended up with Mr. James Todd Smith.
I guess I made this mix not too long after The Jump Off one, I was quite excited to hear the new album from Christina Aguilera for a while. I'd heard she'd been working with Premier which was an exciting prospect and I had really liked Still Dirrty. Ain't No Other Man is really pretty good too. Not the best Premo production and not the best Aguilera song but I still think of it fondly. The album when it came out in August was a bit of a let down in the end and faded from memory quickly. Those early releases from it however were a good time while they lasted.
The Swishahouse sound that came out of Houston in the late-90's owed a lot to the Chopped and Screwed stylings of DJ Screw, the trap music from Atlanta and the Memphis originated crunk. Paul Wall, who appeared on forgotten Ashanti single Still On It, was a Swishahouse stalwart who rarely rapped about anything other than the grillz that were both in his mouth and for sale on his website. He also appeared on Kanye's Drive Slow. He got about for a while there. Always amusing, never really very good. Adding some credibility to the proceedings is Method Man who phones in a perfectly fine if not very memorable guest verse. I quite like the song even though it's existence was lost to me between the time I last played this mix until hearing it now. I'm pretty surprised that it had a video and everything to be honest.
The last two tracks to talk about here seem entirely at odds and out of place on this particular collection. Thing is I can work out how they ended up on it. Plan B's harsh Sick 2 Def almost makes sense, it has rapping on it, albeit over atypical strummed guitar and nothing else. The content of his rhymes is a lot more explicit and controversial than everything else around it but I remember being impressed by his word play and storytelling. The third verse where he mimics the concept of the NaS track Rewind and tells a tale about a stabbing in reverse is noteworthy. It doesn't warrant too many repeat plays but is interesting at the very least.
Blair had put me on to Plan B when he gave me a copy of the Radiohead-Sampling Missing Links, I really liked that one. So I came across Sick 2 Def while finding out more about him. There was an interview where he said that his favourite song was Weak by Skunk Anansie. Ali Blaikie, my oldest childhood friend, we've known each other since we were 3 years old, was a big fan of that band. I knew the song but hadn't thought about it in a long time. So I downloaded it and bashed it on the end of this mix. The whole thing was put together quickly because I wanted to go outside and listen to Déjà Vu in the afternoon heat. Nice days are few and far between in Edinburgh so you have to act quickly.
Lying out on the grass, drinking apple juice, reading my book, sweating. It was all about to change for me. I don't think I was fully aware. There was gonna be fun and parties and new jobs and girls and new friends. That day in the sun was a start and a end. A long winter, cold, dark, depressing, working temporary jobs I didn't like. Every day had been like bad Déjà Vu. And it was all lifted. Sometimes it all starts with a song. Or a few songs in the sunshine.
Photo credits: George Michael Taylor
Blair had put me on to Plan B when he gave me a copy of the Radiohead-Sampling Missing Links, I really liked that one. So I came across Sick 2 Def while finding out more about him. There was an interview where he said that his favourite song was Weak by Skunk Anansie. Ali Blaikie, my oldest childhood friend, we've known each other since we were 3 years old, was a big fan of that band. I knew the song but hadn't thought about it in a long time. So I downloaded it and bashed it on the end of this mix. The whole thing was put together quickly because I wanted to go outside and listen to Déjà Vu in the afternoon heat. Nice days are few and far between in Edinburgh so you have to act quickly.
Photo credits: George Michael Taylor
