Premrock & Wille Green - Diary of a Dreamer

I know on my last post I said I was going to do a post on a Nas or Jedi Mind Tracks track but there is a song that I recently heard that I immediately wanted to promote. I can't believe this song only has 525 views. People are sleeping so hard on this song!!

Out of the duo Willie Green is the beatminer. Just listening to the first ten seconds of "Diary of a Dreamer" I knew good things were coming. The harmonica inspired horns harken so much soul and jazz it almost numbs me. Green keeps the beat eclectic by infusing a remittent high pitched horn and that's only just a part of it. What amazes me the most is that there's all these layers of sound going on and yet it still manages to stay very light and whimsical. It is mostly Green's choice of bassline (very very minimal) which keeps it crisp and not convoluted. Everything sounds so on point: to the near unidentifiable percussion instrument (Cabasas? Maracas?) at the beginning of the chorus, to the beginning of drums hitting, and to the stars-of-the-show-horns seeping throughout the track. Turn up the volume and take it in with a good pair of headphones. Bottom-line: it is one of the better productions I've heard in a long time.

Of course with this a beat like this you need some serious lyrical artistry behind it. Part two of duo, Premrock, seems to shine the most with these kind of light jazz-soul-funk beats. Some critics will complain that his rhyme scheme isn't all that complicated but it shouldn't be in this kind of track. He has a poetical rap and his flow matches it perfectly. His rhyme scheme and delivery is precise with the production that his voice completely melds together with the sonics. Not only that he puts thoughts into his lyrics like:

I interrogate fate like, "sir I don't approve" 
I keep it cyclical if you were unaware of the shape 
Thoughts outside the box get each corner erased cause if 
you're not from within my circle 
Stay outside of my space!

Prem is going to take control of his own destiny. You can immediately tell he takes his time with his craft:

Life's only a bitch if you don't you can't study her hips 
so I created a developed penmanship based on being a gentleman 
to jot down the notes on where she likes to be kissed

(Que Common's "I Used to Love H.E.R.") If you didn't get the clue, Premrock is personifying hip-hop as a woman and he wants to treat "her" right by studying the craft and writing dope rhymes. He flips styles within verses, throws in slight changes to his pacing, emphasizes certain words... its dynamic. It keeps you on your toes and it's a joy to listen to. He exemplifies this throughout the song but especially in his second verse.

And wherever I land there I am 
Who I am PremRock rock the land 
watch the crowd pop, lock in the spot 
like Goddamn

Yes sir. The beauty of groups like Gangstarr, Eric B. & Rakim, the super group of producers and Nas on Illmatic, etc. is that the marriage between the producer and the emcee have to be equal. When one outweighs the other the songs sound disjointed, but when they come together that is when classics happen. You can say it's too early for me to crown "Diary of a Dreamer" as a classic but I'm going to do it anyway.

I always have to leave this kind of piece with a quote. Love, love, love the chorus:

The diary of a dreamer 
I live between the lines 
My destiny to shine 
You ain't taking what's mine, mine, mine 
You can never marginalize 
Whats inside the margins I find 
Is every part of my mind, mind, mind

Dream on. There are no limits.

Royce da 5'9" - Shake This

Music is one of my passions. Although I don't have a drop of musical talent in my bones (I can play a mean drummer on Rock Band though!... --;) I always felt I had a good ear for it. So I figured I would introduce and feature some songs that I enjoy and explain why I'm feeling that particular track. I can't find time to do album reviews anymore so I've cut back.




Before I start, here's my process to listening to a song. I always go from feeling then to technical. Emotion/instinct will always trump rational but that rationality is there at the end to check your hype meter.

1. Listen to the beat first. Try to drown out everything else. What feeling do you get from it? What images do you feel? Does it make you reflect or feel energetic? Where and when does the bass come in? What other instruments do you hear? How many layers does it have? Is it too complex?
2. Same way with the verses. Listen to the flow and delivery. The voice. Is it connecting with the beat? Does the flow and rhyme synch up with the musical background? Or does it disconnect you from the  sonics? Is the voice too overpowering or is it too weak? What is his message? How complex is his rhyme scheme? What kind of metaphors/similes is he/she using here? etc.
3. Rinse and repeat until it all flows together... or if it sucks, just stop listening.

Personally, I've always been the type to focus on an emcee's skill level, which is why Royce da 5'9" is forcing himself more and more into my top echelon of rappers out there. It's not the effortless smooth yet complex Rakim, either is it the in-your-face KRS-ONE boom-bap, nor the sly makes-you-think-twice-about-it Jay-Z rap, and not even the street poetry of Nas, but there is a certain style of confidence and swag that separates Royce from the rest. And you hear "it" in this song.

The beat is laced by none other than the living legend DJ Premier. Nearly everything he touches becomes a hip-hop classic, just like Royce's last collabo with Premo, "Boom". While that track was a symphonic braggadocio that harkens back to the golden age of hip-hop, "Shake This" is a grimy tale of real life struggles. Why does Premo's beats work? Even though it may be loopy, repetitive and simplistic, it is because of those elements that it lets the emcee shine and that's what a producer's job should be. Another of Premo's gifts is his encyclopedic knowledge of music, which shows here when he digs into the crates to grab obscure yet dope samples. Even "Shake This" features a guitar rift sampled from David Axelrod's "The Smile", which he uses for the base of this production. As the song accentuates Premo layers the beat with horns, symbols, and subtle DJ cuts. If the beat was any more complex it dares to flood the emcee and that's a big no no especially with an emcee as nice as Royce. The moody beat just sets up the emotional outbursts perfectly.

Contrary to the title of the track and the recent wave of contemporary booty music, the song is not pertaining to shaking your ass, thigh, chest, or any part of your anatomy. It's a track about the problems or struggles that he has accrued and gone through recently and how he should "shake" them off. Royce is adamant that he will continue on with life and not let the "weak shit" get to him and that his mind should be stronger than that. It also deals with his bouts with alcoholism that plagued his career until he expunged his demons.

What makes this song so special to me is his synergy and passion. Maybe similar to why many people feel a typical Tupac track, his voice just blends together with the beat. From the first "Na na na" (:30), followed by the breathless "shake this" (:33), resonating his inner James Brown when he emphatically says, "Bitch, get off me!" (:49), and to his intricate delivery throughout all of his verses. Much like Nas' "One Mic" (although this is much more subtle) his voice and flow starts off calm and laid back but as the intensity of the lyrics, i.e. his problems build, so does his delivery. When his verses end the beat slows down and the cycle starts over again (it almost works as a reminder that he has to calm down before he lets his anger take over him). However, with all this focus on his delivery this isn't to say Royce is a slouch as a lyricist. Just check the imagery in this verse:

I witnessed my world tumble down like bricks
Two words she slurred and they sounded like this
One year (reverberation effect)
Traveled through the room like a moonlight
Through the darkness ooh it's heartless 

I also love his penchant for double entendres:

1977, July 5th conceived immaculately was me, my mom's gift

Damn!

Lastly Royce's last verse is just the culmination. He has paid his dues, he has his mind set to accomplish his goals and to make sure everyone knows about it. He also mentions that he is done with the alcohol that got him into his previous messes. However, the most poignant and important lyrics from the track has to be the introduction:

Being enlightened is no longer enough
You must apply
Being willing is no longer acceptable
You must do
Make it count

You control your future.

(I just got finished watching a Bruce Lee documentary and the aforementioned quote is actually summarized from one of Bruce Lee's philosophical snippets: "Knowing is not enough, you must apply; willing is not enough, you must do.")