Kaliiii ft. DJ Smallz 732 - KToven
(From KToven single; 2023)
Johnboxxx shares like Sonny Bono, black and white keys, DJ Smallz lays Jersey Club Beats over Beethoven piano, the Area Codes lass sounds way better at a 145 BPM tempo. 'Boxxx reckons this song might be the best Ludwig von club version since Walter Murphy's A Fifth Of Beethoven and I reckon he's right.
Bonus beets: very different ambience, but we should always shout out Mobb Deep for takin' Ludvig to the darkest four cornered rooms of Queensbridge on If These Walls Could Talk.
Yuno Miles - Road To Riches
(From the internet; 2021/YouTube; 2022)
Road To Riches has been all up in my Instagram feed like the Alan Shearer as Vladimir Putin meme and I ain't even mad. A real shipost of a song - but in a good way. Rappers often tend to be terrible judges of their own music and that's definitely the case here when Yuno Miles disses the beat he's rhymin' over as "kinda trash". Nah, m8 - Road To Riches is the perfect equilibrium of meme and music purely because of the beat. As Dead Prez nearly said, it's bigger than a shit post.
Like this post if you remember Real Hip Hop™ like the O.G Lookin' Ass N*gga before Yung Joc hopped on it.
The Style Council - It's A Very Deep Sea
(From Confessions Of A Pop Group album; 1988)
Why's It's A Very Deep Sea not on the Style Council best of compilation I own? More importantly, why'd nobody put me onto it until I did a Style Council deep dive recently? What else are you lot hiding from me eh eh?
Not so much Blue-Eyed Soul as Deep Blue Water Soul; re-evaluating the wreckage of one's past to reveal only painful regrets rather than pirate's treasure (shout out to One-Eyed Willy, we in this bitch!) True story: It's A Very Deep Sea is even better than Long Hot Summer, which means it's not only the best Style Council song but the best Paul Weller song point blank. Always preferred Prawn Cocktail Paul Weller to Beef & Onion Paul Weller, meself. Big fan of Salt & Vinegar Paul Weller too though, as typified by The Jam's Funeral Pyre.
The Jam - Funeral Pyre
(From Funeral Pyre single; 1981)
Yeah, he nicked that riff from Love's Seven & Seven Is, but so what? If Rap has taught us anything, it's that there's an art in jacking the best bits of other people's songs. You can have your cake and steal it too.
