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In an interview some years back, Libretto told then Portland Mercury music editor Julianne Shepherd that the "only thing I haven't done yet is make some booty-shaking music...which is part of me I can't do." Compare this bouncy, horn-driven track to its slinkier original, and Libretto solidifies that point: maybe he can't make the track a booty-shaker, but he sure knows who to call when he decides to cross that line.
For this remix, Libretto turned the track he recorded with Detroit-based spitter (and Stones Throw affiliate) Guilty Simpson over to his longtime friend and cohort, Jumbo The Garbageman of Lifesavas. And what a difference a little musical makeover can make. The original track (recorded with Lifesavas' DJ Rev. Shines and Sedell Jones) feels like a slowed down Kraftwerk track, all glossy synthesizer lines and wandering bits of Hammond organ playing looping over a tightly coiled beat.
Jumbo erases everything but the vocals, turning the lyrics into the party anthem that was hiding behind the dark overtones. The chorus of keeping a "pint of cognac in your lap" and "a sack of that green-ass weed" sounds downright dangerous until it smacks off the snapping drum sample lifted from the Five Stairsteps' "Don't Change Your Love" (Naughty By Nature borrowed it for "Hip Hop Hooray" as well), and a near Earth Wind & Fire horn line. The explosive bragging by Libretto and Guilty is devilishly undercut, a nervy and fantastic juxtaposition.
WWeek 2015