aminaj

Payback Is a Grandmothersong · Like Water for Chocolate · Common2.5 out of 5 stars · Aug 14

Dilla produced this in 2000 with live players instead of a flip, Roy Hargrove on horns, Femi on it for the obvious reason. That's half the problem right there. You get a very expensive mood and Common is barely a passenger on it. Vinia Mojica does more work in the margins than he does out front. The Fela homage is sincere, I don't doubt that part. I'd still take the instrumental with a Hargrove solo where the verse is supposed to go. Dilla handed him an arrangement and got an intro back.

frog splashsong · #HEAVENSGATE VOL. 2 · evilgiane4.5 out of 5 stars · Jul 22

evilgiane on his own boards here. Kick sounds like somebody hit a cardboard box and there's nothing under it at all. Went looking for the flip out of habit, whatever the source was got sanded past the point where you could name it. Rockitneedspace drifts off the grid the entire take, never once lands where you expect him to. Premier would have made him run it back. I spent two listens waiting to get annoyed by that and never did.

Stonesong · Timeless · Prince4.5 out of 5 stars · Jul 1

A 1995 vault cut and you can hear why it sat in a drawer as a maybe-someday: heavy beat, buoyant bass doing the heavy lifting, no sample to flip, just a pocket played live. Sandra St. Victor wrote it and handed him an actual hook to sit on, that icy-hand line. Prince treats the low end like he's the bassist in the room. Loses a little steam in the back third once the groove's made its point. Still, a funk tune this springy has no business gathering dust for 30 years.