Talk about a remix tape I didn’t know I needed until I saw it. As someone who has collected a handful of this man’s remix tapes (and loved every version of them), I never thought I’d ever see him do one on this specific MC, and now that I have, I can’t hear him any other way.
This is the brand-new remix tape by Producer Thelonious Coltrane and featuring MC Slumlord Reek Osama! This man has had an incredible year so far, so it’s only fitting he’s gifted this level of tape to his discography!
The names associated with this tape are:
-Hus Kingpin
-Snotty
-Estee Nack
-ETO
Those four names alone are enough to rock the foundation of any record, let alone one with both Reek and Coltrane!
Now, as has become notorious status with Thelonious over the years, across this tape we get his meticulous brand of psychedelic jazz tapped over those gritty, muddy boom-bap beats that Reek is so trademark for using!
Even right from the gate in that intro remix, we hear those trippy, manipulated horn samples over those thudding and heavy drum beats that are so fierce they’ll kick you in the chest for not acting right!
This combination of minimalistic approach and savage, eerie jazz fusions makes for the perfect way to start the record off!
As we hear the album continue, we have cuts like ‘Malandro’ which has this slightly off-key, chaotic nature to it that I fucking love! There’s these skittish and sharp piano keys that takeover the track by running wild across the instrumental!
There’s also the ever-so-reliable hypnotic drum patterns, and for the chorus rhythm, we have a more refined and distorted piano track that is equal parts strange and bloody infectious! As well as a small jazz interlude to send the track off!
These are the kind of tortured and experimental performances that Coltrane has prided himself on in his career. Taking the already established joints and making them that much more ‘colourful’, ‘epic’ and ‘explosive’ in representation, and when working with an artist’s catalogue like Reek’s, these ideas only strengthen his overall sound!
As far as the MC work goes, these are already established tracks given a more flourishing and alternative sound than its original (as is the context of remixes), so if you’re a Reek fan, you’ve heard all these verses before, and they all mesh well with the new beats in hand!
If I’m not mistaken, the opening track is a song off his album ‘Things Will Never Be The Same’, as the personalised lyricism is a key giveaway of the more recent development in his music.
The features go extremely well as the pairing of him and Hus goes batshit! Snotty, a natural collaboration made in heaven, and even the likes of Estee, who generally has the same vibe as Reek on tracks, makes this a smooth transition on the remix side of things!
Even though these aren’t new verses, I can’t help but feel they’ve been amplified and brought back to life under these new production feats and brought out the best of themselves! They pop unlike any other time before, and it’s making this specific remix tape probably my favourite yet!
What do you think of this album? Dope? Ass? Listen for yourself and be the judge!
https://open.spotify.com/album/5ysUrubIeSStW0CavQldAp?si=tHfgOaH-TSqSRKbgrPGLyQ
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