By Odeisel
When was the last time you heard Nas and DJ Premier together? It’s been ages. Premo used to have that kind of magic that made the good better, the better best and the best immortal. And then suddenly Biggie was dead, and Jigga and Nas had no more time for him. Well at least for a little bit, you get to sample some of that old Black magic, scratches and all as Nas and DJ Premier collaborate with the Berklee Symphony Orchestra for Re: Generation, a project sponsored by the Hyundai Veloster, which invited five DJ’s of various genres to deconstruct and alien music and recompose it with their own flavor. Premo was given classical music to expound upon and with the help of All-World Nas, what you have is the final product.
Present is all the gravitas associated with classical music as well as all the subtlety from soft horns and piano work. Heavy-stringed violas provide a thick bottom with varying winds of differing paces. Premo adds in the scratching that Hip-Hops the construction together. There is drama and emotion in this composition but it doesn’t really allow for an emcee to break lose on it. It’s daring and it switches rhythm, getting more hip-Hop in its movement as the song draws to it’s close with mroe drums and a dithering scratch to close it.
Nas does what he can on this, there isn’t much space for him as I said earlier, but he manages to create imagery of operatic proportions with that anxious pre-show energy. He’s unfazed by the gravitas and remains balanced atop all the moving parts but the combination isn’t something as gripping as something perhaps tailored to his strengths. This is purely for the exercise of the project.
If you love instrumentation, and you listen to the music and how it develops, moves, ebbs and flows then this will be an interesting exercise for you. If you’re just a beat heat, then you may not care about all the story behind the track and what it’s trying to accomplish. It’s solid and a nice change of pace from the loop-driven malaise that Premo has been in lately. It’s nice to turn up the jets. Regeneration. Try it out.
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