hearsay

Its funny that as much attention as I give to hip-hop production, I generally don’t pay much attention to R&B production. I guess it is mainly the vocals that turn me away, but it is always a surprise for me to hear a beat by one of my favorite producers used by an R&B act. So when I found out that Little Brother’s 9th Wonder did 3 beats for Destiny’s Child, I grimmaced but had to at least give them a listen. Would 9th’s forray into R&B force me to reconsider the entire genre of music?

Nope.

I hated the tracks. But among the many mixtapes & bootlegs that have come out of Little Brother’s North Carolina crew, the Justus League, 9th added some rap vocals onto a couple of the Destiny’s Child tracks. On “Girls,” the all-female group shows support for a friend in a relationship and accuse the boyfriend of cheating. But on the 9th Wonder Remix, Sean Price takes on the role of the boyfriend, and puts Beyonce & crew in their place for sticking their collective noses into other people’s relationships. His argument makes the track more than a one-sided pop track, and gives it the sort of complications that a real world relationship has: “You’re friends’ stressing me out / I’m poppin’ pills / We need Dr. Phil.”

Chaundon’s take on Destiny’s Child’s “Is She The Reason?” is even better. After listening to Beyonce accusing a boyfriend of cheating on her with another woman, Chaundon counters, “She ain’t the reason why I have doubts / The reason I lashed out / See you’re the reason why I wil’ out and bounced out.” Again, its refreshing to hear the other side of the story, and entertaining to have the original acusatory lyrics turned on their head. Save the drama.

By the way, Sean Price is Ruck from Heltah Skeltah back in the day. Good to hear that the Boot Camp Clik/Justus League connection runs deeper than just the last Buckshot album.

[update: sorta the same remix idea, i guess]

: Chaundon - Is She the Reason? (9th Wonder Remix) :
: Sean Price - Girls (9th Wonder Remix) :