Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

For all intensive purposes, these songs sample the same thing.

Common - Misunderstood (feat. Bilal)

Lil' Wayne - Don'tGetIt

Before I was up on my Nina Simone game, I thought the dude on these choruses was awesome ... now I'm ashamed.

Nina Simone - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

I'm pretty sure Common's version features a live version of the song, but oh well. They're both dope while having very differing sample styles and different approaches to the rest of the production and lyrics. I'm partial to Common's, but Wayne's is worth it just for the way-too-long weeded rant at the end. Which do you like better? It really kinda sucks, but Nina didn't even like rap music. "Her body moved, but her mind was mannequin."

... this was whatcha all been waitin' for ain't it?

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Jealous Love

I absolutely loved the following tracks individually and wanted to slap myself when I didn't realize they used the same sample after reading Talib's liner notes on Right About Now. They both take powerful lines from Bobby Womack's 1975 song "Jealous Love". All the MCs involved are ridiculously nice. I think Jean Grae destroys it something else though.

Little Brother - Hiding Place (feat. Elzhi)

Jean Grae - Where You Gonna Run (feat. Talib Kweli)

"Where you gonna run ... ? Where you gonna hide ... ?" It kinda sucks cuz you know both producers knew they struck gold when they originally mixed their respective tracks. Just happened that 9th Wonder's got on wax with LB before J. Cardim's did. And, like I said, both tracks are bonkers, but once I heard Jean spit, "Ten years deep and my tenure's still deep. My bad, I'm sorry, I don't like when phrases repeat." Uh! But Phonte slaps it nasty, too (of course), so which do you like better? Oh, and the picture with this post was just the first thing to pop up on Google images when I searched where you gonna run. The picture actually had something to do with the Nina Simone song, "Sinnerman", but oh well.

... this was whatcha all been waitin' for ain't it?

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Classic: Get By

I enjoy all meaningful hip hop music more than I could ever explain to you, but never did I know an incredibly intelligent track could be so fun. I guess that's what you get with an always lyrically on-par Talib Kweli when he had an old Kanye beat tape before he was a household name.

With Quality, Talib punned his name into the title and provided every bit of it literally with every song in the album. After two undeniably classic duo albums, the Brooklynite ventured completely solo to create another. And I'm not ever gonna say he didn't.

The album comes to a explosive high point early on once "Get By" breaks into your auditory system. Nina Simone Sinnerman's her way through the intro as the looped key sample joyfully creeps its way in simultaneously with Kweli getting straight to it. "We sell crack to our own out the back of our home, we smell musk the musk at the dusk in the crack of the dawn ..."

Short, pointed verses refrain with the sing-alongable chorus and keep you knodding the entire time. You can feel how immense and hopeful the lyrics are, yet you can't help but nearly get lost in how easy the track plays. And just extending on its level of perfection is a more radio acknowledgeable remix creating an ultimate posse cut with the addition of Black Star partner Mos Def, fellow Brooklynite Jay-Z, an early rhyme from Kanye West, and Busta Rhymes rounding it out. Even if you're not crazy familiar with Kweli, you prolly already have stored in the back of your head Jay's big-up Black Album "Moment of Clarity" line, "If skills sold then truth be told, I'd prolly be, lyrically Talib Kweli. Truthfully I wanna rhyme like Common Sense. But I did 5 mill, I ain't been rhymin' like Common since." Calling out both my "Classic" series emcees? Yup.

Talib Kweli - Get By

Black Star - Get By (Remix feat. Jay-Z, Kanye West, & Busta Rhymes)

This mornin', I woke up, feelin' brand new and, I jumped up ...

... and so concludes another masterpiece

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