- "Come out angels, come out ghosts, come out darkness, bring everyone you know, I'm not running and I'm not scared, I am waiting an well prepared. All the suffering and all the pain never left a name." Everyone has trials in their life- suffering and striving are universal. "This album is dedicated to....all the n*ggas in the struggle". That of course was Biggie Smalls introducing us to "Juicy" but the sentiment here is about the same. "War of My Life" (from John Mayer's latest album "Battle Studies") is meant to be accessible; we should all be able to relate to this. I'm not sure who I am to question Steve Jordan's production choices given the fact that he helped mastermind the sound on "Continuum" but the studio version of "War of My Life" sounds a bit murky, as if the guitar leads were recorded under water. That being said the overall feel of the record hits the right emotional notes. John Mayer debuted this song this time a year ago in a small venue in Los Angeles. Where did the last year of my life go?
2. Purple Pills- D12
- "I take a couple uppers, I down a couple downers, but nothing compares to these blue and yellow purple pills." It's always nice to have a few songs in your collection that glamorize recreational drug use. D12 features Eminem and a handful of his boys from Detroit. To help commercialize the song (i.e. get it played on radio and TV) the song was reworked as "Purple Hills" with a few lyrical modifications. Searching for old records to sample is known to many in hip-hop as "digging in the crates". It really is an art form. The quest for that moment in an old record that can be reworked into something new and different is some people's life work. In the case of "Purple Pills" I must say bravo. "Purple Pills" is based on a sample of Ray (Oh yes they call him the streak) Steven's "Jeremiah Peabody's Polyunsaturated Quick-Dissolving Fast-Acting Pleasant Tasting Green and Purple Pills". We're not exactly sampling James Brown or Parliament Funkadelic here.
- (instrumental) Speaking of "digging in the crates" we have come to one of the masters. Josh Davis a.k.a. DJ Shadow has made a career out of blending moments from obscure and long lost records into brand new music. His breakthrough "Endtroducing...." was reissued several years ago as a "Deluxe Edition" with a bonus disc of material. The bonus disc has a number of cool moments. "Red Bus Needs To Leave!" is not one of the more notable selections but he bonus disc is labeled as "excessive ephemera" so it's not like we haven't been warned.
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