Bonus Post #3

"We’ll get there when we get there." How's now work for you? Sound good?

My Gut Reaction: Prince Paul - The Redux (October 13, 2017)

In 2017, Prince Paul announced that he was finally going to begin releasing some of this new music that he had been promising for a while. As a part of the band BROOKZILL!, he had dropped the album Throwback To The Future a year prior, but as for solo work, we had been suffering through a drought. So when Paul announced via social media that he would be giving away his next album for free, it stirred a very specific corner of the Interweb into a frenzy. But the reason why he was giving his shit away was what intrigued me the most.

In the fall of that year, Paul unleashed The Redux to the masses. The Redux is, in both essence and reality, a remixed version of his third solo album, Politics of the Business, a project that our host was never entirely satisfied with. It was never a best-selling product, but Paul was also unhappy with how the actual music ended up sounding, as well: the concept behind the project was Paul following up A Prince Among Thieves, his hip hop opera, with an album that was ostensibly much easier to market due to its more mainstream sound. It turns out that even Paul realized that the joke flew above most listeners’ heads, and he admits that he didn’t stick the landing. As such, he decided to make the unprecedented move of remixing the entire album, replacing the beats and incorporating some unused vocals in order to create a brand new listening experience, something Paul had never seen done before in the music industry. (You should pretend Psycho Les’ Psycho Therapy: The Remixes doesn’t exist for the duration of this post.)

The Redux features many of the same players that appeared on Politics of the Business, most of them simply because their verses were recycled over different instrumentals, but the project is chock full of surprise cameos and crazy side quests that add to the listener’s engagement with the material. With The Redux, Paul hoped to redeem what he believed to be the most misunderstood album in his catalog, and by giving it away for free, he hoped to reach the broadest possible audience. Also, I’m sure he didn’t feel comfortable asking his fans to pay for the same songs twice.

One concession Paul refused to make for The Redux was to break it down into individual tracks. This project demands to be listened to in order and in full, so instead of releasing nineteen audio tracks, he broke it up into four “sides”, each of which contains several songs. That’s currently the only way to download The Redux for free, although those of you two with the right programs on your laptop will easily be able to split these up. If that’s what you really wanted to do, anyway. (If you do this, hit me up via my e-mail. No pressure.)

Welcome to The Redux.

SIDE A

1. THE REDUX (FEAT. BREEZLY BREWIN’ & MC DELITE)

Acts as a rap album intro, albeit one with a quickie verse from Breezly Brewin’ (Tariq From A Prince Among Thieves), whose verse may be brand new or from the vault, who knows? (He does directly mention Politics of the Business in his bars, so it could go either way.) Paul himself briefly appears to introduce The Redux, while MC Delite does his best to warn the listener about the task they’re about to undertake. Paul reusing older dialogue from his past work gives “The Redux” instantaneous nostalgia, and hopefully it only increases from here.

2. UFF IT (FEAT. HORROR CITY & JEAN GRAE)

In what I hope isn’t the biggest gimme of the evening, Paul gives “Controversial Headlines A/K/A Champion Sound (Pt. 2)” a harder-yet-melodic instrumental, and everything finally falls into place. The beat is fucking flames, and the two members of Horror City who perform on it (sorry, I still have no idea who is who) sound great, as does Jean Grae. It’s incredible how the exact same lyrics can sound amazing when there’s actual effort put into the musical backing. Already The Redux is worth listening to, even if the rest of this shit ends up merely taking up space on your phone. I cannot stress enough how great Paul’s new beat is on here.

3. DRAMA MAMA (FEAT, TRUTH ENOLA & TRUGOY)

Still doesn’t click, even though Paul’s substitute instrumental is much better than the original. The subject matter just doesn’t connect with the current era, and having Trugoy talk about hitting his partner, even if it was just the one time, is unsettling. Ah well. The brief Dave Chappelle sound bite afterward helps tie The Redux to Politics of the Business nicely, though.

4. I TOLD YOU ONCE I TOLD YOU TWICE (FEAT. GURU & PLANET ASIA)

Prince Paul’s remake of “Not Tryin’ To Hear It” begins in a fairly pedestrian manner: the updated instrumental is merely alright, and neither Guru nor Planet Asia fit comfortably with their recycled bars. (Guru, in particular, sounds awkward as fuck before the drums kick in.) Asia’s calling out of specific record labels is still censored (except for Landspeed, once again), although one of those names is now covered up with the “crocker” sound drop he’s used multiple times throughout his career, so that was a nice Easter egg, at least. But “I Told You Once I Told You Twice” shifts into high gear when the all of the original’s material is used up: Paul switches the beat to something smoother, and then an unreleased Guru verse graces our ears, one so good you’ll question why it wasn’t a part of the proper album. So that I liked.

5. TWINKLE TWINKLE (FEAT. BUMPY KNUCKLES)

The hell did this come from? “Twinkle Twinkle” is a ridiculously-titled one-verse wonder from Bumpy Knuckles, whose slightly distorted flow meshes well with Prince Paul’s boom bap backdrop. It’s far too short to warrant a lengthy paragraph, but the artist also known as Freddie Foxxx unleashes bars aimed at fake fucks who want everything in life handed to them, and not only is it welcome here, I realize that I would have also liked to have heard him on Politics of the Business, or even on A Prince Among Thieves. This does help explain how Bumpy ended up working on Negroes On Ice, however. That’s a story for another time. (No, really. There is no additional post after this one today.)

6. LOLA’S BOY (FEAT. ZAKEE)

Side A of The Redux ends with another song that had nothing to do with Politics of the Business, nor would have it really fit that particular project. Prince Paul gives Zakee a horrorcore-esque foundation that sounds pretty fucking good, and the guest’s bars are at least engaging and kind of amusing, even if his hook is ultimately grating on the ears. It flies by pretty quickly, so you likely won’t think about it all that much, but the care Paul put into the instrumental is a stark contrast to the almost complete lack of effort on its predecessor. Which was the entire point of that project, I know, but still.

SIDE B

7. GIRLS WANNA DO ME, GUYS WANNA BE MY FRIEND (FEAT. YOUNGMAN)

Oh boy, is this going to be polarizing. The opening song on Side B is “Girls Wanna Do Me, Guys Wanna Be My Friend”, a sentiment described in multiple different ways by guest rapper Youngman, who happens to be MC Paul Barman’s brother. (Why isn’t Barman himself on The Redux? Are he and Paul no longer collaborating?) Youngman’s flow over Paul’s whimsical boom bap is stilted, awkward, conversation-like, and he rhymes entire phrases like Eminem or MF DOOM tend to do. I fucking hated this shit (and, remember, I generally like Barman). Prince Paul, however, named this as his favorite “new” song of the entire project. Your mileage may vary, but I dare say, if you don’t care for MC Paul Barman, then you absolutely will not like his brother, either, but who knows? Let me know where you stand in the comments.

8. HORROR CITY BABY (FEAT. HORROR CITY)

Interestingly enough, retouching the instrumentals to both Horror City contributions to Politics of the Business not only resulted in much better music (and I mean remarkably so), it also caused me to pay closer attention to the lyrics, and “Horror City Baby” (really just “Controversial Headlines A/K/A Champion Sound (Pt. 1)”) is pretty fucking well-written, the references to rappers and popular culture worked into street-oriented rhymes that don’t necessarily condone violence in Amityville (the group’s home base), but whatever happens, happens. I vote we convince Prince Paul to redo the beats for every shitty album from now on. If you’re like me and glossed over the original song, you owe it to yourself to give this version a chance to change your mind.

9. RHYMES AND CRHYMES (FEAT. TASH, THE BEATNUTS, & TONY TOUCH)

Paul’s third attempt at “Crhyme Pays” (the first two, of course, appeared on the retail version of Politics of the Business) is a goddamn banger. He combines whimsy with a breakbeat, which contrast beautifully with the boasts-n-bullshit from all four participants. Tash still walks away with the belt easily, just as he did on the original take, but Paul isolates his verse from Juju’s, instead of having them run together as he had previously, and this gives Junkyard Juju room to breathe, his shoplifting tales holding up much better to scrutiny now. Curiously, Psycho Lester’s weird line (you know the one) is backmasked on here, so it appears that even Paul knew that it would be considered problematic in the current moment, absolutely not playing well today regardless of what Les meant. Fucking well done, Paul. *slowly claps*

10. I DON’T CARE (THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE UGLY FEAT. DE LA SOUL)

Not so much a Prince Paul song as it is a track from the sessions for a project called The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly that ultimately never happened. The supergroup of the same name consisted of Paul alongside The Automator and the Dust Brothers, joining forces for a Handsome Boy Modeling School-type collaborative effort featuring a ton of guest artists, including De La Soul, who are featured on “I Don’t Care”. (Allegedly the group had recorded enough material for a full project: hopefully we get some more leaks very soon, or even the actual album itself would be cool. Wishful thinking, I know.) This was definitely an audacious way to finally let us hear something from those sessions, and I have to tell you, I fucking loved it. It doesn’t sound like Paul’s past work with De La, and yet it does share the same sense of wonder within the music, although to be clear, I’m not sure who from that wild production team contributed what. Speaking of The Automator, though, wasn’t there supposed to be a new Handsome Boy Modeling School album released this year? Whatever happened to that shit?

11. CHINESE SPARE RIBS (FEAT. THE RZA & HORROR CITY)

A very brief one-verse wonder from The RZA that was probably leftover from the second Gravediggaz project or something, I don’t care, combined with the Horror City hook from “Controversial Headlines A/K/A Champion Sound (Pt. 2)”. It sounded fine, but there wasn’t enough song for it to stick to one’s, um, ribs.

SIDE C

12. PEOPLE AND PLACES / NO I DIDN’T (FEAT. CHUBB ROCK, WORDSWORTH, & MF DOOM)

The Redux bringeth, and The Redux taketh away: the song originally known as “People, Places and Things” before Paul grafted his drama with guest Chubb Rock onto the song’s title was once a banger, and now it’s awful. Our host places the vocals over a flat-out terrible instrumental that shares nothing in common with the original. I get that maybe Paul felt like he was cheating when he reused the “Pease Porridge” sample the first time around, but that first attempt worked. All this take does is render Chubb Rock (are he and Paul cool again? Did he ever get his money back, or is that second song title a clue? It had been a while at this point, so who knows?) and MF Doom’s verses inert. Wordsworth is the only dude whose performance improves by a tiny percentage with this updated beat. There isn’t a need for anyone to ever listen to “People and Places / No I Didn’t”.

13. I NEED WHAT I NEED (FEAT. KARDINAL OFFISHALL, SLY BOOGIE, & SAUKRATES)

“What I Need” just flat-out tanked on Politics of the Business: I wrote earlier that I liked the instrumental enough, but I couldn’t tell you anything about it even if you put a gun to my head and threatened my family. So a reworking of that song has to do a better job with the material, right? I mean, yes. “I Need What I Need” is fucking great now, even with that flea market bootleg song title, but the reason I dig this re-do so much isn’t Paul’s new banger of a beat, or the recycled verses from Kardinal Offishall and Sly Boogie (both of which improve significantly with the new backing), but because of what Paul tacks on to the very end: after switching up the music a bit, he unleashes a verse from Saukrates that wasn’t a part of the original program and the guy snaps.

14. JUST CAN’T GIVE UP (FEAT. BUCKSHOT)

After what sounds like an outtake from Ice-T’s monologue recorded for Politics of the Business, Buckshot enters the stage, spitting two verses (and either the seeds for a third, or just some random ad-libs Paul strung together, I don’t know) over some fucking choice production that makes it sound like he’s rapping whilst wandering through a house of mirrors, except with J-Zone playing the drums. No, really, Zone does the drum work here, and it’s excellent. “Just Can’t Give Up” has fuck-all to do with Politics of the Business, but it seems like it was just too good for Prince Paul to keep from us, and for that, I’m grateful.

15. SO WHAT N----S ALWAYS TALK (FEAT. KOKANE, MASTA ACE, & PRETTY UGLY)

Although our host’s new beat for what was previously known as just “So What” makes croon-rapper Kokane sound even more out of his element than before, both Masta Ace and Pretty Ugly benefit, their respective verses becoming clearer, funnier, and much more entertaining all around, and I say that even though I liked their performances before. Paul boosts the playfulness of the surroundings, which sounds like boom bap lifted straight from an audiobook of a children’s classic, before stripping it down masterfully toward the end of the song (and also the audio track).

SIDE D

16. TEACH YOU THE SOUNDS (or HOW TO RHYME 101, depending on which source you use)

I love that Paul found the time to include a skit on this remix project. It helps that it’s fun to listen to, and you can feel the sarcasm leaking into your brain.

17. MAKE MORE ROOM (FEAT. DEF SQUAD)

Plays like an alternate universe version of “Make Room”, and not just because Paul’s credible Erick Sermon impersonation on the original has been replaces with this much funkier take. No, it’s because Sy Scott has been replaced by Keith fucking Murray, thereby allowing the track the feature credit of “Def Squad” instead of what it was before. And Murray sounds great. Mally G does, too: the newer instrumental has the added effect of being creative specifically to fit his lyrics, and it does so like a glove. Sermon himself isn’t a highlight of this remake, but he’s alright, I suppose. While I do wish Paul had a secret Redman verse in his arsenal to deploy on “Make More Room” (lol at that song title), I’m still more than happy with what we’ve ended up with.

18. 5000 BOOMIN’ WATTS (DIRTY DISCO SQUARES FEAT. CHILL ROB G)

Paul kicks off the song with a plan to make a song for the clubs, and then does just that alongside deejays Rhettmatic and Mr. Len. The trio, who call themselves the Dirty Disco Squares, was announced a while ago (as was The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and SuperBlack!, our host’s team-up with Sasha Jenkins and J-Zone – obviously Paul (or his many collaborators) have big dreams but an issue with follow-through), but I hadn’t heard anything come of the partnership… until now, I guess. And it isn’t great, but I still kind of dug it. The beats hit harder than you would expect, and Paul even somehow located the whereabouts of Chill Rob G and convinced him to contribute verses, and he sounds as fresh and nice as he had been described back in the late 1980s/early 1990s when he was so popular, I wouldn't even have to mention all of that “The Power” shit. A pretty nice diversion, and one that I hope leads to more music being released from this trio. I’d buy it, anyway.

19. LOLA’S BOY (GOT JAZZY GRITS MIX)

Curiously, Paul opts to end The Redux with a song he had nothing to do with: this remix of Zakee’s “Lola’s Boy” was handled by DCee and Johann Sebastian, who strip away the horrorcore-ish elements in favor of some forceful boom bap that, somehow, also suits the rhymes just as well. It still isn’t a great song, but as with the first take, you won’t complain about it while it’s playing out.

THE LAST WORD: Now that’s what the fuck I’m talking about! Prince Paul was so inspired by his seeming lack of inspiration during the recording of Politics of the Business that he felt compelled to do a page one rewrite, and even though the narrative arc from the original project is lost in translation, it wasn’t that strong in the first place, and also who cares when the songs on here work so goddamn well. The Redux not only improves upon the vast majority of the tracks from its predecessor, it also reintroduces a sense of urgency and fun, not just to Paul’s discography, but also in our chosen genre in general, as each track blends into the next in such an engaging fashion that you won’t want to fast-forward through any of this, lest you miss something important or hilarious. I love the idea of an alternate version of Politics of the Business, and the beats on here almost uniformly trump the ones Paul had originally constructed (except for on “People and Places / No I Didn’t”, the rare misstep on here). If you’re looking for a rap album-as-crazy night at a haunted carnival where every twist seemingly comes out of nowhere and random artists pop up sporadically to spook you back to reality, The Redux is definitely for you. This album is very much my shit, and it’s still being given away for fucking free as of the last time I checked, so you two really have no excuse. Hop to it.

-Max