These Things / Esas Cosas (2x7")
Lauryn Hill – Doo Wop (That Thing)
Ruffhouse Records – 78868-S1
Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, US, 1998
info
The big single from Lauryn Hill’s first solo album, served up here on a 7” that I picked up back in 1998. It's funny how some music brings you back to a moment… I remember being excited for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill to come out- and it wound up being an exciting record. I expected her post-Fugees solo set to be good, but Ms. Hill handed us a damn near perfect, classic album. Listening for the first time in a while recently, it's sounds pretty timeless to me, holding up even after almost 25(?!?) years.
A side, Doo Wop (That Thing), highlights that even with hit singles like this, Miseducation was not a crossover pop turn. She could sing, rap, write and had plenty to say that wasn't designed to sell records or score easy radio play. This cut's tales of the darker motives, posturing and desperate moves made in the name of love showed off how effortlessly she could slide from R&B hooks that pull straight from the classics into straightforward hip-hop.
On the B side you'll find a remix by Che Guevara of Lost Ones. The original mix opened the full album with a sharp announcement from "L Boogie," not just to the ex that she knocks around in the lyrics, but to anyone that doubted her credibility as an emcee. This song made my jaw drop when I got home to play my copy of the LP for the first time. This remix is good, but, to my ears, if this funk heavy take picked up play on some new dancefloors, it was at the cost off two of the best elements in the original. From the opening “it's funny how money changes situations,” the sparse production of the original shoved those those lyrics to the front, a hard ass beat to match her fed up, set-the-world-straight rhymes. The impact just isn't the same here. Secondly, the album version sampled (musically and lyrically) from Toots and the Maytals' Bam Bam (another version of which was featured on these pages a while back). That pull from a classic 'riddim' is part of the joy in the main mix of Lost Ones, playing right from the jump with the dancehall, Caribbean, and Latin influences that flavored most of the best Fugees tracks. Planning to come back to that one soon, but for now we go from Jersey and Jamaica to Columbia...
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Quantic & Anita Tijoux – Doo Wop (That Thing) / Entre RejasTru Thoughts – TRU7272Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Limited Edition, UK, Aug 13, 2013
Two very different artists who've drawn on American hip-hop and Columbian Cumbia as inspiration in two very different careers, teamed up for this 2013 single paying tribute to a few of their heroes. Chilean rapper and singer Ana Tijoux joined the prolific British producer (and musical chameleon) Will Holland, aka Quantic, to record two modern cumbia covers at the studio he ran after relocating from the UK to Columbia. The A side features their take on Lauryn Hill's Doo Wop (That Thing) with Tijoux rewriting the lyrics en Español and the strength of Ms. Hill's original song translates clearly. Quantic cut the backing track with one of the solid combos he led in South America, but clearly also pulled on his hip-hop and funk roots. On the other side, the duo take on a Discos Fuentes cumbia classic. A fun single.
Enjoy!
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Both singles in each folder below. Let me know if it gives you a hard time!
https://mega.nz/folder/8fBmACKL#T5sz1WRTbpGFwtW1U11d-g
https://mega.nz/folder/UW5EGSrb#6qxustrNFrTMRj08yaRdYQ
Thanks for this - that Quantic & Anita Tijoux version is just great.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! Glad you enjoyed. Should have some new things up over the next few days...
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