Two Songs That Have Absolutely No Similarities, Other Than That They’re Both Soundtracking My Tuesday Night
At the moment, I’m hard-pressed to envision two songs more diametrically opposed than Pedro the Lion’s “When They Get To Know You They Will Run” and this recently excavated Big L freestyle from a 1995 appearance on Funk Flex. After all what goes better with your sensitive Christian-skewing indie rock fix than some hardcore rhymes about putting bullets to domes over the “Who Shot Ya’” beat.
Odds are every single person that reads this blog will find to something to like in one song or the other. I also estimate that exactly four and a half people will download both (half, meaning that a Dipset/Children of the Corn fan will download 1.2 MB of the Pedro the Lion song before stopping mid-way through while furiously uttering the phase “no homo.”)
This is just begging for a mash-up. Greg Gillis take it away. Or don’t. Please don’t.
Download:
MP3: Pedro the Lion-”When They Get to Know You They Will Run”
MP3: Big L-”Who Shot Ya’ Freestyle on Funk Flex”
Stumble It!
August 20th, 2008 at 7:33 am
um, you have now been elevated to hero status. consider it an honor.
you didn’t know it was that easy, did you?
(then again, i probably make it insanely obvious that it is indeed that easy.)
August 20th, 2008 at 7:53 am
you are the only other person i know (besides myself, of course) that has pedro the lion and big L sharing space on your hard drive (or i-pod, or whatever).
not quite as much of a stretch as m.o.p. and tegan and sara, but a pretty far stretch, nonetheless.
August 20th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Am I only one who thinks “Who Shot Ya?” is the most overrated hip hop song of all-time? No? Really? I’ll sit down.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
zeus, i think it’s the most overrated hip-hop beat of all-time. biggie’s lyrics on the song are practically untouchable. the 2385265216 freestyles over the same beat from other artists? not so much.
the only ones (well, besides this one, that i hadn’t heard) that even come close to great are the ones by jay-z (”old school, new school need to know this/i burn like left-eye lisa lopez”) and royce the 5′9″ (whose entire verse his a career highlight).
but the beat? not really that hot.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Here’s why “Who Shot Ya?” beat is so dope…
First of all, from an MC’s perspective, it’s one of the best beats to rap on. It just MAKES you want to spit. The right BPM, the right snares, the right kind of sample that’s wide open for you to flow all crazy on. It’s like the guitar riff in “Stairway to Heaven” that Wayne Campbell immediately begins playing when he picks up that guitar in the Wayne’s World movie–it just gets pulled out of you.
From a DJs perspective, it’s “that real hip hop shit” you can pull out that EVERYONE knows. Again, right tempo for blending, dope lyrics, super long intro for cutting…it’s all there
Second of all, it’s dope because it was never on an official album. It’s the B-Side to “Big Poppa” I believe(dart can confirm this) as a “throwaway” joint that mixshow DJs discovered and played non-stop. “One More Chance” used to be on the radio the entire year of ‘94-’95, but 14 years later you’re more likely to hear “Who Shot Ya” at a bar, hip hop show, DJ night, satelittle radio, etc.
It’s definitely OVERplayed but not OVERrated
August 20th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Just don’t care for it at all. I also loathe the “One More Chance (Remix”) with a fire of a thousand suns. Haaaatttte it. Give me the original album version all day, errryday.
August 20th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
I side with Zilla.
I can’t believe you don’t like the One More Chance remix, Zeus. Your “hate” hand is strong.
August 20th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
It takes what was great about the original and rips it’s balls off and replaces it with this “Big Daddy Kane in A Purple Suit” loverman steez than I cannot get with.
For the record, I also don’t like Puff Daddy Remix Of “You’re All I Need To Get By” although the “Razor Sharp Remix” (the video version) is the greatest hip hop love song of all-time.
August 20th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
“I side with Zilla.”
Me too. Most overrated rap song of all time has to be something or another by Pac. I nominate Dear Mama, Keep Your Head Up, Brenda’s Got A Baby (how bad was his flow at this point in his career???) - basically any Pac single that isn’t Hit Em Up or I Get Around.
August 20th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
I’ll take “How Do U Want It” for $500, Alex.