Photo via Up North Trips

Deen is calmer than you are, dude.

I don’t know what it is about this damn song that gets me so extra hype. I think, and correct me if I’m wrong, that it’s the perfect definition of irony when a song titled “Calm Down” makes me want to shank something. Even better is the fact that the hypnotic piano loop that drives the beat is sampled from a fucking Bette Midler song. Pardon me, but that’s just 5 different kinds of hilarious to me. Maybe I’m too easily entertained.

I wish I could shed more light on the origins of this song, but there’s isn’t a whole lot of information about it on the net. Tragically, my usual crack research sources aren’t yielding much. I suspect that it was recorded sometime around the 2nd CNN album (“The Reunion”) and never made it to retail due to sample clearance bullshit — between uncleared samples and leaks a million potentially dope rap albums have been fucked over time. So as is often the case with gems like this, it got leaked on some random mixtape and became a minor cult classic.

I’m not sure if it’s Nas’ sudden publicity blitz or my recent exposure to French Montana’s hook stylings, but I’ve developed a strange obsession with shittily crooned Queensbridge hooks over the last week or so. I do not regret this choice. This is what happens when these new niggas refuse to drop anything interesting over a 5 day span. In any case, I feel zero guilt since Nas’ verse on this shit is sublime as fuck. That rich/broke nigga is really the greatest story teller this rap shit has ever seen – and that was just the 2nd half of his verse. In a sense, his verse on this song feels like a waste sandwiched between Tragedy’s random mystic/sociological rambling and NORE’s, well NORE’s whatever the fuck that was – all I heard was “Jose Luis Gacho.” Sounds Mexicany and dangerous.

And THAT hook! Man! It just works. If you stop and think about it, Nas’ singing on this shit is actually better than any non-Kid Cudi parts on 808s and Heartbreaks. So what’s the point of bringing up Kid Cudi and Kanye in a post about Nas, Nore, and QB hooks? I’m can’t be sure. But I know that Nas missed out on an opportunity there with those damn hooks. So the lesson here, as always, is that “Nas Lost.”

Have a calm day…

Download:
MP3: Capone-N-Noreaga ft. Nas – “Calm Down”