Evan Nabavian learned to stop going to the club with Isaiah Thomas. The hard way.
The most interesting rap production usually comes from the “other” pile. That’s the stuff that has yet to be associated with a movement, scene, region, decade, or pants size. Beats are more special when you can’t label them easily. The swift and changeable Daedelus once told me regarding LA’s beat scene, “As soon as you start to really classify it, it starts to die.”
Small Professor’s “The Old Eleven” is hard to place. The two minute slap carries jazz sensibilities, but it’s shanked by an off-tempo guitar that throws off a good head-nod. The synths disqualify it as latter day boom bap and discerningly selected Jay-Z and Redman adlibs serve as punctuation. There’s no shortage of weirdness in rap today, but it’s nice when something sounds realized rather than inane.
Download below the jump.
