Harold Stallworth is trapped in the ’90s
You know what was way better back in the 90s? Grocery baggers. Today’s youth have absolutely no appreciation for geometry or material properties. If I had a dime for every time a teenager tried to stack beer atop my avocados, I’d be the wealthiest man this side of the Potomac River.
You know what else was way better in the 90s? Remixes. The type of blends that give our favorite well-worn songs fresh legs and a second or third wind. For the better part of a decade, Cookin’ Soul, a European production duo known separately as Big Size and Zock, have carved out a niche as the new age Vinyl Reanimators, reworking records to great effect, often unbeknownst to the rappers they target. Take, for example, their latest concoction, an unofficial remix to “G.O.D. Part III.” Havoc’s original beat was blood-curdling even by Mobb Deep standards. Cookin’ Soul’s version, while admittedly a few shades lighter, is still as grimy as a chimney sweep. It repurposes a piece of Donald Byrd’s “Think Twice,” a jazzy sample most notably looped on A Tribe Called Quest’s “Footprints.”
Cookin’ Soul get the 90s. The logo branded on all their merchandise is, after all, a play on the Cross Colours emblem. Consider this an addendum to the Mobb’s recently released Infamous sessions or, perhaps more optimistically, a prelude to a bootlegs and B-sides laden 20th anniversary reissue of Hell On Earth.
