money, cash, hoes - c/d

oh very classic. those cartoon orchestral swoops!

i suppose you could take issue with the content.

i love that they say money AND cash...

but m is OTM on the swoops they make the song!

I remember losing my mind when my brother brought home the album and we heard that song for the first time. best Swizz beat EVER. and the remix doesn't come close to the original.

"D! M! X! and my dogs bite! Jigga! my! nigga! rhyme alll night!"

"New York's been soft since Snoop came through and crushed them buildings"

also a friend in high school used to pronounce it like "money cashews money cashews WHAT"

i know a guy who helped engineer it i think and he came over to where i was staying and he used to live (i live there now) and told us about what a low point in his life, career, etc. it had been to work on it.
i thought at the time that it sounded like some "outside-tower records" hip hop wannabe track scenario and that i would never hear it. maybe wasn't familiar with jay-z or dmx at the time, or he hadn't mentioned their names in the course of his rundown? months later much to my surprise i realized this was the song he had talked about, and that i liked it!

great things about the song:

1. the rapid-fire keyboard squiggles
2. dmx's "WHAT"s and barks - familiar, yes - but they sound more interesting when behind a different rapper's voice (as they are during the chorus)
3. "life's a bitch in mini-skirts and big chests"
4. the contrasts between the two rappers made sharper when they're together: jay-z clear thinking and materialistic, dmx more unhinged but with a greater sense of loyalty and spirituality.
5. dmx starting his verse slowly, then speeding up on "...one night with this rap shit"

I remember the first time I heard it. I found it very to-the-point.

worst track jay-z has ever been on. those zylaphoney downward swoops (hey, i'm no musician). this track is the reason swiss beats became a joke and started losing work...
oh, and dmx is a one-dimensional bulldog who makes redman sound deep.

:-(

"i know they gonna criticize the hook on this song"

Are you joking? This track pretty much helped establish Swizz! I mean who the fuck would've thought to make a song by randomly sweeping his hand down the keyboard (apart from little kids and probably a hundred rubbish 'experimental' bands). It's really anthemic, and i think i read somewhere that his fav beat is "South Bronx", makes sense i gues.

I really like the other couple of Swizz beats on this album but especially "If I Should Die", Swizz had a reall knack for poignant simple spacey productions, and Jay Z's final verse is incredible - "If i should die tell Big we still hearing his songs, run into Pac ask him where it went wrong" - it always sends a shiver through me

different tastes, i guess. it's about the only jay-z track i always skip. OK, i take that back there's most of Lifetime Vol. 1, that Lenny Kravitz track on B2, the 1st track where him Mom talks on Black album...
i far prefer, as a "dumb" track, "Money ain't a thing"

xpost re: if i should die...

man da ranjahz were great on if i should die too! what ever became of them?

oh, and dmx is a one-dimensional bulldog who makes redman sound deep

hey don't down redman! it's sad people think of him as a joke now, man he was such an amazing MC up from all his early EPMD cameos (which are some of my favorite verses ever) and the first two albums....there's lots of stuff more recently i'm sure i missed too because i kinda stopped payiing attention....unfortunately, after dare iz a darkside his flow seemed to ossify a bit into familiar cadences and he became just a basic punchline rapper, but man o man his older stuff is elastic and unpredictable and often surreal....sort of like what people seem to like about kool keith but better because he didn't hack off bullshit lyrics off the dome about nonsense as much as keith does now...

Haven't heard much earlier Redman but i love his verse on "Redbull" when he rides though the hood in a Mr. Softee truck or summat... That always cracks me up for some reason/

his verse on Head Banger by EPMD was one of those "HoLY FUCKING SHIT" verses back when....when you heard it it was like "rewind that!"....just amazing delivery...think of Busta's verse on Scenario by Tribe for a good comparison....

actually, those two guys followed a pretty similar career arc IMO, both got less interesting as MCs and more popular as cameo "personality" dudes....

redman = busta rhymes!! you didn't even need to mention how similar they sound.

i don't have anything else to contribute, except to confirm that paulhw is speaking MADNESS.