Jazzy Jeff : Return of the Magnificent

In my last post I alluded to their being a lack of great music this summer. So I have had to dig back into the crates, and I picked out Jazzy Jeff’s 2007 release The Return of The Magnificant I have always had a soft spot for Jeff, not in the sense that Will Smith went on to be the biggest star on the planet (Jeff addresses that fact in skits on this LP) but his work with the neo soul movement. He executive produced the first Jill Scott album, which to me (with my leaden M.O.P ears) is still a classic.

Back to the album, there is one song that I automatically fell in love with. It’s Practice and features J-Live. The song itself contains a heavy sample from Tribe Called Quest’s classic Footprints and De La Soul’s Simply Buggin’. That sample is great in itself, put added on top of that are quotes from an infamous rant by Allen Iverson. Iverson, basketball player with the Philly 76’ers (at the time), was peeved that he was fined by his team for missing practice. He then proceeded to call a press conference and utter the word practice 20 times in 2 minutes.

It’s amazing what producers can take and make into a brand new song.

No Escapin This

Seriously Rick Ross is on another level:

The jockey with the members only jacket with R.R on it.
Especially when all the other horses have numbers.
The Ascots.
The Goons who didnt feel like dressing up.
John Legend not bothering to learn any other lines.
The fact that a thoroughbred is a male. (I learnt that from future international diplomat R. Carroll.)
And that this is the homeless (poor mans poor mans) version of B.I.G Sky's the limit.