I've been on a real hip-hop kick lately, what with the new Kanye West album finally dropping this week alongside Nicki Minaj's debut. Kanye's record really lives up to the hype no matter what most may think of his persona, Big Boi's record is still in heavy rotation in my home, Lil Wayne's I Am Not A Human Being is about as bizarre a hip-hop record as you could imagine and lots of other stuff is blowing my mind at the moment, although it's worth noting that Nicki Minaj's debut, Pink Friday, was a bit of a letdown as it's more focused on pop stardom than microphone skills, just the opposite of her mixtape, Beam Me Up Scotty, and her various guest appearances where she performs somewhere between the best female MCs and a battle rapper with the speed and ferocity of Eminem. Yeah, I have to point out the female MC thing because everyone, including her, is quick to note that she is one of the best female rappers in years, but her skills are so good that her gender shouldn't be an issue, much the same way Eminem's skin color should be of no concern. If you've got abilities you use them, that's just how it is. Anyway, she'll most likely put out a killer mixtape next year and her follow up will be full of lines that rip other rappers new assholes.
My focus on hip-hop lately can be mostly credited to Kanye's insane work ethic, with him creating his fifth proper album, producing tracks for others, getting his label running at full speed, recording another album with Jay-Z and releasing fourteen tracks for free via his website over the course of more or less four months. His cast of collaborators has been incredible with appearances from The RZA, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, Mos Def, Jay-Z, Keri Hilson, Lupe Fiasco and so many others. One of those collaborators is Pharrell Williams, one half of The Neptunes production team and their band offshoot, N.E.R.D., made an appearance with Kanye and Lupe as part of their own little supergroup, Child Rebel Soldier, which supposedly wants to put an album out next year as well. Pharrell has been off my radar for awhile because he simply hasn't done anything terribly mindblowing in recent history. N.E.R.D. has been fairly mediocre to my ears since the release of their second album, although I haven't listened to their new record yet and would be pleasantly surprised if that assessment has changed. In fact, the last thing Pharrell did that really grabbed my attention was the release of his solo record, In My Mind, in 2006. It was a messy attempt at applying his rapping and singing abilities to an album's worth of songs, one that felt underwhelming at best. The most memorable moments on that album were songs like Number One, where Pharrell sings over an addictive late summer groove while Kanye talks in the background and sounds like he's having the time of his life, and How Do You Feel?, a rhythmically heavy track where he gets to show off his flow. Understandably, the album didn't blow up the charts, though Pharrell had a back-up plan, although it never came to fruition.
?uestlove, leader and drummer for The Roots, was contacted by Pharrell with the wish for him to give the album a full remix. Pharrell wanted a live band feel and ?uest was more than happy to oblige, stripping the tracks of much of their synthetic accompaniment and adding wonderful layers of percussion and instrumentation. All in all, it was a wonderful idea that really improved upon the vibe of the album, but because of poor sales, Interscope was not terribly interested in issuing this new version. The album was mostly finished and ?uest named the new band The Yessirs in homage to Pharrell's catchphrase, with the intent that they would tour in support of the album and possibly record another, but without funds or label support that band was forced to disintegrate and the album remained shelved. ?uest started leaking tracks via youtube but in 2007 the audio quality of those videos wasn't always the best, so bad FM sounding rips of the album was about as good as it got.
Sometime in 2009, ?uestlove decided to leak the album properly, putting 320kbps MP3s online of the whole album for anyone interested to listen in. Most of those links are gone so I figured this was as good a time as any to post it here. This is a really fun and funky album. ?uestlove kills it on the percussion throughout, and while I don't know who the other Yessirs were they're killing it here too. They even turned in a Bossa flavored remix of Frontin' that is solid as hell! It's really a shame this didn't get a proper release, but at least it's online.
It's worth noting that three outtakes from the original version of the album are featured in this download too, making the whole package just under an hour and a half in length, a bit too long for a CD-R but perfect in the age of iPods. A brief outro for the album is included here, although it doesn't appear to have been included with any versions of the album that ?uestlove issued, as well as the Reggaeton flavored Mamacita with Daddy Yankee on guest vocals and the soulful Creamsickle. Creamsickle is so good that there is no excuse it never received an official release. I suppose it could be argued it made Pharrell appear softer than his PR people might have wanted him to seem, but it's just too good to leave behind.
If you're not a hip-hop follower or don't care for the modern flavors of current hip-hop it's likely you might skip this, but it's really worth your time to check it out at least once. The Yessirs are on fire, bringing a truly inspired vibe to the album and making the whole thing far more energetic than the original. The Roots are simply awesome so it should come as no surprise that ?uest would bring their qualities to any other project he would be involved with, so if you're still low-balling this album you should give it a chance and let it surprise you. If only this had been the version of the album that had seen release, much like the original version of N.E.R.D.'s debut album which was reworked with a live band for it's release in the US, more people would have taken notice and it could have really changed things for live hip-hop. I suppose you could say it treads a lot of the same territory that The Roots do, but this isn't a Roots album, it is very much it's own thing. Grab this!
ALSO, make sure you read the comments as there is some very detailed information from Uneek who identified the other Yessir, James Poyser, and posted the original mix of Mamacita. You're kickin' ass Uneek! Thanks dude!
Pharrell & The Yessirs - Out Of My Mind
01 Can I Have It Like That? (feat. Gwen Stefani)
02 How Does It Feel?
03 Raspy Shit
04 Best Friend (feat. Tasha)
05 You Can Do It Too (feat. Jamie Cullum)
06 Keep It Playa (feat. Slim Thug)
07 That Girl (feat. Snoop Dogg and Charlie Wilson)
08 Angel
09 Creamsickle
10 Young Girl (feat. Jay-Z)
11 I Really Like you
12 Baby (feat. Nelly)
13 Take It Off (Dim The Lights)
14 Number One (feat. Kanye West)
15 Stay With Me (feat. Pusha T)
16 Our Father
17 Skateboard P Presents: Show You How To Hustle (feat. Lauren)
18 Mamacita (feat. Daddy Yankee)
19 Frontin' (Remix feat. Jay-Z)
20 Rell It's A Wonder (Outro) (bonus track)
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