Songs of the Day

Tip the Scale (ft Dice Raw):  Love this beat!  It's simple, and subtle, but still has power to it.  Every instrument is vital to the groove, which I find really cool.  The addition of the strings in the chorus and 2nd verse are pretty key to the groove moving forward, and they do the job perfectly.  It's just so laid back, and chill, but it still makes you take note of what's going on.  The groove works perfect with the sad lyrical context, and it's always great to hear music and lyric matching up that way.  My favorite line comes courtesy of Dice Raw, "lotta niggas go to prison/how many come out Malcolm X" - catches me every time.  Love the descending keys line towards the end.  Killin track.

Redford (For Yia-Yia & Pappou):  The final four tracks on the album are known as "The Redford Suite" in four movements.  Man, you never see that this day in age, especially on a hip hop album - mad props.  This is actually a Sufjan Stevens track, and man do I dig it.  It's just a repeating keys line and distant vocals, but the way it layers and flows is so beautiful.  It reminds of the latest Radiohead album, King of Limbs, which is fantastic, so I'm definitely down with this.  Very short, but very sweet, and a great transition into the end of the album.  Beautiful.

Possibility (2nd Movement):  So we're getting into some orchestration now, and I really dig it.  Daniel Felsenfeld arranged the strings, and he did a really beautiful job.  A great transition from the last tune, and into the next.  Very short, but very sweet.

Will To Power (3rd Movement):  This is the freak-out-and-play-everything-you-possibly-can movement.  Keys and drums just freakin out, which is actually a cool switch from the previous two.  I'm glad it's not very long, because it probably would have gotten old and somewhat irritating, but it doesn't, and I dig it.

Finality (4th Movement):  This is essentially the same as the 2nd movement, with the addition of a held out, whacky keys chord at the end, which really brings the 2nd and 3rd movement together.  Very smart, Ahmir, very smart.  You can hear the musicians breathing throughout all of these tracks, and I find it very beautiful.  The breath becomes a part of the tune.  Very sweet, and a great way to end the album.