Another episode of Notable Tracks where it’s really no theme. Other than me just talking about good music. But you know that by now. Whatever, let’s get into it. (I even threw in an extra song this time)
Baby Keem recently dropped the deluxe version of The Melodic Blue, and the best new song included was “highway 95,” and that’s mostly due to it sampling “Killing Me Softly” by Fugees. I started wondering why more people haven’t sampled the Fugees’ classic song, then I remembered that Fabolous did back in 2015 with “Real One” off Summertime Shootout. Baby Keem’s version is maybe better though.
While going through my Album Backlog (Another column that I probably should bring back), I gave K.Dot’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers another listen. A version of Not The Twos‘s “Paradise” is used on at least three tracks, and it’s worth actually giving the original a listen too (The artwork is also worth a look). I was waiting on Not The Twos to drop his album A Girl That Sold Drugs, but that’s been a minute since that project was announced.
nappyafro has put together two playlists full of songs to play in the morning. If we make a one for motivation, Ab-Soul‘s “Do Better” will for sure be on there. Something I didn’t know until I started writing this is that “Do Better” also heavily samples a song. This time it’s Nick Hakim’s 2017 song “Green Twins” (“They will always haunt my dreams”). If you are struggling for improvement, play this one in the background. It’s a shame I didn’t find time to give this track its own post when it originally came out.
R.I.P. Takeoff. Damn.