this one flew completely under my radar until i read about it in fredrik strage's book "mikrofonkåt" a few years later. strage mentions that swedish rapper petter used the instrumental to perform his song "du vet att jag gråter" instead of it's original backing.
it's a very heartfelt song which has a grimy sample of the breakdown from bob james' "nautilus". i'll get my nerd on that one later but i'll talk about this song first since it's a really good song. the moody backing gives blige a great field to do her usual strong vocal performance and you really feel every word from her.
dmx opens up the song and does a short verse and i'm really not that big of a fan of dmx since he tends to do overdo his schtick. but on this one he's very subtle and straight to point and does a great introduction to mary j. blige. nas who was also featured on "love is all we need" off the "share my world" album does a longer verse which is really good.
the combination of mary in a serious and heartfelt mood and nas & dmx who also get serious in the topic matter makes this a great kind of hiphop/soul number which mary j blige built her career on and i think this track was especially meant for the streets since it's only been a b-side.
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also i have to nerd out a little on "nautilus" since this track is a classic in hiphop and has been used to make countless tracks out of. just blaze mentions in this youtube video that there are so many little breaks in the song, but they all just have you pacing towards your sampler/mpc/computer to make something out of it.
i think there is not one single second out of the song that hasn't been used but there are a few breaks and sounds that most like to use. like, the bassline, the intro or the first part but there is also the mood switch when it goes blues-y and also the breakdown where it's drums and bob james' electric piano.
this along with the moody part is my favourite parts of "nautilus" and like just blaze and 9th wonder mentions in that video, one you hear the track you think "i have to do this". eventually you start to assembling an idea of what you want to do in your head. problem is with me is that when i first heard "sincerity" i was pissed since kenny "smoove" kornegay already did what i wanted to do.
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