While listening to music early this morning, a favorite of mine came on from the iTunes playlist. It was Raekwon’s “North Star”. As you hear Papa Wu reminisce and drop knowledge with the Chef, you can’t help but to become engulfed in the airy, gloomy, and stringy production. It sounds like a movie score that would be played at the end after the tradegy of the story or simply capturing the feeling of reminiscing.

The bass, the strings and the tempo control this track and the end result is simple perfection. I don’t think anything was added to Raekwon’s beat. It was just looped, added Papa Wu up there for wisdom, ODB for the singing in the background, and Chef to drop an ill story. All that is cool but once you hear the Barry White sample, you’re able to hear is production in more detail. Breathtaking.

Sip some coffee  and relax while you become consumed into the 2 tracks below. The importance here is to feel it. Not just listen, feel it.

Raekwon – NorthStar

Barry White – Mellow Mood Part 1

I found this quote after writing this post. I can see Rae’s vision of the track and production is almost identical to what I actually felt.

“North Star” was a track I really, really wanted on my album. It was a track that I felt a vibe of it was motion picture-like. I was havin a vision of that song: I could just see a little kid looking out the window, just eating a $100,000 Bar. He coulda been on the seventh floor, eighth floor. And just looking out the window, just looking at these n*ggas out there in the street doing they thing. How they eat, how they get money. Back in them days, n*ggas would run up to cars and stick they drugs in the window to make n*ggas buy ’em and whatever. So that beat always reminded me of some slow, theatrical trouble that’s to take place. The inspiration that Popa Wu was saying, he was more or less giving a documentary of me with the words he was saying. He was talking about me like “Yo, just keep your head up, man. Don’t let nothing get you down.” Just trying to really inspire me from being an OG’s point of view. And in the hood, OGs is legends to us.” -Raekwon

Classic.