Made up of seven cuts from Background Music (2015), Background Music: The Redux is a jazzed up collection of newly dressed tunes that completely beams in it's new gear.
Right from the top, ...The Redux proves itself as a necessary release for Substance Abuse with the KRS-One-featuring "Rear View". Without getting completely pulled out of it's early 90's-worship, it drops into a different club across the road. This is now a club that favours smoky guitars and sexy brass.
These are remixes I have experienced in reverse; growing accustomed to the new before being acquainted with the old. Where the original cuts had a rough and raw texture that gave it a real street level vibe, for my money, the new mixes add so much more boot to the tales being told.
"Don't Get Us Wrong"is the liveliest of the bunch amongst the new tunes; a statement of intent given new and tighter springs to hit the streets with. This is Substance Abuse at their most positive while calling out shit-talkers who appear at the first sniff of success.
There's also a moment to take a pessimistic look at the effort it takes to get a decent show going on "Front Row"and whether it's worth it - ('This the part of the game that they won't show/ when you make a million flyers and they don't go'). Every group or artist has been through this story, playing the same venues to diminishing crowds and trying to figure out if this is actually going anywhere and if anyone really cares about the work you're putting in to keep it going ('I'm trying to figure out how there's a way to be proud/ when there's more peeps on the stage than there is in the crowd'). Given a new skin for ...The Redux, it comes across much less of a dispirited grump and more of a beckoning call to show up at a show and not act like you don't want to be there despite going out of your way to attend.
"Slow Ya Roll" is a spiritual counterpart to "Rear View'. With emotive brass breezing over a some low and bouncy keys, you can almost see the smoke rolling over LA at dusk. This is a condemning eye at fellow rappers who are maybe in it for their own destructive interests at the expense of the community. The character of this song doesn't alter too much with the remix, it's a just lot more vibrant and stand-out lines ('It's not that I don't care about the freedom you're cherishing/ But that don't mean I'm drunk off of being American') are given a more fitting backdrop to land against.
This is a really strong Hip Hop mix and given that I listened to it first before the original release, it's one I can't help but prefer. It's so much brighter and has a layer of funk that wasn't necessarily missing from the last, but that definitely helps it shine in a new way that needs to be heard.
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