know the ledge

brainiac dum dums bust the scientifical

“Knowledge me,” the titular phrase from the Dr. Dre and T. Money song, was not a phrase that caught on… at least to knowledge mine. ‘Knowledge’ was often dropped along with ‘science’ and the other Dre even dropped English with the help of Ice Cube. I suppose it’s just a street adaptation of a Five-percenter-filtered version of the hick request to a potential teacher, “Learn me somethin’.”

Original Concept’s production on “Knowledge Me” was far greater than the humorous not-rapped rambling vocals. The track was elevated from ‘novelty’ status, via a remix of “Jeep Ass Niguh”. The original “JAN” from the Masta Ace Inc. album ‘Slaughtahouse’ was already a standout on an underrated album (although a certain radio host proclaimed it ‘Album of the Year’) but the OC track, based around the leisurely but unrelenting propulsion of the buzzing, almost burping, bass chug, took the Ace tune to another place.

And that place was the West Coast.

Is it a coincidence that the dominance of the West Coast Dre G-funk sound would inspire Ace to use the East Coast Dre track to evoke the booming systems of Either Coasts slow-drivers? The lyrics even address street rivalry with West Coast styled low-riders.

That East Coast novelty track, once transformed into an East Coast version of the West Coast car bump sound, is now tapped as an East Coast version of a crawling Texas beat. Murder Inc. (not to be confused with Masta Ace Inc.) has opened Ashanti’s single with Paul Wall talking about his love of… oh you know… and The Inc. lets him do it over the “Knowledge Me” chug. If it was just Meth hitting clean-up I probably wouldn’t have noticed (and the Paul Wall guest spot is more market driven than ‘slow’ driven) but damn if it doesn’t sound like a perfect track to vibrate some candy slabs during this reign of the Tex.

Original Concept - Knowledge Me (Instrumental) (yousendit) (rapidshare)
Masta Ace –Born To Roll / Jeep Ass Niguh Remix (yousendit) (rapidshare)
Ashanti, Paul Wall, Method Man – Still On It (yousendit) (rapidshare)