Double Helix's DNA-lysis broken down by an unfortunate eyewitness:
Intro- Just a beat made by Raphiki (who also happened to be my DJ), and
fattened by me. I gave him a couple records and told him to come up with
something fresh, DJ-like, and intro-like at the same time. I think it works
well.
SLO to Toledo- This song is actually the beginning of Double Helix. Spon
and I had been going back and forth via email with rhymes, and one day I
just recorded a bunch over beats I had, and sent them his way. One of those
rhymes was a verse telling him "whattup" and inviting him to continue the
song. which he did. We actually had another beat for this, which was
thankfully scrapped in favor of the final version. The only thing we wanted
to keep was the original drum loop Spon had found, but in the end, even that
was replaced by our attempt at recreating the pattern with other drum
sounds. In any case, it's battle rhymes for the smart cats.
Fool's Gold- Our ode to keeping it real and not selling out in today's
swamped music scene. "Money is evil when it is the motivation behind your
art instead of a benefit reaped from creating said art." In retrospect, it
may be the most cliché track we have, but Spon's chunky West Coast banger of
a beat still gets my head nodding, and of course, my homage to DJ Quik lets
you know where I'm from Coast-wise.
Riddle of the Sphinx- On our drive up to visit Sole and Cuzz and company in
the Bay, we were toying around with ideas for concepts and the like, and
this one came up. what if we broke a man's life down into stages, and
assigned each stage a verse. we pulled a hook out of our arses, and I wrote
my verse for the teenager/college years feller It really all just grew out
of that. Once we got back to SLO, we hammered out the rest of it, and then
laid the beat down. we wanted to use a different beat for each stage of the
man's life, but we decided to use the same drums all the way through, only
changing the patterns for each beat, with the hooks sharing the drum
patterns from both verses they separated. my favorite beat segment is the
middle age crisis one. I am thankful Spon came with a verse to compliment
it.
Allido- What do you do when you have song ideas for other groups (Sonz of
Zadok) that never happened?. you pop a beat on the ADAT and turn it into a
Double Helix track. complete with Sankofa's
shut-the-hell-up-while-I-tell-you-to-shut-the-hell-up closing punch line,
this joint plays lovely for all the battle rap types.
The Power of Thought- take a drum loop, have your friend play freestyle sax
over it until she decides to stop, and then have your DJ scratch over the
whole sordid affair. oh yeah, don't forget to make fun of rappers who are
too cerebral (if that's possible) in the intro, and 'voila'. Acey said it
best: "Every MC in the house better shut the fuck up."
2 of the Illest- Another ball dropped from Zadok affiliates led to Spon and
I trading verses over this decidedly drummy track. Mayhaps one of my
favorite verses, but for some reason the voice in the back of my head keeps
screaming "this song needs a remix!!!!"
The Fifth Element- Click tha Supah Latin is a good friend of mine, and I
told him I needed him on the album. He just asked me what I wanted, and I
replied, "just do whatever you want. but be sure to give me that Tried By 12
beat." He obliged my request and then some. if you have never seen this man
perform, then you don't know what a beat boxer is supposed to be able to do.
Some of All Parts- Somehow. Somewhere. Someone. Sometime. All are
explored and exposed over Spon's cowboy movie bar scene instrumental (my
favorite off the beat tape he had sent me earlier that month). If only
HECCCK-torrrr had come through with the footage, we might have had our first
NIMH video on that rooftop in Hollywood.
Parallelograms- The one track on the album which was an actual post up on
Davey D's, forever branding us Netcees, and proud. Here's proof that my
rhymes are written to be spitted. regardless of how many words I cram into a
line. This is probably the best punch line track on the album, and by far
my favorite beat.
Titanic- It has been labeled a hip hop classic, and who am I to argue with
the opinions of others?. an updated version of hip hop as a love interest
transmogrifies the mother of all movies into a indie underground versus
mainstream hip hop adventure/ love story. thanks to Click for the beat, and
I take full credit for the time spent with my sampler watching that damned
movie for sound effects. I actually recorded my verse on my knees, thinking
the pain would put the right emotion into my voice. lol. that still makes me
laugh.
Lazarus Syndrome- Another beat that got redone at the last minute by yours
truly. I might be able to enjoy this track if I didn't have to think about
the time I spent chopping Kash's verse in order to make it fit the beat, and
I still messed it up (according to Herr Gezelius). He got me back by
putting out a 12" with my verse mixed in off beat on the remix. In any
case, this song marks the beginning of the Society of NIMH. Oh yeah, thanks
to Jess' Uncle Jeff for giving me his bible (because God "told him" to) in
that weird little church. without that uncomfortable experience, the track
would have ended up hook-less.
Shu's 24/7 and Sankofa's ought'a graf were added bonus goodies for the Indie
Pennant fans out there. sort of a coming soon type of thing. Too bad
neither of them has put out their albums for IP quite yet. lol. someday,
someday. (Fader should have given you an instrumental Stephen).
