- Mon, 2011-03-14 11:05
Philadelphia emcee/producer Has-Lo has been gaining ground as a popular underground artist for some time now, and his hard work paid off when the ever-reliable Mello Music Group picked him up back in 2010. He’s been working on his first official release ever since, and recently revealed that MMG will be issuing the full-length, entitled In Case I Don’t Make It, on March 29th.
To whet the collective whistle prior to the album’s release, MMG are offering a free download of Culture I’s GumShoes remix of Has-Lo’s tune Black Rose. First appearing on the MMG compilation Helpless Dreamer towards the end of 2010, the original of Black Rose was a broody slow soul ballad-sampling film noir, a story of deception and double-crossing unfolding after an apparently chance-meeting at a ball takes an unexpected turn.
Culture I’s remix strips out the strings and the plaintive female croon, introducing the track with the kind of fanfare you might find introducing a 1940s black and white thriller before dropping a more robust beat laced with chopped-up snatches of retro movie mood-music. The effect is to accentuate the filmic feeling inherent in the lyrics and to replace the smooth, cop-drama vibe of the original with one more akin to a sinister thriller. It’s something a little bit left-field from Has-Lo and Culture I, but the talent on show is undeniable.
Download the track from here.
