HIP HOP CLASSICS - Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth - 'They Reminisce Over You'

Hip Hop Classics....straight outta Surrey Heath!!

Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - 'They Reminisce Over You' (1994)

One of my all time favourite Hip Hop records courtesy of two of New York's finest, Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth. Regarded as a Hip Hop classic, T.R.O.Y is an incredibly heartfelt and soulful track written about the death of one of their close friends. It's distinctive bassline and sax break are taken from a clever sample of Saxophonist, Tom Scott's cover of Jefferson Airplane song, 'Today'.

Unfortunately, 'T.R.O.Y.' reminds me of a mini musical Armageddon I once had when I was at school in Jeddah in the early 90's. I had, on tape, an exclusive Pete Rock 30 minute mix he did for Pete Tong's Radio 1 Hip Hop show. On it was an incredibly enchanting (if that term can be coined in Hip Hop) instrumental version of T.R.O.Y. which I played to death, musical bliss. Then a new kid came to our school, the usual buzz and rumours went around about how he was hard as nails, liked rap and that he was a sponsored skateboard champ, damn that didn't sound good! But instead of easing himself in, he wasted no time in making his presence known. I mean we've all been there, you're the new boy, you don't want to be making any waves, the fact people know nothing about you being a distinct advantage. I was like Peter Carradine in Kung Fu when I joined my school, quiet and discreet but quite obviously without the skills. This guy however was brash, loud, dressed like MC Hammer and looked like Vanilla Ice for the ridiculous quiff and shaved lines in his eyebrows he sported (I hated both artists for sullying Hip Hop's name), he also carried a cheap skateboard around. I had nothing to fear!

Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth

He used to bring in a little stereo to school to show off his dance moves to his aforementioned Hip Hop idols and schmooze all these short sighted girls (obviously) with some R&B love ballad hell. One day he heard that I was quite handy on a skateboard and made the mistake of challenging me to a skate off at break time. In a scene not too dissimilar to a teen flick, a crowd gathered to see who'd be alpha male. He kicked over his crap board and said 'let's see what you can do?'. His skateboard was clearly for show as it didn't take long, one frontside kickflip and it was all over. He came over shook my hand and we chatted for a bit (you know what, despite his appearance, this cat is alright I thought). I told him I had a tape with some serious Hip Hop tunes that he could borrow to ween him off Hammer and Ice as they were wack! Months had passed and he still hadn't returned it and I missed it terribly, what's more those serious tunes had no effect on him...... When it was eventually returned, he apologised for keeping it for so long and oops, recording over some of it. You did what!!!??! I went home and played the tape and to my horror the sounds emanating were not Pete Rock but various mixes of Ice Ice Baby and Boyz II Men, I went cold, I was about to vomit my heart out, it felt like he had exacted the ultimate revenge, however inadvertedly. It took a long while to recover from that disaster and I still haven't found that particular mix anywhere. I still hold the scars to this very day.

Come and reminisce with some more Hip Hop Classics...here 
or listen to the Spotify playlist below!!