Organized Konfusion - Walk Into The Sun (Bill K Remix)
Organized Konfusion is maybe my favorite hip hop duo of all time, and its got mainly to do with their breadth. Walk Into The Sun is a summer breeze of a joint and was a real breath of fresh air for a lead single, so to see them follow it up with a remix of this caliber was truly inspirational. Classic samples abound in the original but the remix is a bit more bare-bones, which is precisely why I like it so much. This has been a staple of my crate since the early days post-high school because it toes so many lines so gracefully; it’s warm, accessible, smart, and mixable. In short, this shit works. When did we loose all these sensibilities in hip-hop? In the case of Organized Konfusion, we lost it the very next album with their uber-classic “Stress: The Extinction Agenda”. And here we see their depth: it’s dark, claustrophobic, and confrontational, without being contrived or whiny. In fact, it makes you like it almost in spite of itself. How did two guys from queens manage to pull this leap between styles off?
A couple of clues are easily accessible even if you only know Pharoahe Monch from his Godzilla sampling days, or alternately from my last post. His album on Rawkus, “Internal Affairs” is definitely one of the most cohesive disc from the label, and shows a real commitment to artistic breadth. Many of the themes we see in OK’s first two LPs are intelligently employed and we begin to understand where the early successes may have stemmed from. This is not to malign the other half of this landmark hip-hop group, Prince Po, as he continues to put out high quality work, most notably “The Slickness” on Warp subsidiary Lex (with gorgeous album artwork, as Lex always seems to). This album seemed to pop up at a strange time in hip-hop and somewhat dove-tailed the ascendancy of production luminary Dangermouse, and accordingly was lost in shuffle by a majority of heads. Tragically so; go check it out.
As to the question of who this Bill K is, I really have to plead ignorance. The internet turns up little info on him that seems relevant, so I’m left wondering… wondering if he’s out there googling his name and still has the tapes from the session. I would beat a donkey to death for the a cappella for this track. Just sayin’.
