Likely the most criminally slept on duo in 2003, DM & Jemini (particularly Dangermouse), are getting much more attention these days after “The Grey Album” fiasco with EMI. Hopefully, this all they will need for “Ghetto Pop Life” the burn that it rightly deserves. If not, maybe the well-timed supplement “26 Inch EP” will do the trick. Here is what you get: two remixes, a sequel, three new songs, and two new guests, all good music.
Tha Alkaholik assisted “What U Sittin’ On” is reincarnated here, remixed wonderfully, and featuring the always-welcome Cee Lo crooning the hook as only he can. Each Tash and J-Ro get a couple classic lines in; Tash with “baby girl what you sittin’ on? dubs or deuce deuces/she said she don’t fuck with rap niggas, just producers.” J-Ro finishes his verse claiming her “ass so big she left skid marks on the dance floor.” “Ghetto Pop Life,” a stand-out track from their album of the same name, is given the remix treatment here as well. The beat is basically the same, but Danger Mouse just abuses (in a good way), a classic Beastie Boys vocal sample. Plus your favourite Nubian named Sadat X chimes in for a verse, he has sounded better but it’s still all gravy. “Ghetto Pop Life,” a stand-out track from their album of the same name, is given the remix treatment here as well. That isn’t typo, the track is remixed twice. The script is totally flipped the third time around as the high-intensity track turns into some mellow grooves and Jemini yet again sounds like two completely different emcees. The magnum opus from their LP “Omega Supreme” gets re-worked as well, it works okay but a track like that just should have been left alone.
Two new tracks are thrown into the mix to further wet our appetites for the second full-length (this fall). “The Shit” sees Jemini channelling Jules Winnfield making repeated declarations that he is a bad motherfucker. I wonder if he has the wallet too? Even better is “Live on Both Sides,” with Jemini playing skitso again over a triumphant Danger Mouse heater. Producers take note, listen to how dynamic that beat is. See? It changes, now you try. 6 tracks, 22 minutes, if you still don’t know what these two are all about you now have an EP and an LP to catch up on.
