The track has an immense, enormous feel to it from the very beginning – the title translates as Gangsta Boogie, and if ever there was to be a track combining these two words and concepts, this would be exactly how it sounds. Every vocal involved seems to bring a huge amount of passion and personality to the song as it’s theme is to fight violence and racism. The rhythm in the verses is intense and heavy, it’s very a much a dance kind of vibe, but there is also that dark and serious gangster type feel to it, making for a completely unexpected and unique track.
A perfectly delivered concept, a really clever use of musical structure and writing.
The horn section that plays throughout is one of the biggest hooks in this one. There’s an almost acoustic feel to the rest of it on occasion, the drum is pretty simple, either just a click or a simple hit, yet it’s big – it’s placed right up front in the mix. In actual fact, every element in this track seems to have it’s moment in the limelight – everything steps forward at least once to that up front, centre stage point in the music; just for it’s moment, just to keep it all sounding very real. Which it undoubtedly does. The vocal performances featured have a fairly conversational feel at times, almost like it was all performed live; the vocal choruses where the melody hits are equally soaked in that live sound power – it makes it all come across as something you want to be involved in. It’s a great touch.
You can fit this kind of music into a number of different settings and scenes; a really strong and important quality, as it means that the artist is not confined by any genre walls or any preconceptions about the music he should make. You can load your music with whatever sounds and ounces of character that you feel appropriate when you’ve achieved such an ambiguous yet focused piece of music. The hip-hop element is on point, and the music has that powerful big band kind of feel to it – the name is superbly appropriate, and the song is one of kind in so many ways.
By Rebecca Cullen
