Four years ago, DJ Amerigo Gazaway made a splash in certain corners of the Internet with Fela Soul, an album-length mashup of Fela Kuti’s afrobeat with (yep) De La Soul verses, a trick so obvious it’s amazing nobody thought to do it earlier. He’s since mashed up The Pharcyde with A Tribe Called Quest and Mos Def with Marvin Gaye.
Now he’s dropped the fantastically titled The Trill is Gone, an album-length mashup of blues legend B. B. King with beloved Houston rappers U.G.K. What’s surprising isn’t that it works—Gazaway’s reputation being what it is, failure here would’ve been a bigger surprise—but how funky the results often are.
This week’s Funky Friday pick is The Trill is Gone‘s “Pop It For Pimp,” based on King’s “Tonight I’m Gonna Make You a Star” and U.G.K.’s “Pop It 4 Pimp”—which itself incorporates elements of Juvenile‘s “Back That Azz Up.” As he does on the original, Juvie makes an appearance here, his mushmouthed flow smeared all over King’s bluesy shuffle while a brassy backing track subs the U.G.K. original’s clubbed-out bomps for a cheery outdoor vibe.
You can download The Trill is Gone for free here.
