Swang Remix

I slept through Southern Smoke 25. Had some awful sore throat but I drank last night anyway, and woke up this morning downing advil and living on green tea. So I'm spending another Friday night at home, bored and scalding my throat with hot drinks and saltwater, flipping through the new and improved Source, reading Matt's Houston feature. And I got inspired to visit the rap-a-lot site. What do we have here:

Trae feat. HAWK and Pimp C - Swang remix

"Swang" was a laid back guitar-laced slow riding Houston anthem with a perfect video; the most memorable image is city lights sliding up the car hood, rolling in a cool, slow reflection of the song's relaxed introspective guitar hook. The remix flips the beat, adding twinkling nighttime sparkles that shift the mood dramatically; it's basically a new song, an even better fit for Trae's graphite vocals. Gone is the melancholic, reflective nostalgia, replaced with uneasy chiming atmospherics, strange discordant uncertainty. Pimp C opens: "You got lots of friends when you're up and when you're ballin," but he lets the obvious go unspoken; no mention how few folks went to see him when he was in prison, just cautioning haters because they know what's coming. One of the better singles I've heard this year; when they reuse HAWK's verse at the end it just sounds comfortable in this unsettling new setting.