#k def

Oh man, 1995 was such a great yet terrible year for real hip hop. So many classic albums were released and so many were shelved (Del Tha Funkee Homosapiens, KMD featuring Zev Love X aka MF Doom, INI produced by Pete Rock...)

World Renown dropped this amazing K-Def produced single that year.

I waited for the album, waited, waited, waited... Same old story. Warner Brothers dropped the ball as gangsta rap mindclouded the masses.

"How Nice I Am" is a perfect slice of jazzy / tough beauty, boasting boom bap drums, a sampled hook from A Tribe Called Quest's "Check The Rhyme,"

wonderful piano work by Chick Corea sampled from the LP "Tones For Joan's Bones,"

all stitched together by super producer K-Def from Real Live.

The buttery vocals are laid by a laidback duo, one calls himself John (don't know much else about him) and the other is Seven Shawn, who shows up on some later Marley Marl work.

The single "Come Take a Ride was also issued

and album cuts surfaced as a bootleg years later but man, what a shame, World Renown should have been a game changer. One of my favorite hip hop tracks of all time. F'real, still fresh after almost 25 years.