“These Are Our Heroes”: Breakdown of a Nas Tribute

From a time when they weren't made to last...

When ‘Hop Hop is Dead’ was released, buried amongst the playlist was “Where are they now”, a throwback joint in every sense of the word. With its ‘Bomb Squad’-esque production and litany of past rap icons shouted out over the track, this song served as a compelling reminder to the headz and somewhat of a non-preachy history lesson for the “Insert consonant-eezy” generation of listener.
But in a rare moment of the consumer actually benefiting from marketing synergy, Mr. Jones decided to drop a series of ‘Where are they now” remixes, during Black History Month no less, featuring a specific generational or regional grouping of rhymers on each.
So for this week’s music drop, I decided to feature the 90’s remix and include all the seminal tracks from each of the featured artists…

Here it is: Nas’ Where Are They Now 90’s Remix ft. Redhead Kingpin, The Original Spinderella, Rob Base, Father MC, Monie Love, Mike D (of the Jungle Brothers), EST (of 3XDope), Positive K, Das EFX, Lords of the Underground, Dres (of Black Sheep).

For the record, I made some substitutions here and there: Joy and Pain was added for Rob Base, just for variety’s sake. I wanted to include something that illustrated how Positive K could really spit and was more than just that guy that got fronted on by that girl. And finally, I threw in a couple of less heard remixes for Das EFX and Black Sheep: anybody who knows me will know that I’m extremely partial to Dres as an emcee and that ‘A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’ still ranks as one of my favourite albums of all time.
Speaking on that Native Tongue tip, even tho he wasn’t on the track per say (merely shouted out with reference to his legal woes), I’ll throw in this Chi Ali posse cut with various affiliated fam, including Juju from the Beatnuts.
I’ll leave it at this, and refrain from completely meandering to recall memories and extoll the virtues of a more artistic and expressive time in the history of hip-hop. Enjoy.