Oh, Manchester, So Much To Answer For

fuck, I wish I knew my hip-hop samples (a/k/a old-school diggin'-in-the-crates soul) better, so I could tell ya where the "even though what we do is wrong" lick in "what we do," the smashin' debut from freeway featuring jay-z & beanie siegel. freeway's part of the state property crew, which is an adjunct (as I understand it) of jigga's roc-a-fella crew. this single reminds me why I fell in love with hip-hop in the first place: its urgency. it sounds like freeway's rapping as fast as he can, spitting rhymes 'cause it might be his only shot - and "what we do" benefits greatly from that. it doesn't hurt that he's got the ever-lovely flow of jay-hova and the incredibly underrated beanie siegel on the track, but they're not the main attractions here. freeway wants to succeed like eminem does - he's got the hunger implicit in all great hip-hoppers, and he's not counting on anything other than his own raw skills to get that paper. some of jay-z's posse could be accused of coat-tailing, but not freeway. the backing track, all cymbal crashes, a simple synth-snare, and that sampled "wrong" looped ad infinitum, pushes and shoves the trio along (not that they need the extra propulsion, but it sounds so nice). I've gotta agree with mtv2 - freeway's one to watch in the '03.