Will Rise, Not Fall. Definition:

Cypress Hill: Latin Lingo (Prince Paul Mix)
from Latin Lingo single (Columbia 1992)

Prince Paul: DJ Prince Paul Vs. The World
from Deep Concentration (O.M. Records 1998)

Paul Barman: Salvation Barmy
from It's Very Stimulating (Wordsound 2000)

MF Doom: Hot Guacamole (Featuring MC Paul Barman)
from MM Leftovers (Rhymesayer 2004)


It's been a long while, and for that my apologies, I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again. After having done a post on Prince Paul I decided that just one wasn't good enough and so I present the second installment of the Prince Paul post. The first track is a Prince Paul remix of the Cypress Hill song Latin Lingo from their classic first album. Of all the songs to remix on that album I think it would have been a better choice to do Pigs as the concept of the song lends itself well to the production style of Prince Paul, namely his use of sampling kiddie records, but as it is, we have this remix. Although not a bad remix, the fact that it's a Sen-Dog song is what I think holds it back. As a rapper, his strength is complimenting B-Real and not carrying a song, which he does here. Production wise, the song sounds like a by-the-numbers Cypress Hill piece which is surprising since Prince Paul has a unique sound, but as that Soul Assasins sound was becoming really popular back then, it seems that Paul was just trying to bring his own vision of the sound to the song.

DJ Prince Paul Vs. The World is a return to form so to speak. Starting out as a DJ/Producer in Stetsasonic, Prince Paul goes back to his 1200 roots and crafts a song that is straight turntablism. Mixed with some dissonant keyboards and some vocal samplings, including a collaged shout-out to himself the song is deceptively dope, it may take several listens for it to really catch on (more if you're not a fan of DJ songs). As a DJ, he's no Q-Bert but he's really good on the ones and twos, throwing in some transforming and layering his cuts to create a rich sound.

The third song is from the Paul Barman EP It's So Stimulating, which is entirely produced by Prince Paul and listneing to the songs it's easy to hear why he decided to produce him. Although the content of his rhymes is questionable, his skill is evident from the beginning. Lacing him with a classic Prince Paul beat, the off kilter vocal and jutting horn samples and the use of the Black Italiano (a Prince Paul staple) works perfectly with Barman's dextrous wordplay and his bugged out non-sequitors. Listen for the line "My pissed off Jimbrowski turned three colors like Krystof Kieslowski."

The last song is from MF Dooms promo EP MM Leftovers and brings together two greats and throws in Paul Barman to play off the two. A short yet very funky headnodding song (with a sample that's on the tip of my tongue and probably won't come to me till after this is posted). The song has a playful bounce throughout and it amazes me that Prince Paul and Doom don't do more collaborations as the two that I'm aware of, this song and the Chubb Rock joint from Politics of the Business show that they go together just as well as he did with De La back in the days. The more I listen to this song the more I realize that it's not just the samples that endear me to Prince Paul, but his drum programming, with it's simple, concise chops that still bring to mind the claassic era of late 80's early 90's.

Oh, and check out this link for a good video interview with transcript. Prince Paul touches on all subjects and if you can't sit through the inane host's comments, just read the transcript.