Jedi Mind Tricks - Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell (Remixes) (2006)
WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH ME REVIEWING TONS OF REMIXES LATELY?! I have no idea what's gotten into the water to cause so many remix albums appear out of nowhere, but here we are. See, one of the things I LOVE about Jedi Mind Tricks is their producer, Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind. He makes absolutely brilliant and even gorgeous beats, and I honestly think he's one of the best producers in the whole damn world when it comes to hip-hop. When you take him out of the equation, I start to worry, because he is so unbelievably vital to JMT's sound, and what helps separate them from many other underground hip-hop groups. Instead of just doing simple boom-bap beats, he crafts brilliant atmospheres and hard-hitting beats using everything from Italian Pop to classical music. He educates your ass on music from around the world, and even from back in time. Going into this, I was worried, and truth is, while it didn't completely alleviate the feeling of "Man I wish I was listening to the originals instead", there actually was a fair bit to like!
Don't get me wrong, I still prefer a lot of the originals to the remixes, but some of these remixes are pretty interesting in the way that they essentially strip the songs down from their gorgeous and hard-hitting nature to be just normal boom-bap hip-hop, but also notable in its own way. "Suicide (Kavorkian Remix)" has a nice hard-hitting early 90s sound to it, "Uncommon Valor (A Vietnam Story) (Feat. R.A. the Rugged Man) (6 AM Remix)" is relatively smooth, but pretty notable is a remix of "Heavy Metal Kings (Feat. Ill Bill)" featuring a sample of Metallica's "One" that actually works out pretty well! Nowhere near the banger that is the original, but still.
One of the few remix albums I've walked away at least mildly liking, so that's saying something in itself, regardless of the rating, right?!
7/10
