Fake You Left and Go Right Down The Lane

Now You're Mine - Gang Starr
from White Men Can't Rap EP on EMI (1992).
I Wish (street mix) - Skee-Lo
from 12" on Wildcard (1995).

I am so basketball addled right now, it is surprising I can get anything done. A big portion of that is that my life-long favorite team is currently and somewhat surprisingly up 3-1 on Phoenix and their Most Valuable Canadian, but it also is the general greatness of NBA basketball right now. And this has some relevance to music also, bear with me.

Any day now Nike should unveil new ads for post-season, at least they typically do. Being excited about adverts would normally alarm me and seem silly except that Nike makes the greatest commercials ever. Miniature movies with superb editing, style, graphics, and of course music. You can catch classic commercials on the old interweb currently featuring production by Arika Bambaata and The Neptunes.

Dip back even further and there was this classic featuring the sweet shooting Ray Allen, which features "Words I Manifest" by Gang Starr. For some reason I remembered that commercial featuring a different Gang Starr track: "Now You're Mine." Maybe because "Now You're Mine" is a super fantastic track, or maybe because it is in the not super-fantastic hoops movie White Men Can't Jump (aka Money Train: The Prequel), or maybe because it would have been the better track for that commercial. I mean Guru's lazy monotone delivery seems particularly devastating when discussing how he'll thrash his opponent. If someone came at me with that much heat on some mellow, unblinking action I'd take it well more seriously than all the shouters and flexers (Berkeley RSF, what?!). Found on either this EP from the movie's soundtrack or on the 1994 album Hard To Earn, I've even heard "Now" was on once a limited B-side with "Mass Appeal" on Chrysalis, but I've never seen it for what it is worth.

As a lesser bonus another all time classic hoops track is here in the form of Skee-lo's pity fest "I Wish." Working on the G-funk formula this track isn't the sonic equivalent of DJ Premier's work, but it is pretty solid and high on the nostalgia factor me. As a player I'm probably more in line with Skee-lo's desire for more height than Guru's braggadacio, but I bring the intangibles, cagey veteran style.