J. Cole's Remix to A Tribe Called Quest's "Can I Kick It?" is a Beautiful Spin on a Classic That Stays True to Its Roots

Today must be a very special day. J. Cole just dropped off a reworked instrumental to the legendary group A Tribe Called Quest's "Can I Kick It?". And he did so very fittingly one day after the anniversary of A Tribe's classic album "Midnight Marauders", despite "Can I Kick It?" dropping on their 1990 album "People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm".

A Tribe Called Quest is one of my favorite groups of all time. They're up there with Wu-Tang Clan and De La Soul for me. Just like with those groups, I think Tribe's music is untouchable. But with Pharrell's remix of "Bonita Applebum" showing that it can be done properly it was easy to welcome Cole's spin on another classic track. The remix (by the same name) replaces the entire structure of the song. The warm deep plucks of the bass, the upbeat drum breaks and the scratches are all gone. Cole truly makes this track his own by adding in a beautiful introductory closed hi-hat and tops the beat off with his own more reserved kick drum underneath the resonating claps. He completely transformed the beat but was able to keep A Tribe Called Quest's essence in the song by leaving in Q-Tip and Phife Dawg's verses. It was beautiful. This "Can I Kick It?" remix took one of my favorite groups ever and paired them with one of my favorite rappers of today. This is what true hip-hop heads like myself really geek out over. The remix still can't touch the original but I absolutely love it almost as much. I had just as much joy listening to it as I'm sure J. Cole did making it. This is a track I'm thankful for and makes me want to see more classics succumb to Cole's touch. We might just get some gold.

Listen to the remix with the link below.

Lead Photo Cred: rollingstone.com

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