Dreamin'...

Lately a snippet from the new song "Money ($/*...)" ft. Fabolous has become lodged in my ear:

And I dream the impossible dream
When you and I are alone

It kept repeating, calling back to some other Mims lyric...but what? With 14 studio albums plus a host of other singles and collaborations, there's a lot of material to pick through when you're on the trail of a vague memory of another line.

Mariah Carey, "I Still Believe," 1999

Finally this weekend it hit me. The song I was thinking of is one of my favorite remixes and a little-known gem: the "I Still Believe/Pure Imagination (Damizza Remix)" ft. Krayzie Bone and Da Brat. In particular, this:

Baby I had a dream
And it's more than my imagination
Because I still believe we belong together

Tucked in as the last track on the "I Still Believe" single from 1999, it's a standout deep cut that deserves better than its current relative obscurity. As I believe the best remixes do, it takes its source material as a starting point only, becoming something completely different but equally as engaging through new vocals, collaborative input, and in this case, a fantastic interpolation of -- wait for it -- "Pure Imagination" from the 1971 musical Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. Krayzie Bone lends his laidback flow -- part of what made 1997's "Breakdown" the finest Mims track around -- to the mix, and then  Da Brat does whatever it is that she does (note: a full post devoted to the Da Brat is necessarily forthcoming). One of my favorite features of the track is that Mims' vocals aren't pushing at either end of her range -- it's all very comfortable within her capabilities, relaxed even, and reminds listeners of how she's such a damn good singer, plain and simple.

First Listens and "Money ($/*...)"

Listening for the first time to the new album of a beloved artist is such a fraught experience. It's a greedy, grabby, grasp-y kind of listening -- one is trying to inhale the music, it seems, and instantly familiarize oneself with it. There is a good deal of fear. Will this be ridiculous? Will this sound like the _____ I know and love? Probably the greatest first listen of my life was The Strokes' second album, Room on Fire. When a group's first album is as perfect and iconic as Is This It, there is much at stake in album #2, and Room on Fire delivered in a big way.

I had some good driving time over the weekend to finish up with that inhaling-phase of MIAMTEC and move on to more familiar and comfortable listening. The song that seems to have jelled most quickly for me is "Money ($/*...) ft. Fabolous." It's an easy and breezy listen; the vocals aren't demanding, and Mims has room to play around vocally, finding a phrase or a bit of melody and then exploring it. Fabolous, to whom I last paid attention in 2001 when he released "Can't Deny It," is a good foil for the warmth of Mims's vocals here, laying down some rhymes in an effective but thoroughly unobtrusive way.

The song's horn hook comes from a 1970 recording by Dan Satch & His Atomic 8 Band of Aba entitled "Alabeke." The cut is representative of a genre called West African Highlife which originated in Ghana and eventually made its way to Nigeria, where Satch is from (Aba is a Nigerian town).This is all new knowledge to me, so check here for more info on Highlife and here for details on Dan Satch in particular. Take a listen to the original and jazz up your morning -- you will not be disappointed.


Then check out the Mims track -- love how by the end she's just singing the horn part.