5 YEAR REWIND: NAS + AZ + DJ DELAY



(As part of our 5th year anniversary, we’re revisiting 20 key songs. This post was originally published on Jan 7th, 2006).

Nas + AZ: Life’s a Bitch (DJ Delay Remix)
From Medium: Rare II Mix-CD (Funk Weapons Int’l, 2005)

My original comments on this were kind of thin so I’ll just write up some new ones…

Personally, “Life’s A Bitch” was always my least favorite song off of Illmatic, music-wise. I just thought it was too soft and syrupy and even though I’ve tried to give it new listens in hindsight, it still doesn’t really do it for me.

So when I heard DJ Delay flip a new beat under it, to me, it improved my personal experience of really listening to everything about it – not just the new beats, but the old verses as well. You’d be surprised how much you can pick up when your ear is more fully engaged with a song rather than trying to listen past a track you’re not that into.

For many, I suppose anything but the OG is blasphemous but f— it. I ride for the diggy-diggy Doc Delay on this one.

Pity the mix-CD this came out on (as a bonus track) is out of stock though!