I got my suspicions

Scritti Politti and Mos Def? The whitest white man in Wales teaming up with one the best MC’s Brooklyn has produced in the last twenty years? Really? It makes sense when you realize with every new Scritti album Green Gartside tears up whatever his band HAD been and turns into something new. Going from left-wing punk to glossy pop to rubbery hip-hop makes perfect sense in the big picture. Getting Mos Def to appear on a few tracks of Anomie and Bonhomie was the blending of a pop genius with a hip-hop genius. (The sort of thing Puff Daddy/Sean whatever/P-Diddy tried to do with worse results.) Even better were the remixes with Rob Swift on the decks. Swift took one or two of the original ideas from the track but then turned Mos Def and Lee Majors loose for a more freestyle track. Gartside’s multi-layered vocals still provide the chorus but with a glossy sheen but it wouldn’t be a Scritti Politti track without them.

I found this remix on the Mos Def boxed set We Are Hip Hop Me You Everybody so I’m not sure if this counts as a Scritti Politti post or a Mos Def post. I’ll defer the decision until later in the year if the urge to post another Mos Def track pops up.

Scritti Politti and Mos Def - Tinseltown To Boogiedown (Rob Swift Remix)