We stumbled across this one while working on an upcoming mix. It pairs Nelly Furtado’s Timbaland-assisted “Say It Right” acapella with an instrumental edit we did of Midnight Magic’s modern day classic “Beam Me Up (Jacques Renault Remix)”.

Beam It Right (Its Overture Blend) by Its Overture

It only took a few listens to recognize that Frank Ocean’s “Thinking About You” is a masterpiece. After having it on repeat for about a week, I also decided that any attempt to remix it was not only futile, but pure blasphemy. Had I even been willing to consider it, the idea of combining it with one of the more popular big room house songs of the past few years (Swedish House Mafia’s “One”) would have been the furthest thing from my mind. And yet, here we are, presenting you with just that.

We actually dismissed it as soon as we put it together, but over time, we found it every bit as addicting as the original. We steadily build the track up from its slow ballad roots to the all out intensity of its Swedish House Mafia counterpart. So give it a listen (or two, as it seems to grow on every one we play it for) and let us know if we committed a crime against musical perfection or gave you a new way and another reason to listen to one of Mr. Ocean’s best.

Thinking About You (Its Overture’s One Mix) by Its Overture

A little over a month after its release, the long awaited Watch The Throne has been digested and debated by many and no matter where you’re opinion lies, it’s been a dominant conversation piece in hip hop. Given everyone’s familiarity, we felt it was an ideal time to rework one of its standout tracks, “Ni**as In Paris”. The melody is undeniably addictive and, in our minds, it was screaming to be flipped. So we chopped and rearranged it, switched up the tempo and added flavoring from a couple other punch-you-in-the-face-type-intense hip hop classics (”Ante Up” and “Get Your Freak On”, to be precise).

Ni**as In Paris (Its Overture Remix) by Its Overture

Figured we’d better drop this before “Watch The Throne” leaks and gobbles up all Jay-Z-related discussions. It’s a simple little blend, perfect for warming up a party and inspired by the similar bass lines in Michael Jackson’s “Liberian Girl” and Jay-Z & Jermaine Dupri’s Steve Arrington-sampling “Money Ain’t A Thang”. Say what you will about “The Throne” (Jay & Kanye’s new moniker) but Kanye certainly makes a better rapping partner than Jermaine ever did…..which is why we cut his verse out altogether on here. Enjoy!

Liberian Money (Its Overture Blend) by Its Overture

When Cut Copy dropped “Take Me Over” a lot of people took note of its strong resemblance to Fleetwood Mac’s “Everywhere”. Whether they were biting, borrowing or paying homage is up for others to decide but they certainly made no secret of Stevie Nicks & Company’s general influence on them during the making of “Zonoscope”, their third LP.

Hearing the album’s 15-minute closing opus “Sun God”, another song-specific melodic ancestor leapt out at us: Chicago’s “Street Player”, best known as the source of Kenny Dope’s house classic “The Bomb”. So we proceeded to do what we do and put the two together by cutting the Cut Copy in half, matching the melodies, and finally, giving their epic electronic breakdown an organic horn-layered counterpart.

P.S. In looking up YouTube videos for the above links, I realized the unfortunate business that is Pitbull’s “I Know Want Me”, which also uses “The Bomb”/”Street Player”. We made this edit with the blissful amnesia of its existence. Hopefully you can enjoy it in the same way.

Sun God (Its Overture’s Street Player Edit) by Its Overture

Company Flow is reuniting this weekend so we thought it’d be as good a time as any to drop the extended version of our Vital Nerve remix. First found on our “5 Boro Bass Mix” which paired some classic hip hop songs with drum-n-bass breaks, this one always seemed to stand out, so we doctored it up and made it a stand alone track.

Vital Nerve (Its Overture’s DnB Remix) by Its Overture

Though better known for his R&B doings, Ryan Leslie did a pretty nasty job on the beat for Fabolous’ “You Be Killin Em”. I guess I’m still a sucker for the “Synthetic Substitution” drums despite them being amongst the most overused in rap history. They do sound as tough as ever on this though, so between that, the addictive melody, and the way the bass comes in with Fab’s harmonizing, the first 40 seconds of this track are pretty undeniable…..

Thinking that such an intro deserved an intro of its own, we put together this little tempo tool* that goes heavy on the build up (flipped to a BPM of 125) and uses the original track as its climax. By adding a context-appropriate Barrington Levy sample to serve as a verbal air horn of sorts, hopefully we achieved the rare feat of making a tempo tool just as equally headphone worthy.

*for non-DJs: a tempo tool is generally used by DJs to transition smoothly from one BPM (for example, an electro song at 125 bpm) to another (a hip hop song at 95 bpm).

You Be Killin Em (Its Overture’s Tempo Murderer Edit) (125-98) by Its Overture

The Bangles “Walk Like An Egyptian”
Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side”
Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way”

We’re well aware that this one has all the markings of a gimmicky 2005-era “mash up”. I think we started out trying to find a tamer but still dance-friendly blend for the “Walk Like An Egyptian” acapella and somehow ended up taking it in the complete opposite direction, making it more of a mellow party break instead. Ultimately, it’s a flip of the Lou Reed more than anything, and with the ghost of A Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I Kick It” floating in the background, I hope you’ll find the result a whole lot classier than most of the “just add water” gimmickry from years back.

Walk by Its Overture

The term “summer anthem” is being thrown around for this DJ Khaled & Drake collabo that dropped last week.While not the track’s biggest fans there’s definitely something to it, so we decided to write it a new bassline, put it at a more dancefloor friendly tempo and make it something we could see as OUR summer anthem.

I’m On One (Its Overture Remix) by Its Overture

While we put the finishing touches on a few projects, we thought we’d recap a few non-Soundcloud posted edits that you might have missed……

Another One Bites The Dust (Its Overture Dub Edit) - Queen

Chit Chat (Its Overture Edit) - Cajmere

Take Your Partner… (DJ Premier Remix) (Its Overture Edit) - Robbie Robertson