Jai Nitai Lotus - "Mingus Clap".
The Streets - "Turn the Page".

I have a thing for the opening tracks on hip-hop tapes. Intros, overtures, songs like the Streets' "Turn the Page", or "Mingus Clap", by Montreal MC Jai Nitai Lotus. It is even better if these tracks have strings, the feeling of an advancing something. An army, a chain gang, a golem in clay boots. Mike Skinner's song is grim - steady glare, clenched fists. Lotus' has more give to it, much more swing. If they faced each other in battle, I'd give it to Lotus: he's more limber, loose. Different in a boat race: Skinner wants it more. Both these songs make you root for the MC, applauding like a gathered crowd. Aerial tricks, twists and ollies - you want them to land each rhyme, nail the punchline. You want the lyrics to be as worthy as medals. You want the promise of these intros to play out over 70 minutes: foreshadowing, a diver poised over the pool, Chekhov's gun mounted on the wall.

[buy Jai Nitai Lotus' Something You Feel / buy the Streets' Original Pirate Material]

(photo source)