"You See Dad, You're Underground": Count Bass D
Production: Count Bass D
Album: Hezekiah II (2 of 5)
"I'm the underground king, and I ain't been crowned"
With a career spanning three decades and thirty full-length albums (with 20 of them solely instrumental), Count Bass D has remained the bootstrapped talisman for the bootlegged scene. With a prominent feature as rapper and producer on MF DOOM's 2004 album MM...FOOD, the Count (aka Dwight Spits) has seen fair heights, whilst also witnessing his career blossom and fade in regular tandem.
The second track from his 15th album Hezekiah II (2 of 5) is one of the more reflective of his long opus. With album art featuring the artist looking out into the distance from the perspective of a motel mirror, (as well as two links to his website), the project showcases his introspection as an old-head in a young man's game. "You See Dad, You're Underground" captures that perfectly, with Fuzzy Bones-esque samples kickstarting the three-minute ballad to wistful nostalgia. About 10 seconds later the hook comes in - a doctored sample of 50 Cent's 2003 track "Many Men (Wish Death)" - over the layered string-and-guitar-heavy instrumental whose inevitable chord progressions add to that feeling of unavoidable aging.
It's the edit to the sample that really hits home, though. Whereas 50's original is defiant and implies future success - "I'm the underground king that ain't been crowned [yet?]" - Dwight's is more resigned - "i'm the underground king, and I ain't been crowned".
Pls click to pay respects - www.countbassd.com