Clipse “Gangsta Lean (John Fontein Remix)”
A shoulda-been single from Clipse’s 2002 breakthrough Lord Willin’, “Gangsta Lean” earned plenty of repeat play through our speakers way back when, the combined sound of Malice and Pusha T’s sweet weed/ women metaphors, one of Pharrell’s best Curtis Mayfield-inspired cameo turns, and a catchier-than-hell Neptunes-at-their-peak beat (based around a dancey faux-strings shuffle and a killer candied synth churn intro/ outro deserving of it’s own separate song) leaving us wishing that we had had a top to drop on our rides so that we could share the song’s summertime high with any-and-everybody we passed by on some journey-to-nowhere throughout the blocks.
This amazingly sleek John Fontein-helmed revamp might not immediately scream “gangsta”, it’s replacing of the original’s jittery Atari funk for a yacht rock-y slab of soul-pop lushness damn near leaving one expecting someone like Michael McDonald to sing the hook in place of Pharrell, but is it “lean”-worthy?
Hellz yes. That is, if you plan on striking the cool driver pose while sitting behind the wheel of a million dollar luxury boat (named simply “Pimp”), traversing the vast open sea with a fat blunt in hand and a gang of the world’s finest supermodel chicks all around you.
