My mentioning of AZ’s Doe or Die (1995) a few weeks ago when presenting a handful of hip hop-related conversation-enders sparked a recent reawakening of my appreciation for the album, despite its front-loaded nature and hit-or-miss production.  Today I thought I’d tackle one of Pete Rock’s two productions on the record, the Nas-assisted “Gimme Yours,” whose remix was also released as a second single (and produced by the Soul Brother).  I haven’t dissected a beat in quite some time and could always use more entries in the Pete Rock Appreciation Society – shout to Dan Love.

Lyrically, “Gimme Yours” hardly deviates from the street-Mafioso content that defines Doe or Die, or as our narrator succinctly puts it, “rolling trees, stacking Gs.” Nas makes his first of two appearances on the record (the second being the DR Period-helmed “Mo Money, Mo Murder, Mo Homicide”), though he eschews dropping a verse here for merely singing the hook with a blunted, half-conscious inflection.  Pete, following the release of his second full-length with CL Smooth and who was likely working on the Deda and InI records at the time, contributed a track that was typical of his production style then, namely lush, almost saccharine soul samples floating atop rugged drum loops, with little of the chopping and arranging of micro-snippets that would dominate his work toward at the end of the decade.

For “Gimme Yours” Pete resurrects an old Minnie Riperton single, 1980’s “Here We Go,” released just after her death and featuring a posthumously-recorded vocal from Peabo Bryson.  Pete focuses on the four bars of melodic content from 0:21 to 0:33 on the original, where Minnie’s first verse begins and the drums drop out to reveal a harp and synthesizer.  Wisely (given the general public’s familiarity with Riperton’s unique voice), the producer extracts the music between her vocals, most notably a descending arpeggio from the harp at the conclusion of the fourth bar in the original.  Perhaps realizing its sonic prominence, Pete then inserts the arpeggio in the first bar of the loop, and its diminished harmonic color contrasts nicely with the warmth of the Abmaj7 chord.  The E natural and G flat from the arpeggio appear again in the second bar to add some flavor to the harmonically-ambiguous Bb chord, a dreamlike effect that’s heightened by the fluttering Cm7 chord that concludes the loop.  The buzz of the synthesizer is faintly detectable in the mix, though its role seems to enhance rather than complement the harp.  I’m not familiar enough with the logistics of the harp to know for sure whether or not this passage is actually playable, but to these ears it’s some aural candy that’s hard to resist, and the track’s three-minute runtime is all-too-brief because of it.

“Here We Go” – Minnie Riperton feat. Peabo Bryson 4:04 (Love Lives Forever, Capitol 1980)

“Gimme Yours” – AZ feat. Nas 3:08 (Doe or Die, EMI 1995)