This is a nice soulful hip hop treat Stones Throw records release from a collection of Oh No-remixed Guilty Simpson "Ode To The Ghetto" songs. I just learned about the song from the label after it's been out 1/2 a year on vinyl, but decided post about it anyway as one of those gems that might float under many people's radar in this fast, online hip hop market. This sounds like one of those songs I'll still be listening to years from now.

"What To Do" is one of those hypothetical situation songs where the MC puts you in his position of jumping through relationship obstacles, in the tradition of songs like Kwest The Mad Lads "101 Things To Do With Your Girl". For the fellas, this is a tale of difficult encounters with females, from cheating to emotional wars you may be familiar with in a relationship that put you on edge. Ladies, listen to Guilty paint pictures of his experience to get an idea of what we may think about you when you're not around.

The remix by Oh No adds a twist of soul to the song with the singing, a perfect fit for Guilty's stories, I think this version could be a good fit as the original if Oh No produced it instead of Madlib.


Here's a writeup of the project from Stones Throw Records:

February 02, 2010

"This past year, around the same time Madlib was creating his remix of Guilty Simpson's Ode to the Ghetto for his Madlib Medicine Show #1 release, we had Oh No remix the tracks as well, using samples from the Now-Again catalog.

Oh No's collection Ghettodes is not an album, but a few tracks have come out:

American Nightmare: released on the Whitefield Bros 45 American Nightmare.
Dreads: b-side of the Whitefield Bros 45.
What to Do: released on the Stones Throw x Serato set.
Piglets: we put this up on Stones Throw's twitter a while back (MP3).
Futuristic: also sent out via Twitter. "