Review Hip Hop

Visioneers

Apache/Shaft in Africa

BBE Records • 2011

Marc Mac’s main focus with his Visoneers-Project is to pay toll to the classics. 2006, he published an album called Dirty Old Hip Hop, which was dedicated to old rap-tracks. It contained reworked versions of tracks like Pharcydes Runnin’ or Nas’ The World Is Yours. His goal was to use jazzy versions of rap songs to take Jazz away from boring dinner parties and bring it back to block parties. What worked successfully four years ago, should also work with the limited 7inch Apache/Shaft Africa. This time, though, it’s not about making shallow Jazz more street-credible, but to bring the great songs Apache and Shaft In Africa back to their original form from 1973. The first song was since its release worked on over and over by the Sugarhill Gang or House Of Pain, Nas, M.I.A. and Fatboy Slim like a stone in water. Marc Mac now takes the original gem, polishes it with some funk and revives the version of the Incredible Bongo Band and therefore emphasises what this classical piece once was: A B-Boy-Hymn. He does the same with Shaft In Africa, which was sampled last by Just Blaze on Jay-Z’s Show Me What You Got. Marc Mac has blown the dust off two timeless classics and lets them shine like in the old days.