K-SCORE: 70
Rapper: Beanie Sigel
There's nothing quite like paranoia. Can you think of a better way to stay on your toes? Beanie Sigel's "Feel It In the Air" offers up lines like "ya handshake ain't matchin' ya smile" and "I can feel something, honestly." Great stuff, I believe you Beanie, something is in the air. Fun fact: soon after this song was released, Beanie Sigel served 366 days in jail for federal weapons charges. Let's read Kyle's review.
-Mike
Beanie Sigel, I don’t think you were on the same page with your producer. When he hired the background singer, Melissa, and the smooth jazz band, and told you “write a love song, Beanie,” he wasn’t envisioning what would later become “Feel it in the Air.” When you were commissioned to record something so emotionally powerful that the lyric “I can feel it in the air” would easily fit in as a supplement to your soul-soothing story, you decided to go a different route. You flipped through your rhyme book and found a poem about how sometimes you have paranoid delusions that you’re going to be attacked for no reason by some nameless faceless antagonist, and you can’t explain why other than you get a mysterious sense of foreboding. Then, reading that poem carefully, you thought, “this is perfect. I can feel that in the air too.” Well let me congratulate you, Mr. Sigel, on that phenomenal choice.
“Feel it in the Air’s” form and content or so diametrically opposed that on first listen my brain was having trouble processing what the song was actually about. Somehow, this only made it more satisfying on the second listen-through when this striking image entered my head: Beanie Sigel, “sitting alone in a four cornered room, staring at hammers, ready to go bananas,” with two vests on,” “extra clips on,” convincing himself that his “mind wasn’t playing tricks on” him.
This song really took me on a roller coaster of evaluative options. At first I just wanted to praise it for being so pleasant to have on in the background (a feeling that never went away). Good job, Melissa, whoever you are. Then, Beanie, I was going to throw some criticism your way because, well, your lyrics don’t entirely make sense. However, as I continued to absorb your message, I further understood the nature of your derangement and now need to laude you for being so brave as to come out of the psyche ward where you live and record why you’re so scared. As I continue listening, I found giggles became commonplace throughout the verses, which really only indicates my continued enjoyment. Please accept my apologies for laughing at your instability. It’s tough because “my spider senses” aren’t “tingling.” I don’t even have them.
I’ve decided to give Feel It in the Air a seventy. While I love how strange this song appears under a microscope, it does have some visible rough spots that cost it a few points. For one, Beanie, I don’t think my impression of your song was anything close to your initial intention. If you gave me a reason to believe these exterior threats were remotely realistic, this might have had a different message that could have left me with something more than what I got from Feel It in the Air. Secondly, you come out and say “I ain’t skitz homie.” Cheater. Leave the schizophrenic diagnosis up to mental health professionals, and just sit back, relax and enjoy your wait for “the devil,” “knowing one day he’ll ask for” you.
Nutcase.