Keith Ape – “It G Ma (Josh Pan Opus)” (Feat. Anderson .Paak, A$AP Ferg, Waka Flocka Flame, Father, & Dumbfoundead)
Josh Pan is a remix monster. He calls his new 14-minute remix of Keith Ape’s “It G Ma” an “opus” and it actually lives up to the billing. There’s an EP’s worth of material on this one track. It plays like an orchestral movement and could double as a film score for some kind of spacey, futuristic hood tale. The original remix was already a beast at five minutes long, but the verses were jam packed in quick succession, so it seemed quick.
The “opus” remix has elongated moments that linger, and each verse almost constitutes its own song, with mesmerizing reprieves in between. Pan reused the verses from the original remix, but there is one notable addition from Anderson .Paak that pretty much shuts the whole thing down. Paak is more soulful singer than spitter, but here he’s in pure lyrical beast mode, employing a hard, quick-paced, locked-in cadence to deliver lines like “You niggas can’t get no time of the day/ Niggas still bitter like an IPA/ Niggas playing catch up like a high speed race.” It seems some time spent around Kendrick and his new Aftermath family has upped his lyrical dexterity. Pan is still the commander though, ingeniously enveloping the verses and surrounding them with killer multi-layered flourishes. Check it out below via Pitchfork.