Me or the Papes by Jeru the Damaja (prod. DJ Premier)

Back in '96 Jeru released his sophomore album Wrath of Math. Like his previous release, the album featured themes of Afrocentricity, the preservation of hip hop culture, and criticized materialism. His first album The Sun Rises in the East was precieved well by hip hop heads, but was not free from criticism. The single Da Bitchez left some of Jeru's audience partially divided. Pras from the Fugees even made a couple of disses in response to this song in particular. The song explicitly describes a certain type of woman, and Jeru is careful not to generalize.

"Now a queen's a queen and a stunt is a stunt/ You can tell who's who by the things they want."

Despite this, Jeru felt that on his '96 release he would have to clarify exactly who he was referring to.





Like his last album, Wrath of the Math featured DJ Premier as the chief producer. The song first opens up with just the drums and bass line. The particular sample used here is from Procol Harum, a British rock band from the late 60s. What strikes me about this sample is that my dad actually owns a 45 rpm record of theirs, which features one of their better known tracks 'A Whiter Shade of Pale'. The particular song sampled for 'Me or the Papes' is 'Repent Walpurgis' and judging from the original Premo must have just made a sped up loop of the first 2 bars.







The next sample that we hear is by far the most complex portion of the beat. And that would be piano keys that DJ Premier chopped up. The melody used was sampled from Ahmad Jamal, a Jazz pianist from Pittsburgh. The particular record used is 'I Love Music' from his 1970 release The Awakening, an album that has actually been sampled once before by DJ Premier.






 Sample starts at 5:40
This is where Premo's technical skills shines through. The way he chops up the piano keys makes it difficult to follow exactly where his chops start and end. And while this is the basis for the beat, he features other samples including the sound of an opening register from Pink Floyd's 'Money', probably one of the less obscure songs used. Another signature of Premo's is his extensive knowledge of lyrics to hip hop songs, which are featured in his various scratches. 

"Cause ain't no fiends comin in between me and my dreams/See what I mean black, I--gets the paper"

Whenever I hear this song I think about how people say hip hop purports misogyny. And while in some cases I think this argument is true of some songs, I don't think this is an example. What this is an example of is how hip hop often is misunderstood for what is only interpreted on the surface. What Jeru made is a love song. A song about a guy who falls in love with a girl, who turns out to be manipulative and is only interested in material things. Love and heartbreak is a theme that is typical in almost all music, and I don't see this as something that's any different.