999,908: Souls of Mischief — Cab Fare

Before I start getting all egghead, let me begin by saying that this song, which was never released due to legal issues with the sample, really bumps. The beat pulls at least three neck snapping loops from the the theme from Taxi, and still- crucially- stays true to the original. And as you’d expect from the crew who brought you the stunning ’93 Till Infinity album, the MCs shine as well, bringing their distinctive off kilter rhymes and a playful wit that is sadly all but gone from modern day rap. It’s smart and expertly spat, but charming and goofy, a combination which, over this sweet beat, is ear to ear grin inducing.

Now, grinning is all well and good, but what launches this track into the realm of genius is something missing from almost all hip hop from any era: wall to wall cohesion.

It’s okay when hip hop is kind of all over the map. It’s fine if an MC spits a series of fairly disconnected rhyming couplets about what a good rapper he or she is over a Milt Jackson sample. It really is. What does Milt Jackson have to do with being an awesome rapper? Who cares? Didn’t you hear what the man said? He’s an awesome rapper. That’s the point, not Milt Jackson.

It's fine, but it's the easy way out. Souls of Mischief didn’t take the easy way out. They could have phoned in an impressive string of battle raps over this delectable beat, and still ended up with a great track. But they didn’t. Instead, they created a series of cab themed vignettes and characters. A late night party goer gets stuck in a bad neighborhood, getting more and more nervous as a series of caucasian cabbies fly past, ignoring him. A frustrated passenger jumps out of the cab after a greedy driver pulls out every trick in the book to drive the fare up, and the next rapper takes the character of the grumpy cabby. A cash strapped rapper takes a cabby job one summer, and has a blast toting ladies around in his “spectacular… very bright yellow Acura”.

Rhyming about cabs and cab drivers over a beat about cabs and cab drivers. Each piece is impressive on its own, but joined together via the magic of cohesion, they're amazing.