as Busta Rhymes, the Wu-Tang Clan and his good friend and mentor, Shock-G from Digital Underground. As he prepares to drop his record Nuff Said (and launch his clothing line), we caught up with Tango to ask him what he's listening to. Not surprisingly, the answers bridged mainstream hip-hop, underground rap and everything in between.
Gnarls Barkley, "St. Elsewhere"
One of my favorite groups. Great group. I met Cee-Lo at a studio opening in Atlanta. He's a great guy. I feel like everyone has been kind of on the gimmick side of music lately, and that the talent side has been overshadowed. I'm trying to reconstruct things and [like Gnarls Barkley] give people something that they never knew they wanted.
The Fray, "How to Save a Life"
Wow. This is going to be a shocker, but they're definitely one group that I'm listening to very heavily right now. I know that's unusual coming from a guy with a hip-hop background. I'm actually remixing [this] song right now. My buddies are shocked by what's in my CD changer in my car. They're like, "Dude, you've got to be kidding me." And I'm all like, "You guys really need more musical substance." I think artists shortchange themselves when they just confine themselves to one genre of music.
My Chemical Romance, "Helena"
They're by far a leader. The lyrics really touch on an area that everyone who's ever had a serious relationship has gone through. I was really late on "Helena." It didn't hit me until a month before the album release. I heard it at the gym. The gym has a crappy radio station. But I heard the song, and the first 16 bars of the song are just amazing. It forces you to stop. It's the perfect combination of instruments and lyrics.
Nas, "It Ain't Hard to Tell"
This takes me back to a time when you would run out to the record store [to buy an album]. It was when tapes were out. I had known about Nas because I'm originally from Queens, New York. Nas was a legend on those streets. I really related to the song. It was one of those situations where I was like, "Man! That's who I want to be!" You have to have that song in your CD player.
Jay-Z, "Jigga What, Jigga Who (Originator 99)"
A lot of people are going to go, "Why? Why go with that song?" And the reason why is that the rhyme scheme he used was groundbreaking. He was one of the first rappers with that New York swagger to incorporate something Southern. He speaks to me on that level. People think he's the greatest because of his lyrics. But I think his greatest contribution was that he wasn't confined to one kind of song. If you don't think that he's the greatest rap artist of all time, then you have to say that he's most versatile.
Related Content
- I Love New York Photo Gallery
- VH1 Blog: I Love New York Coverage
