I’m a 90s boom bap kid and this is a great RENdition and salute to one of the greatest rap albums of all time. Ren is the new pillar of music that people will be saluting years from now
Ren's retakes are always multiple things: All retakes are not monetized and he wants to show his love for those artists while educating people on great music in the process. All of them. They are also never covers but reintepretations in various and creative ways. Bringing musical culture to life one retake at a time. It's just an awesome experience. And here he is basically saying: Pay respect to the greats that came before me and that are not longer with us, BUT more importantly value them while they are STILL ALIVE. Which he did here was Nas. You have to love it and respect it. He also changed the beat in various ways in a very dope way if you pay attention and did callbacks for other Nas songs within the lyrics of this retake. And more eastereggs that I do not want to spoil. :D
Well I´m ten years older than you Don so for me Rakim was "the guy" in terms of "rap poetry" but Nas was definitively one of the "next Generation" who walked in his footsteps...so to say...and so does now Ren who I admire a lot in my now old days.
Ren could use every track to tell us all how talented and special he is, and few of us could argue with it, but instead he's always showing love and respect, a much needed role model - Big up Don, thumbs up from me.
I might be wrong but I could swear this illmatic came out in 94, I started high school in 95 and unless my memory is failing me, which is very possible, lol, I remember listening to it before I went to high school, my Japanese friend at junior school was the one who introduced me to rap and hip hop and he went on to be a hip hop artist himself back in Japan, but anyway, Ren killed it, of course he did, he never fails, god damn, I just got a kick in the nuts, if it was 94, that’s 30 years ago, 30 f’n years ago, almost 2 thirds of my lifetime ago, the things I would tell that 12 year old me if I could travel back in time and instil some wisdom on myself, lol
I'm not disrespecting nas atall with this comment , but ren giving himself a disservice, I consider myself to have a very broad eclectic taste in music, and I've never seen another artist who can perform so many different genres at such a high level, in my opinion ren is a musical genius, and unique, reggae,ska r&b soul, hip hop, pop, rock and roll, heavy metal ,beatbox, produce, creativity, lyricism, plays guitar bass piano, the lads just different, and does this all with no major backing while fighting a major illness, the lad different. And not in a bad way. He's a musical chameleon
Not to diminish your point about Rens incredible talents... but to be fair, there are actually a fair share of artist out there with similar skills imo. We are starting to see them now as independant artists on social media. Before the music industry had little room for musicians who didn't fit into the hitmachine. back then taking a chance on someone jumping genres and styles would be hard to sell. Now we can truly love all the random and different artistic gifts they have for us. Anyways. My cousin is 30. He plays nearly any instrument with strings, keys or percussion. All he ever wanted to be since he was a small kid was a musician. He makes his own songs and beats both on pc or in the studio with instruments. He writes lyrics. He can sing and rap in many different styles and has released alot of music and several albums throughout his life from R&B to hiphop, garage rock and hitstyle pop. his first album he released when he was 14. and he just released an album wich he collabed with a pretty famous dude named dj Noize. He never had a big breakthrough, but plays smaller venues in my country and sometimes does guest appearences with bigger artists... And then he makes music and ambient sounds for movies on the side to make a more than decent living in total. He also has a company where he makes homepages and online content for other busnesses... -My point is he is ridiculously talented and has been namedropped by bigger artists several times. He just never managed to find a fanbase/niche big enough to sustain a living in a small country as ours. But he is living off his insanely diverse musical talents in a similar way to ren. -The new Bob Marley movie my cousin made all the background music and ambient sounds for... (they ofcourse used alot of Marleys music wich he had no part in mixing or making).
Great reaction man, Glad your doing your own thing. Grew up in this era too, and he paid homage to more then just Nas in this Video, brought Big, Mac and 2pac into it as well. Ren really is a student of music
I'm a big Ren fan who has followed Ren into Hip Hop, but I have no history with the genre. I'm much older, and Hip Hop didn't exist when I was young. Loved seeing your reaction and input on this.
I’m not generally a hip hop fan at all, and I’ve only heard Nas’ name before, but I’m totally loving REN’s retake, and this beat way more than I was expecting when he first announced it
I love that Ren is reintroducing people to some of the greats. Plus I nerded out on the pie bars... on a video released on Pie Day Mar 14... 3.14... he doesn't miss.
He used similar schemes and lots of tributes, but this was very complicated between the simple bars. Plus the added production like the guitar was epic.
Dom: we will see we will watch it brake it down jump right in Me:🤣🤣🤣🤣 Goodluck mate it's full of bars it's Ren the alien have fun catching it all first time 😂😂🤣
Seriously... a collab between Ren and Harry mack could be kinda cool... I Imagine some kind of busking setup... Ren on guitar and mic and Harry on drums and mic and if they call up Beardyman to lay the foundation beats it would be magical for sure!!
Ren is siiiiiick 🔥 And this is the sickest ad for some sick boi merch 😂 Seriously though, Ren showing love for music he loves with his ReNtakes is yet another reason to love this sick boi. Somehow he manages to be humble and show respect for other artists while spitting braggadocios bars 😅 Not quite sure how that’s even possible, but hey it’s Ren doing Ren things 🤣
Hey Don! Good to see you making your own content! Off topic question though: Is this from your house? -I see you have some cacti plants.... random followup question: Do you by any chance keep reptiles of any kind as pets? -I dunno why, but the two are sometimes connected to my experience as a cacti eating tortoise owner...
It’s crazy the nostalgia of the album is still there but I listen again after watching this and the bars that were mind blowing then are so outdated now. I hate saying that but I’ll pull your number like a pager just ain’t hitting no more..Lol I still love it but I think Em is the only artist I can go back and listen to that the bars haven’t outdated themselves.
Get in the habit of listening to your videos back on a full speaker system and leveling out the music volume with your voice by checking the output levels in post-production to make sure they are equal. Your volume and the music volume being vastly different makes this unwatchable on regular speakers without constantly changing the volume every time you pause and start talking. Not fixing this will hurt your watch time and impact your channel negatively. Good breakdown of the song though.
I appreciate the feedback. I noticed that too. I’m still trying to work out the details of my setup. I’ve been putting off starting the channel for months and just had to get in the game.
@@Donjuanabe I figured as much, and completely mean my criticisms in a positive way! It's a process. Keep grinding, you'll get there. I've enjoyed your reactions with BP and I am sure you will do great. Looking forward to seeing you grow!
@@Donjuanabe Look into using expander, compressor, and limiter filters in OBS to get your Mic output levels and your Desktop audio output levels where they need to be. Talk to Ren if you need help, he's a wiz at this stuff. ;)
Nobody catching the shout out to Big L the whats the game without Ren its like China without rice is a shout out to Big L one of the most forgotten about top tier lyricist ever ren makes it his own as he does but nobody catching that
@@TheJgolfw No worries ;) I went through some of them and thought they did more of them together but at least there is like 4 reaction. Might be more i didn't go through them all. Black P done a few alone too so if you like him you got some reactions to watch there.. ;)
The flow! The delivery! The performance! The one-take! The lyrics! His LYRICS! All of them out of this World, as usual! :) However, the icing on the cake is Ren's remix of the beat. The added audio is great, especially the guitar! :)
Y e a h . . .I’m also in Denver, and…Ughhh… That said, great reaction. Giving homage and respect is what makes Ren, well…REN. Also, as a “Xennial”, or WTFE [1980]-I Died of Dysentery, literally, every time …(if you know, you know) I was 16YO, when this album introduced me to HIP HOP-hip hop, and as a kid it was revelatory. All that to say, thanks-fellow Coloradan-I like the cut of your jib; keep it up… …and stay warm during the Snowpacolypse.
I definitely don't kno the original but after this I'll b checking ot out Ren's word play, timing, and absolute Respect is amazing. Great reaction Don Big success to you and the channel Subscribed & Liked ❤❤
