Sir Prestige
offers his personal production commentary on the epic album...“Sir
Prestige presents...The Society Documented" Programme
One and Programme Two”
"I’ve
been asked a few times what the album title means or where I got its inspiration
from. Basically I look at this project as various reports by various personnel
broadcasting what there are seeing around their environment. Put these reports
together and you got a document about society prepared by the Social Misfits and
presented by Sir Prestige. The sub-title, 'Programme One and
Programme Two' to describes
each of the two episodes.”
1. Opening Title (Intro)
I
like this intro. I wanted the first thing heard on “Society Documented” to
be something hype. This loud-mouth is MelloTrauma’s brother,
P.Natural, who is a very animated guy and energetically kick starts the
vibe to the album nicely.
2. Roll With The Misfits Souls
This
is the lead track of the album and features the entire Misfits crew as we were
early 2000. This is the remix version and here I utilise some African instrument
samples to produce as a distinct track. This track has continued to attract us
much attention and despite its 7 minutes length its got itself some good radio
airplay and it’s the track many people got to know us from.
3. Emcees Couldn’t See Us
Stone
Circle joined Social Misfits shortly after Misfit Souls was recorded so I wanted
to ensure their presence was felt on the album early I thought this would be a
good point to introduce them. The track nicely shows where these brothers are
coming from and what they are all about. Admittedly the track was actually
recorded over a different beat but we all preferred to run with this sample-free
reproduction. I love the whole theme to this track.
4. Live Your Life
Many
have
called this track a future classic and I would not argue with them. Right from
the outset you just feel that this is something special. Despite the classical
feel to the track I got the strings from an R&B record and played the rest
of it myself. The track as basically about treating others the way you would
like to be treated and Shiesty and Juicy bring this message across really well.
I wrote the chorus and recorded it to sound like a junior church choir performed
it. I am very proud of this song.
5. You Want this
The
first of our official guests star on this track. Real Elements are one of the
big crews from Malawi (Southern Africa) and I really check for them. They were
studying in the UK when we met and they fell in love with this beat when they
heard it and insisted on doing something with it. Their enthusiasm shines on
this track and I suggest you look out for more from them too.
6. Bitter Love
The
funny thing about this track was it started off as Shiesty’s track. I came up
with its concept and hook and later featured Da-Essence on the remix with this
beat. We re-recorded the track several times (for a variety of different
reasons) and I think Shiesty eventually just lost his vibe for the track so he
exempted himself from the final version. As much as I do love this track I will
admit that had we not gone through so much trauma in getting it done it could
have come out better. Nevertheless Da-Essence and Fyza (Shiesty’s baby-mother
who sings the chorus) do the concept justice and the end result was good enough.
7. Voicemail Skit
Yes,
it’s a real message left on Shiesty’s mobile phone by an ex-girlfriend. Soon
as I had it I begged Shiesty that we put it on the album. Everyone loves this
interlude that follows on nicely from the theme of the previous track and leads
nicely into…
8. Black Stallion
I
have heard so much complimentary comments about this song and somehow
surprisingly especially from women. The track is basically about Shiesty
bragging about his sexual marauding but the whole track sounds very original.
The beat incorporates some filtered and creatively chopped up on modern
classical samples. The appropriate horse samples were added initially on the
clean radio edit and I decided to leave them on as background sounds on the
album version too. Oh yeah, look-out for the even more amusing follow-up to this
on Shiesty’s album.
9.
Social-Misfit.Com (interlude)
I
came up with the idea of this track from a conversation I was having with
someone about how we everyone is always bitching about people we see on TV, so asked a couple girls I know to do this based
around a typical conversation they would have when surfing around our website.
Its was also a good excuse to have a track named after our website and nicely
leads us to....
10. What Kind of Man Are You?
This
cheeky track started off as something I had put together for Tina Roberts, an
upcoming singer-songwriter from around our way. Both Tina and Ace (Da-Essence)
definately represents on this track. I played everything on this around the chorus and
loosely based around a popular Dr. Dre tune she had initially wanted to use.
Look out for this girl and she also features on another track on Shiesty’s LP.
11.
State of Staticness (S.O.S)
This would
be the first time people are hearing PiQue, another recent Social Misfits
recruit, on this album and I think this is an appropriate track that suitably
shows off his skills. I like producing for this kid cause he does not mind me
experimenting with his production. He likes his tracks to sound edgy and unlike
anything else he is hearing out there so the final product will always sound
unique to peoples ears and may require an adjustment in your conventional taste.
On this track I sample various instruments and tightly chopped-up some samples
to create something uniquely distinct from its musical sources.
12.
Times Is Hard
MelloTrauma
is an easy going kid that we are busy developing. My man has nuff potential and
this track shows this off neatly. I just put together the simple sounding but
complexly intertwined composition for my man and his boy HQ to lace some reality
lyrics on. Initially the track was
recorded over a really funky track that I later felt was unsuited to the mood of
the tracks after playing the track accapella over and over again I composed the
whole track in my head and put down live.
13.
London Uncovered
Following
from the above I also thought we would showcase another youngster who is closely
associated with us. Duane Jones brought the main sample to me and told me he
wanted to drop a couple verses on if I produced it into a track– at that time
I did not even know my man rhymed. His an aspiring professional footballer and
he had just been signed by the main Nashville State (USA) football team after we
did this demo version so he was not around when we would have liked to redo the
track again. Nevertheless, everyone in the crew loved this track even in its
current form and they was no absolute reason why we could not run with it in his
absence. The concept is basically my man reporting news about South London as he
sees it and its title is a take off of the former TV series “Ibiza
Uncovered”. The chorus was written and performed by a talented young from
around our way who calls herself Miss Milla and Flamer (of Da Essence) also
contributes a fitting verse.
14.
Its All About The £ - Interlude
Insane and
I go way back and in many ways he has contributed much to some of what I have
managed to achieve. I already had the idea of running a similar musical
back-drop for al the interludes so I continued with the intro music and just let
him chat whatever he wanted. Anyone who knows this brother knows that he is very
passionate about his views on everything and I just wanted to capture some of
what he professes on tape. This is just an edited version of it.
15.
Just Can’t Stop
I’Chelmee
just has this vibe about him that naturally comes across on his recordings and
this is just one example. I do not even know what he is saying when he spits in
his native languages but like many others I am just drawn and captured into it.
Musically he wanted something that banging that would compensate for his foreign
vocabulary – i.e., something that would maintain interest to those who did not
understand what he was saying and I have to say that I think we managed to do
that here. Everything you hear on
the music I played myself but as with all my tracks I mixed it to sound like
samples.
16.
One Of Them Nights
This is one
of the first tracks I heard Shiesty on. When we hooked up shortly after his
long-stay return in the US he played me some of the tracks he did whilst he was
out there with his former crew, The Black Gypsies. One Of Them Nights was a
track that we both very much liked and he wanted to redo it again with some
additional elements. I replayed some of the bits we liked on the original
version and I added the rest on to give him something uniquely new. I also
sampled the background talking from studio-takes of the original version and
added it to the track for that Black Gypsies flavour. Look out for the group on
Shiesty's album. This song has been received very well and was debuted on a
Street Beats compilation. The track is basically about the process of getting
ready to go out on what you expect to be a good night.
17.
Party Goin’ On (Don’t Stop Now)
Following
on from the previous track we are now at the party and Da Essence are about to
put it down. The host at the party is Kenyan Songstress Ffyona who laces us with
some sexy chorus and bridge whilst Ace, Flamer and Roach bless us with lyrics
about what they experience and see at this party. I love this track and would
love to do a video for it. Musically I was on the R&B hip-hop tip and I
think this track definitely has that feel good factor about it.
18.
Tukishika Microphone
If they is
one track that brings me good memories its this track. I really enjoyed the way
it all came together – perhaps for the fact that I recorded it my home-town of
Nairobi and it gave me the opportunity to show-off Kenyan hip-hop to an audience
outside East Africa. The full version f this track is like 13 minutes long and
features some of the cream of Kenyan Hip-hop including some stars of that
country - some who are known to be major rivals. The track has enjoyed much
interest back home and I am also very proud that I managed to make this happen
in just a few days that I had the opportunity to do it. Included here is the
shorter edited version that has also got a lot of heads in Europe open to
African hip-hop. the title translates to “When We Hold The Microphone” and
its just about man’s displaying their freestyle skills.
19.
Days of Today (the Society Documented)
Roach
brings the attention back to the UK with this track about his growing pains in a
single parent home and him being the only male in the household. This is a
really nice track worthy of the having the album’s title as its sub-title. In
my opinion “Days of Today” beautifully captures the whole theme of the album
and you can definitely listen to this song as if it were a fly-on-the-wall
documentary. Everyone who heard the beat as an instrumental fell in love with it
and many were disappointed that they could not have it unless Roach could not do
it justice – no one argued with the end result. In my humble opinion, a today
classic that many of us can relate to.
20.
Intermission
My longtime
brethren, Apollo steps up to announce end of part one over a musical back-drop
that you should by now have become familiar with. Some dramatically humour is
thrown in for good measure whilst you dig out CD2.
Programme
TWO
1.
Re-Entermission
As the
title suggests, the second programme starts here in the same fashion as
programme one ended.
2.
Who Am I?
I did this
beat a very long-time ago and when I played it to Estelle it was love at first
sight! Not with me, but the beat. She had been doing some shows with us and when
I played her this instrumental we immediately recoded the initial version. Later
we got into the studio and re-did it again properly and the end result was very
satisfying. The melodius piano-loop is a sample speeded up from a rare-jazz
record. The interesting but unnoticed thing about this instrumental is that it
does intentionally does not contain a bass-line.
3.
Menace in The Paragraph.
If I was
forced to pick some favourite tracks off the album I would be hard pressed not
to mention this one. This is just one of those instant rewind tracks and
considering the airplay it has received many would agree too. Manifest (Stone
Circle) drops a heavyweight lyrics over another original composition that I am
also proud of. We have several versions of this same track (look out for a
leaked version that also features some of the other Social Misfits and Reveal)
and whilst they are all real nice this one had that universal appeal written all
over it. Pure fire!
4.
Respect
Another
chopped up Seventies track and obscure flutes set funky foundation for one of
UK’s renowned open-mic MC to jump onboard and show-off all the many reasons he
is destined for big things. Anyone familiar with the London hip-hop scene is
likely to know Reveal. We had originally done another track (“1000 and 1”)
awhile back but during his journey to re-record it he called me suggesting he
wanted to do something else instead and wanted me to play him some new beats. So
in the short time he gave me I composed this beat and it was the only one I
played him on arrival cause he liked it so much – this was quite fortunate
cause I had a draught of available beats. The track was recorded on the same day
we did PQ’s “S.O.S” hence why you hear Reveals voice amongst the adlibs on
that track.
5.
This Crew (Cream Of The Crop)
This is
perhaps the oldest track on the whole album and admittedly it sounds it.
However, they are many things that made me compelled to include the track on the
album and its stand-out vibe is just one. MelloTrauma just spits out his
patented trademark flow coupled with consistent metaphors for good measure.
Feeling this definitely.
6.
Fatherless But Marvelous
Da-Essence
came up with the concept for this. I did them a beat I thought would be suited
to the track and what you hear is a beautiful and touching end result. The track
is about the struggles of being brought about in a single parent families - in
the case of three of them its about being brought up by their mothers. They
rhyme about how they feel about their absent fathers and that how despite a
father figure in their households they are destined for bigger things and will
not follow their fathers departure when they start their families. Meanwhile
Juicy, a born-again Christian, comes in on the fourth commenting that even
though he has been blessed with both parents at home it has not all been plain
sailing and suggesting that the Lord be seen as a father figure. As I said,
beautiful. This is also one of the rare moments you hear Roach sing.
7.
Toa, Kitu Sababisha
This is my
boy Saigon from Tanzania, East Africa. In my opinion Tanzania breeds the finest
MCs from Africa and Saigon is one fine example. The title translates to “Take
It Off Completely” and anyone who understands Swahili (East Africa’s primary
language) will appreciate this poetical genius. Musically its just me messing
about with a marimba sound to create a sparse bass. I set out to create
something that really rode on his vibe and I think I did that quite well here.
This track also got good exposure in Saigon’s hometown.
8.
We Gonna Ride
Mmm. This
is a taster to a project called “Overseas Edition” that Shiesty will be
presenting after his album. Nuff people are feeling this and I am often
questioned about this track. I do not know how much I can reveal about it cause
Shiesty wants to keep it very low key for now - hence why the track is just one
verse. Mizola reps one this cut and
it’s this is the second of the two tracks where you here him – “…Misfit
Souls” being the other. The original and full composition can be heard on that
forthcoming Overseas Edition project. I changed it up musically so that I could
give something that sounded thuggish whilst maintaining its laid-back feel.
After going through my sample and record library I reverted to just playing what
I could hear within the lyrics.
9.
Early Ups (No Compromising)
Another
beat that I had done way back. A lot of people say that the track reminds them
of one of those old Wild West films and assume I sourced the samples from there.
In actual fact I got the main samples from two different horror films with me
playing the bassline on my keyboard. Shiesty had done the first verse on this
way back with Stranger and we played it to Paradise (of 57th Dynasty)
and he agreed to jump on it too. Paradise is a nice guy to work with and I was
quite impressed about how he really gets his feelings across on this track. The
song is about the struggles and pride of independent artists and labels like
ourselves.
10.
Lost Image
This the
second of the two tracks by PQ and he wanted to flip it to something slower this
time round. The chorus is performed by Manifest and the two incidentally make-up
another duo they call PP7. This is not even a taster of what that duo are about.
This track is deep and I came about it musical facets when I heard his first
line “There’s many Shadows in The Darkness, Check Out How I Start
This….”, I just imagined myself playing an abandoned piano in a dark theatre
with an unseen PiQue addressing people who he too could not see.
11.
Too Much Too Many Too Little Too Far
This was me
just experimenting with some bouncy anthem aimed at the club tip. Da-Essence
come off real well on this track that got a few spins on national radio here and
was picked up back in Kenya too. A lot of good ideas make this track a very
enjoyable listen.
12.
Ghetto Specialist
I’ChelMee
steps up once again with something a little harder than his first solo offering.
I can’t remember much about the production notes on this one but I think the
track works really well and is typical of what to expect from I’ChelMee on his
forthcoming solo long-player.
13.
Character Assassination
This is the
other of only two tracks that I selected from our old archives. Love this whole
track though I appreciate some will probably sit on the fence with this one
because of its off key concepts and weirdness in the mix. Nevertheless a good
track with some solid musical ideas as backdrop to varying vocal styles. Check
it out and make your own opinion.
14.
For my Bredrins
The
original track on this used a wicked and very fitting sample that we had to
clear but failed to do so in good time. That was a shame cause I honestly
preferred that version to this rushed remake. However if I did not like this it
would not have made the album. I toyed around with the beat and this was the end
result, a funky but relaxing beatscape that sits nicely between the conceptual
lyrics from Da-Essence.
15.
Tale Of Two Cities
This much
loved gem was included to give people a better insight into Shiesty da Gypsy and
his transatlantic persona. Much of the music here are samples from a record I
had borrowed and cannot remember – I do however recall we had to really speed
and pitch up the sample. I really like this track and think Shiesty and Natali
do it justice.
16.
Talk To Me
The second
of two heavily R&B fused tracks on the album. This was a song that an
upcoming songwriter, Debrah West, was planning to shop around to some publishers
but I liked the rawness of it so much I persuaded her that we throw it on here.
We just added some additional verses from I’ChelMee to give it that Social
Misfits element and it was on. The wicked sample is from an old 80’s record by
a UK group and I am sure heads can figure out the additional vocal samples. Very
fitting I would say.
17.
Hold Us Back
This was me
setting out to do some hyped up beat to fight to. The music is influenced by the
lyrics and again I did this after the vocals had been recorded. This is very
different from what Stone Circle were doing at the time but I think they have
since done a couple more tracks that are in this mood. I played everything you
hear and even sampled another of my own unused compositions to give it this
added edge.
18.
Interlude This Is Not A game Show
The title
to this track would have been more fitting if I had not edited so much of the
Insane's vocals. He went off disusing several producers but later chopped those
bits off for my own several reasons. The beat is the same theme music used
throughout these skits and it nicely introduces the next track…
19.
Roll With The Misfit Souls (Original)
This track
accidentally came about after we did a show at WKD early 2000. The beat was
originally from a Shiesty track but after using it at the show for a last-minute
posse-cut that blow the audience away we decided to make redo it again in the
studio. The chorus was also stolen from the outro of the same song by Shiesty.
The samples on here are creatively taken from a well known children’s film but
I considering the considerable work I did to disguise it I doubt the composers
of its source would ever recognize it.
20.
Closing Credits
This is
just Roach doing a closing speech to end what some have commented to be possibly
the best albums from the UK and amongst their favourite CDs. At this point I
would be hoping that people feel that they have got themselves something with
value and despite approaching 160 minutes of listening time they was enough
within the variety for them to like.
So that’s some brief notes about each track on the album. The first thing people would note about featured songs is the range of diverse styles throughout and that’s was intentional. The danger to that is that whilst seeking a wide audience with this type of product people tend to check more for the songs that suit their taste. For that reason I would not expect everyone to like everything on here but on the same note I would expect everyone here to find more than enough tracks that they like. Out of the forty listed tracks I am sure those who buy the album will be able to point out more than a single albums worth of songs that they are feeling and if that’s the case then we will have fulfilled a major intention with this project.
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