Throwback Thursday-Feel It In The Air by Beanie Sigel

by Dan-O

Beanie has more than enough verses about smacking the face off of losers. He’s good enough at that subject matter to make you reconsider bothering him for an autograph but his most important material is fearful, paranoid and suffering. His second highest point is the majority of Jay’s Dynasty album where he sits his father down and rips him to the point of breaking down(Where Have You Been) and stands lyrically comparable to Scarface and Jay at their best (This Can’t Be Life). You can hear his focus but you can also hear how much Jay loves rapping alongside him. The reason-all the emotion Beanie let bleed out of him felt earned. Sigel was never a needy rapper plunging into the depths of moderately difficult experience just to get empathy. He had real weight to get off his chest without a hint of humblebrag.

This song and the album it comes off (The B.Coming) are his highest point and mark on the music. It was completed right before Beanie was forced to go to jail, which vastly injured its promotion. He stews in paranoia “read they body language, 85% communication non-verbal.” He warns you to be careful who you’re smoking next too, to play people like a puppet master. Heavy D had a way of providing knock out beats like this, pulling them out of his hat and finding the right hands for them. What a lot of people miss about that old Roc crew is the what if’s. What if they had stayed together and mentored Beanie into the top dude? What if Cam’ron had stayed with the right team and cranked out more hits? What if Jay never lost that sprinkle of recklessness that floated on top of his intelligence and thick skin so comfortably? At the end of the day we weren’t promised any of this music, so we take Throwback Thursday to be thankful that we have songs like this to enjoy. Next time we clown the early 2000’s rap as a fall from golden age 90’s grace….remember Beanie.