Slow Down

Picture the scene: You’re sitting in a bar in Hong Kong and the worst music ever created by mankind is blaring through the speakers two inches above your head. All you want to do is leave but you can’t because you’ve just sat down with a bunch of people you don’t know that well and you don’t want to be rude. It’s getting worse and worse and then suddenly the music stops and the barman goes to change the CD. At this point you’re not expecting much and, as you wait for the next track to kick in, there’s this nervousness in your stomach. Then you hear the opening bars and you can’t believe your ears. Is it really? Surely it can’t be? Yes it is. It is. It’s Slow Down by Brand Nubian – one of the best hip-hop tracks ever – which you haven’t heard in ages and all of a sudden you’re smiling. As Grand Puba, Sadat X and the rest of the gang rhyme over the Edie Brickell hook, you find yourself a million miles away thinking about how excited you were when you bought Brand Nubian’s first album, One For All, in Tower Records on Broadway all those years ago and things start looking up. Then, in the space of less than five minutes, the moment is gone and it’s back to the Hong Kong variant of Greek Island trance and once again you’re looking down the barrel of a very long night.