Story time, courtesy of Sabzi…
Back in 2008, one of the tunes that was in (figurative) rotation on the iPhone was a little Australian hit called “Walking On A Dream” by a group called Empire Of The Sun. Whether or not that song is garbage is up to you. Either way, I snatched the best loops in that song, added some extra percussion, and chopped a Biggie sample for the bridge and we came up with what is now known as New People.
DOWNLOAD: Blue Scholars – New People (Empire Way rmx) | Mediafire
Since we wanted to release New People on the OOF! EP we ended up making a different version of it because a) the Empire version didn’t match the sonic texture of OOF!, and b) you can’t really do an official release of a song with such a recognizable sample anyway. You know, lawyers and such.
Long story short, this “remix” (aka original version) didn’t come out until a year later in August ‘09 and even then I don’t remember exactly how we put it out. We were so busy with the release of the actual EP and the Hawaii trip that I must have overlooked the fact that this remix only made it onto some crappy jewel-cased promo CD sampler that nobody listened to. ‘Cause seriously, who the hell listens to CDs? Every time I’m at an event and somebody gives me a demo or sampler on CD it’s like they’re saying, “Hey man, will YOU throw this away for me?” (RIP Mitch Hedburg).
Anyway, I guess we waited too long on making this version known ’cause after the shows this weekend I was getting Twitter questions about this song from people like they never heard it before. What’s likely more of a kick-in-the-hip-hop-testes is that, although we made this joint a year and a half ago, Wiz Khalifa has his own version that came out sometime (I think) in the last 6 months. This of course helped make an awkward moment at the show we did with Wiz Khalifa the other day when we rocked the New People {Empire Way Remix} in front of some of his fans.
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