598. N.O.R.E. "Nothin'"
Produced by the Neptunes; written by Chad Hugo, Victor Santiago, Jr., & Pharrell Williams
Universal 582914 2002 Billboard: # 10
My best friend insists that "humor can often defuse a tense situation." This worked once for him, when he was at a camp as a kid, and he's used it ever since. In my experience, though, cracking wise in the wrong situation can often get your head cracked open. Usually, when the shields go up, I find it's best to keep my mouth shut.
Then there's N.O.R.E., aka Noreaga aka Victor Santiago Jr., who raps his way out of a club fight on this track, the way only the best of the best can do. On the refrains, Fat Joe sounds as if he is ready to do some very serious damage, but our hero just keeps plowing through. The longer you listen, the more you think, maybe he will talk this guy down. These rhymes aren't threatening or even menacing. They're just . . . distracting, which may be all he needs to slip away without catching it.
He uses everything he's got here, including both sides of his racial heritage. Much was made of the fact that N's next album, N.O.R.E. y la Familia...Ya Tú Sabe, explicitly drew on reggaeton, but here the influences are mixing it up as much he and Fat Joe aren't.His maternal African American tradition of words is laid here on top of a rhythm track (courtesy of the 'Tunes, of course) that owes more to the Puerto Rican music of his father. It's not a fully integrated musical genre, or even a peace treaty between the two cultures. Musically and thematically, it's just a stab at anything that will work.
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