North West Metropolis

Things went off when Omar Rey and Perquisite first met each other in an Amsterdam record store in the summer of 2002. As they were both pretty much into the same things, they soon decided to do a project together and after producer Ane (a good friend of Perquisite since High School) joined forces, North West Metropolis was born. CeeMajor (The Proov), Pete Philly (ex-Nicotine) and Kain Slim (False Chordz) were all asked to participate and as the tracks evolved it became clear that all tracks would be the expressions of the MC’s and producers on their view on music and live overall. This is why the EP was called ‘Expressions’ EP. Perquisite: “When we started thinking about expressions in Architecture, we soon ended up with the Expressionism of the late-20’s which in Holland became known as the ‘Amsterdam School’. One of the highlights of this style of architecture, the Spaarndammer social housing project in the North Western part of Amsterdam (de Klerk, 1916), can be seen on the front-cover.”

But back to the music: The EP starts, after the intro, with ‘Inside Out’, a slamming minimalistic beat by Omar which features CeeMajor and Pete Philly on some clever rhyming. Cee: “I’m blinding kids like a solar eclips / you’ll can call me Cee the nightcrawler is my prefix / I’m sharp like a helix, I mean it just consider it / juicy like a biggie hit or a tangerine”. After this, ‘Self-Expression’ comes in with Perquisite & Ane on the production-tip and CeeMajor on the mic again. Cee: “Self-Expression is a reflection of my mindstate at the time; how I view certain aspects of life. Writing rhymes is a truly great form of self-expression.” After Cee drops his verses, the beat transforms to a more melancholic vibe which makes a bridge to the 4th track, ‘My Love’. This track, produced by Perquisite, features Kain Slim on the mic, Delicate Swing on the chorus and Bart Suèr on saxophone. Kain adresses Hip-Hop as a person in this song, to which he expresses his feelings: “You’re part of me, like the blood in my artery / you keep me in harmony with the tragedies and poverty […] / It’s real how I feel, I want the world to see: Hip Hop is like my one and only girl to me.” The B-side opens up with the Perquisite & Ane produced song ‘Self-Reflection’, which is Pete Philly’s solo-joint on the project. Pete: “Self-Reflection is about discovering my talent and my love for music. It’s also about opening yourself up to others in order to learn from their experiences.” The beat is funky and reflective at the same time and after the track fades out, it comes in again, though totally flipped. Perquisite: “Ane and I made the concept for this track a while ago already. Pete decided to use the beat for his solo-joint which worked out very well, I think. In the end we got the idea to add some cello to it, which I did, and which gave an unexpected new atmospehere to the outro”. Next is ‘From Another Perspective’ an Omar & Perquisite-produced instrumental track. Omar: “We all know what happened when Kraftwerk and George Clinton were stuck on the elevator with only one sequencer (If not, ask the Belleville 3!!). Now I always wondered, what if Kool DJ Herc used to be in the same place! This song is the 2003 version of what I thought it would sound like. Me on my trusty MPC and P. on the Juno.” The EP ends with a Rednose remix of CeeMajor’s solo-track Self-Expression by Kid Sublime.

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