Nothin' Like Rocksteady - Alton Ellis & Tupac (prod. Flex)

So Tupac never was shot dead. Producer Flex, one half of illustrious London DJ duo Augui and Flex of Soundclash.org, has created a wondrous marriage of Rocksteady, Alton Ellis' foundation tune for Treasure Isle, and dead hip hop icon Tupac Shakur's Nothing Like The Old School.

The sweet rocksteady sound of the original gets additional weight when a hefty digital drum pattern kicks in and the rhythm is further hustled along by the dynamic onrush of Tupac's lyrics, releasing an urgency perhaps latent, like a genie in a lamp, within the original for nearly four decades. Alton Ellis' soulful vocal and the lazy Treasure Isle horn solo waft evocatively in and out of the mix. A joyous extended namecheck of such hip hop trailblazers as Grandmaster Flash and Eric B & Rakim, Tupac's lyrical tribute to the old school seems, courtesy of this production, not just a tribute to the heroes of rap but to the greats of Jamaican music and to Alton Ellis' sublime rocksteady classic in particular.

Indeed, so seamless is producer Flex' match between lyrics and original reggae sample, that Duke Reid's little studio above his Bond Street liquor store becomes a utopia beyond time and place where musical greats, dead or alive, make music together.

Reggae fans are used to the remix, the rhythm do-over, and the version excursion but over the last twelve months it's all been taken to another level. So not only is Tupac still alive but Sam Cooke too. He never got shot in that motel room. He's at Coxsone Dodd's Brentford Road studios singing his classic Love Me over the Studio One Party Time rhythm. And as everyone always knew, Elvis is not dead either. Earlier this year, he sung In The Ghetto over a deep dark rhythm with plenty of Bunny Lee style flying cymbals for the Rown Beet label, wittily entitling it Jolly Ghetto.

Anyone with a modicum of computer expertise can now, in effect, resurrect a dead star in their own bedroom. Dean Martin crooning over the Satta rhythm? Freddie Mercury on Real Rock? Marvin Gaye on Sleng Teng? Why not? Have no doubt, Tupac, Elvis, Sam Cooke & many other stars of yesteryear have only just started the second phase of their recording careers. But Flex' Nothin' Like Rocksteady will be a hard act to follow. The record can be accessed at http://www.soundclash.org/flex/fx702_demo.html