Home / Press Rewind / PRESS REWIND: Grand Puba’s “Ya Know How It Goes” [Audio]

PRESS REWIND: Grand Puba’s “Ya Know How It Goes” [Audio]

By on January 12, 2017

Grand Puba – “Ya Know How It Goes” (Cover Art)

Grand Puba is a musician from New Rochelle, New York who began his career in the late 80’s with the renowned hip hop group, Brand Nubian who dropped five albums from 1989 to 2004. After the release of One For All, Puba put out the first of several solo albums called Reel to Reel. “Ya Know How It Goes” is still one of my favorites off the LP. Like contemporary musicians Oddisee and Big Krit, Puba provides both the rhymes and the instrumentals. The track features an ill piano loop from Nathan Davis‘s 1976 jazz song “Stick Buddy” that pauses and accentuates. Adding Stud Doogie on the cut, and bringing out vocals that are exemplary of the soul roots Puba has. The drums are clean and textured, and overall it’s just funky as hell. Outside of his Brand Nubian and Masters of Ceremony fame, Puba has worked with some of hip hop’s greatest, producing and/or being featured on records with Mc Lyte, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Q-Tip, Missy Elliott, Sir Menelik, Handsome Boy Modeling School, and Mary J. Blige, who was also featured on Reel to Reel along with acid jazz, funk group Brand New Heavies. The beat on “Ya Know How It Goes” is a perfect example of how to flip several genres into one layered composition. Grand Puba and Brand Nubian have gone on to do some great things in hop hop music, showing a deep appreciation for its artform and Black pride. Puba is still making music and released Black From the Future last April.

The following two tabs change content below.
My Twitter profileMy Instagram profile

Robert Liu-Trujillo

Parent, illustrator, author, owner of Come Bien Books, muralist, activist, and self-proclaimed believer in the power of music and its infinite sonic vibrations. Follow him @RobertTres
Related Items