It’s not very often that an artist and label will go back and re-visit an entire full-length album, but that’s exactly what Fresh Selects is doing here. Back in 2017, producer Swarvy got together with emcee Iojii, both from Philly, to make an album called Due Rent. Now living in Los Angeles, Swarvy has revisited the album and remixed it in the style of his Blends series of releases, with lojii coming back to record some new harmonies and whatnot to fit the new style and beats. Thus, we now have Due Rent [Blends].

I’d be very curious to run some experiments and see who responds to which version of the album more than the other. That’s because there feels to be a very distinct East Coast/West Coast split to the two versions. The original has a much grittier, raw style to it, with influence from artists like RZA or Mobb Deep, especially in terms of the production. In the [Blends] version, thing have smoothed out and gotten more laid back, bringing in some G-Funk and electro-boogie along the way. What makes the project especially interesting is that in it’s original form, lojii has a really smooth and understated style on the mic anyway, and the album felt more like an old school mixtape, meaning that it didn’t have a lot of singles as much as it had a lot of connect short vignettes set to music. This means that in translating this album, Swarvy didn’t have to worry as much about some big hooks or distinct singles that were very specific to the beat they were written to. So while you’re not getting any remixes that will make you stop in your tracks and go, “Whoa! I can’t believe he changed up [insert song here] like that!” You are getting some really great beats that over the course of the album gradually shift the tone of the original project. Either way, the chemistry between producer and emcee isn’t lost, and it turns out that lojii’s smooth, low-key delivery on the mic as he talks about struggling to make ends meat works just as well on the West Coast.

Due Rent [Blends] isn’t a project that I would have predicted, or even asked for. But now that it’s here, I’m certainly happy that Swarvy decided to revisit this album. It was a unique task that required a lot of subtlety in its approach, but Swarvy made it work.