Chance The Rapper's Social Experiment Band Mates Nico Segal & Nate Fox Re-imagine Paul Simon's "The Clock" & "The Werewolf" as "Stranger" (Concord Records)
Never since Paul "Rhymin'" Simon boldly recruited ferocious emcees Biz Markie & Big Daddy Kane to introduce his re-released "Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard" (1988) music video did I think the Newark, New Jersey native would produce something so, dare I say... hip! "Honored to work on this re-imagination with my brother [Nate Fox] for @paulsimonofficial. I have been a fan of Mr. Simon since I was a little kid listening to Graceland and Songs from The Capeman. I did history projects on this mans music in high school! So cool to say we aren't "Stranger"s anymore," Chance The Rapper affiliate and Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment frontman @nicosegal ecstatically wrote within a recent Instagram post. "Strangers" is Nico Segal's first piece of music released under his given name, since denouncing his former moniker in light of Donald Trump's incredibly unexpected 2016 Presidential Election victory; "what began as a joke, a silly play on words, is not funny anymore. I don't want to be connected to Trump’s hateful tone or his hurtful message. I don’t want to be misrepresented or misunderstood. Trump’s beliefs are not mine!" Interscope/Eardrummer Records Art Director Wan (@IrwanAwalludin) designed the companion werewolf-evoking "Stranger" single artwork.
Along with his Social Experiment band mate Nate Fox, Segal has crafted a unique remix—better yet, re-interpretation, or almost even a mash-up of two recent compositions from Paul Simon's latest album, Stranger to Stranger: "The Clock" & "The Werewolf." Nico Segal has added his signature trumpet flairs and effects, heard throughout his Chance The Rapper-assisted SURF and even his earliest work with critically-acclaimed (and now-defunct) Kids These Days, to Simon's Stranger to Stranger quasi-interlude "The Clock" merging it with once stuttering "The Werewolf."
"Milwaukee man led a fairly decent life, made a fairly decent living, had a fairly decent wife. She killed him... uh, sushi knife. Now they’re shopping for a fairly decent afterlife. The werewolf is coming," Paul Simon eerily croons over Nico Segal & Nate Fox's self-described "beautiful re-imagination of "The Werewolf" & "The Clock,'" now fittingly re-titled "Stranger." It's an incredibly unexpected, yet extremely welcomed, collaboration with an almost Hip-Hop-reminiscent feel, which somehow manages to blend Jazz-Fusion stylings and Simon's signature Folk-Rock sound. Paul Simon's latest album, Stranger to Stranger is currently available via Concord Records, as well as Nico Segal & Nate Fox's newly-revised "Stranger."