How to Flow explained

How to Flow
Cover:Nice & Smooth - How to Flow.jpg
Type:single
Artist:Nice & Smooth
Album:Ain't a Damn Thing Changed
Released:1991
Genre:Hip hop
Length:4:25
Label:
Producer:Nice & Smooth
Prev Title:Hip Hop Junkies
Prev Year:1991
Next Title:Cake and Eat It Too
Next Year:1991

"How to Flow" is a song by American hip hop duo Nice & Smooth and the third single from their second studio album Ain't a Damn Thing Changed (1991). It contains a sample of "Woman to Woman" by Joe Cocker. The song was featured in the soundtrack to the 1991 film Strictly Business.

Composition

The drums in the song's production have been noted as similar to those in "Give the Drummer Some" by Dee Felice Trio. During the chorus, the instrumental uses piano sampled from "Woman to Woman".[1]

Critical reception

Angus Batey of The Quietus described "How to Flow" as "peerless, mighty" and commented it was "largely ruined by a needless remix". He believed the "strangest thing" about the song is that "it is basically an elaborate homage to the Ultramagnetic MCs. Kool Keith and co may be the key to unlocking the mysteries of the east coast's golden age - De La were fans, so were the Bomb Squad - but the idea that they'd be the prime sonic influence on what is clearly, on many levels, a pop record seems ridiculous. Yet the evidence is all there in the grooves of this addictively daft song." Additionally, Batey stated the drums give the track "that sleazy underground rawness".

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Batey . Angus . Thirty Years On: Nice & Smooth's Ain't A Damn Thing Changed Revisited . . 13 May 2024 . December 27, 2011.