...I got to thinking about this joint. Last Emp never got his props. I got a bootleg of his album back in 99. This cut was one of the weakest. It was a great album. Yes I know--TMNT ain't Marvel. And Duke never met the Beyonder. Yeaaaargghhhh! The Power Geekness is overpowering!!!
UPDATE: Added Do You Remember. I used to bang this cut when I was writing my memoir. This is like the black nerd anthem--"In this quiet night of quiet stars\And these quiet chords on my guitar\Kids out there, I know it might be hard\But I realize how live you are." That is just beautiful.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
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TNC - in case you don't know where "quiet nights, quiet stars, quiet chords on my guitar" comes from, it's the first two lines (the English verse) of "Corcovado" by Antonio Carlos Jobim. It's my favorite of Jobim's Bossa Nova songs.
Though it's been covered by just about every crooner and jazz standards artist, my absolute favorite version is sung by Astrid and Juao Gilberto with Stan Getz on tenor sax. It's Getz at his most fluid, melodic, rich "The Sound" best from his 60s pop period. Highly recommended -- video has nice slide show of Rio sights.
The feel of Corcovado -- the easy but tense bossa nova beat, the wistful tone and some of the harmonies -- find parallels in Do You Remember, which has all sorts of little echos and almost-quotes of a variety of tunes and lyrics from earlier vinyl eras. Lots of bits of not-quite-complete memories. Thanks for sharing it!
Hell yes. Last Emperor was definitely underrated. I'd rock his stuff a lot on my radio show.
What ever happened to Last Emperor? I remember claiming that he was the greatest of all time after hearing this track.
I love the Last Emperor, he's probably my favourite rapper ever. Downloading those songs from Napster back in the day (don't worry, I've bought his albums since), kept me going through some bad times.