Pour slow. Press play.

Drop 06 — Make You Feel That Way | Blackalicious × Old Louisville Kentucky Series 8 Year Bourbon

Pour slow. Press play.

Track — Make You Feel That Way

Album: Blazing Arrow (2002)

Make You Feel That Way sits on Blazing Arrow, produced by Chief Xcel. The tempo runs at a steady pace. Drums hit on the two and four. The bass works in the low range with a line that doesn’t crowd anything. The keys cover the middle and round out the track without getting busy. Everything is clear. You can pick out any part and still follow everything.

Blackalicious delivers the verse with a cadence built on internal rhymes that loop cleanly through each bar. The timing connects with the beat in a natural way. The tempo gives enough space for each phrase to come through without pushing the next one. The performance is even and matches the track’s pace without strain.

The structure stays consistent from top to bottom. The drum pattern repeats. The bass follows the chord progression. The keys fill the center. The vocal is placed right up front. You know what the track is doing a few seconds in, and it keeps that approach. The mix gives each element room, so you can focus on any part without losing the others.

There’s a familiarity in how the group works. Blackalicious had years together before this record. You can hear that in the timing and in the choices. Nothing feels rushed or added late. The track moves with the ease of people who understand their own process.

“I want to make you feel that way about the music that we play.”

The line works because the track already carries that kind of calm confidence. It shows you what they built without trying to create a moment around it.

Pour — Old Louisville Kentucky Series 8 Year Bourbon

Distillery: Old Louisville
Proof / ABV: 100 proof (50% ABV)
Age: 8 years
Mash Bill: 78 percent corn, 12 percent malted barley, 10 percent rye

Old Louisville Kentucky Series 8 Year is a small-batch Kentucky straight bourbon aged eight years and bottled at 100 proof. The mash bill leans sweet with enough rye to keep a clear spice line. Corn brings the base sweetness. Malted barley supports fermentation. Rye gives the profile a defined edge. That mix already tells you where the profile is headed.

The bourbon ages in new charred oak. Over eight years, heat pushes the spirit into the wood and cold pulls it back out. That cycle develops vanilla, caramel, oak, and tannin. At 100 proof, those flavors show up with more presence than a lower-proof bottling.

The nose shows dried cherry, caramel, and toasted oak.
The first sip brings brown sugar.
Spice and a touch of leather come in the middle.
The finish moves into vanilla and oak tannin before fading out.

This release is blended from selected barrels that match a set profile. The team samples multiple barrels, chooses the ones that fit, and blends toward that target. Age, proof, and mash bill are fixed points. The blend ties those points together in a way that keeps the expression consistent across batches.

Final Bar

Make You Feel That Way and Old Louisville 8 Year work for similar reasons. Both rely on steady decisions carried out the same way each time. The track follows the structure it sets in the first few seconds. The bourbon follows the range set by its grain and its years in the barrel. Nothing is added for effect.

Listen to the track and you hear drums, bass, keys, and vocal moving in a pattern the group knows well. Taste the bourbon and you get sweetness, spice, and oak in a sequence shaped by its mash bill and aging process. They come from different crafts, but the approach feels familiar: repeat the process, pay attention, and let the result show itself.

When you come back to them, they show the same things.

Want More

• Listen to the Album on Spotify.
• More from Blackalicious on Instagram.
• You can grab the bottle through our friend Conrad at the Bonded Bottle Shop.
  Not sponsored — just the source. Visit him on Instagram for some awesome Whiskey content @Whiskey Bonded.
• All pour terms and hip hop terms are in The Warm-Up.