A little while back, I posted about J Clyde — the Norfolk-based producer who’s dropping a beat a day throughout 2014. If you’ve been following along, you might have noticed an especially nasty, Breaking Bad-themed track that came out on April 26. Take a listen below:

J Clyde — “Didn’t I (Breaking Bad)” [Soundcloud/Bandcamp]

Upon listening again the other day, with a little more distance from Breaking Bad’s final episode, I was surprised by how nostalgic I was getting about the show. I was so moved I sent him the following email:

Was just listening to this again and getting all wistful. Dunno if “wistful” is what you were going for, but you nailed it. Really cool going from something so menacing and intense (walt and skyler) to something so breezy. This’ll get even better with time, too. Very cool.

His response blew me away, and I thought those of you who are caught up on the show would want to hear this:

thanks dude. What’s really cool about the juxtaposition that you speak of is that both pieces manage to encapsulate the entire essence of the show. The dialogue is, of course, explicit in letting us know that Walt thoroughly enjoyed cooking away his final days, mostly because it was the first time in his life that he took the time to do something for himself.

On the other side, if you listen to the original song that I sampled, you’ll see that the record fully articulates Walt’s efforts as an honest man, a father and a husband. When you read the lyrics to the record, it’s almost as if Vince Gilligan wrote Walter & Skyler’s whole relationship based on “Didn’t I”. Personally, I suspect he might have…how else would he have the foresight to choose this song in the first season of the show? As I read these lyrics again, it’s actually borderline eerie when you project them onto Walter & Skyler’s relationship arch.

Didn’t I treat you right, now
Didn’t I
Didn’t I do the best I could
Didn’t I
Didn’t I give ya everything
Didn’t I
I tried my best just to be a man
Didn’t I

Didn’t I do it baby
Didn’t I do right
Why you wanna leave me baby
Didn’t I treat you right

I bought you diamond rings
Everything, that a woman could need
I bought you cars, clothes, a home
When things were rough for me I kept on
And I am back again

Didn’t I
Didn’t I
Didn’t I
Didn’t I

There’s something wrong with you
Tell Me
Bring me all your troubles dear
You look bad, you should be glad
Your leading man, always be glad, sit by home
and let me kiss your lovely lips

Didn’t I do it baby
Didn’t I do right
Why you wanna leave me baby
I said didn’t I treat you right

It’s a mystery to me
that you won’t
talk to me
What it is
that I’ve done
to make me…

Wild, eh? I had no idea all of this was going on. Click here to check out more of J Clyde’s work and listen below to Darondo’s “Didn’t I.”

Darondo — “Didn’t I” [Spotify/iTunes]