Sing Something Good to Me...

Rest in Peace Bob Marley

(February 6, 1945 – May 11, 1981)

Spotted: "Do It All Again" Sample

Smooth over at My Jazz World just blew my mind. He's made a name for himself by ripping out-of-print vinyl jazz records, and I've been a subscriber (you should be too) since nearly the site's inception. Today, he dropped a true gem: Comin' at Ya! by Coke Escovedo. I'm not a fan of Escovedo (yet). To be honest, 'til today, I'd never heard his name before. But as I was listening to track three, I reached a euphoric state. You know when you find a sample not by effort, but by chance?

It was Escovedo's "I Wouldn't Change a Thing" -- not Johnny Bristol's version -- which was sampled on Memphis Bleek's 2003 track "Do It All Again" from the sadly-overlooked M.A.D.E. album. It was one of my favorite tracks of the album the year, for real. So, yeah... That's my random sample story for the day. Here's the sample in question, and below is Bleek and crew's rendition:

SAMPLE: Coke Escovedo - "I Wouldn't Change a Thing"

EXAMPLE: Memphis Bleek - "Do It All Again" (feat. Lil' Cease, Geda K & Rell)

K'Naan & Granada Doaba - ABCs (Gnawledge Remix)

I'm a big fan of remixes and genre-smashing mash-ups, so I had to give this one some shine. Canyon Cody of Gnawledge hit me up with this mix/video project he worked on, which fuses hip hop and flamenco. Quite original. Here are the details:

The first Granada Doaba mash-up is from El Canyonazo, who hadn't done a proper smashie since "Emergency Xxplosives". The vocals are from Knaan's "ABCS" [feat. Chubb Rock] from his new album Troubadour.

The instrumental is "La Senda del Abuelo" from our hip-hop flamenco album Granada Doaba, featuring Gnawledge bredren Afro DZ ak on trumpet and Mohammed Dominguez on the darbuka drum. The guitar sample is from flamenco guitarist Juan Habichuela's song "Coge la Senda" (featuring singer Marina Heredia's voice at the end) from his Latin Grammy award-winning album Una Guitarra en Granada.

While in Granada, we were lucky enough to work with Juan Habichuela' grandson, an amazing 19 year old guitarist of the same name, but we'll have to save that story for another day . . .

Gnawledge = Canyon Cody + Gnotes

Graffiti by El Niño de las Pinturas

Check out more of this great music over at their website!

Jurassic 5 - Feedback [The Samples]

If it wasn't for this album, Hip Hop Is Read might have never came to be. I'll explain: Back in the day, the only blogs I frequented were The Smoking Section (at Blogspot!) and a slew of political sites. One day I came across The Rap Up (at Blogspot!), which was hosting a contest to win J5's "Feedback" album. I entered in. I won. Since then, I got more into the blog world, writing for Rizoh @ About.com and even at TRU for a week or so. It all snowballed into my very own blog, right here. So yeah... FYI! Anyways, "Feedback", dropped in the summer of '06, was in my opinion an excellent album. Maybe it's my West coast bias; maybe it's my old school bias (J5 paid tribute to 80's hip hop on this record quite a bit with tracks like 'Radio', 'Future Sound', 'Back 4 U' and others). The samples on this set were fun as hell to compile and listen to once finished. Well, scratch that. There's one seemingly impossible sample track to find: 'World Soul' by Roland Kovac. If anyone's got that, pleeeease hook it up. All that said, I suggest you check out this set's tracklisting immediately. You won't be disappointed - the music is nice. Enjoy!

Rhymefest - Blue Collar [The Samples]

And yet another collabo... This time we've got a joint set with fellow sample aficionado Alex from Goons Dancing. Rhymefest's 2006 release Blue Collar featured some great production. Everything Mark Ronson touches turns to gold, but Blue Collar also had some great beat-boardsmanship from Emile, No I.D., Just Blaze, Cool & Dre and several other greats. My personal favorite cut and sample on this album tends to be a toss-up between 'Build Me Up Buttercup' and 'Bullet and a Target', the former for its catchiness (and There's Something About Mary memorability) and the latter for its positive message and great rhythms. The use of a sample by The Strokes is also pretty top-notch on Ronson's part, I must say... Anyways, this set is totally off-the-wall with some very slick originals that I'm sure you'll dig... Enjoy!

Method Man & Redman - Blackout! [The Samples]

What 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' is to movie buffs, 'Blackout!' is to Hip-Hop: It's a cult classic. Two of the nicest emcees in the game hooking up for a gritty street record to please the fans. Without a doubt, Redman and Method Man are rapper's rappers - and this sample set shows it. Featuring more Hip-Hop songs than any other genre, 'Blackout!' draws from legends like The Fat Boys, X Clan, Tribe, MC Shan, Jay-Z, Das EFX, Cypress Hill & so on... Production on this album was top notch as well: just check the list of beat-smiths who joined in. RZA, Sermon, Rockwilder. Crazy! Like I said, this collection is mostly Hip-Hop, so this sample set plays a lil' different from most of our other comps. But I definitely suggest a download. (I had to buy one of these tracks on iTunes, and de-DRM it, 'cuz I couldn't find it anywhere else, so I'd also suggest that you cl1ck a G00GL3 AD or two...lol). At the moment, my two favorite samples from this set are Little Feat's 'Spanish Moon' as well as David Matthews' 'Sandworms' (which was recently mentioned/discussed in the cBox). Coincidentally, 'Sandworms' was also sampled and used as the main background beat for Pete Rock's 'The PJ's' (featuring Masta Killa & Raekwon) from his 'NY's Finest' album which *cough* leaked this week *cough*. It's also worth mentioning that this set is pretty long, totaling to only 8 seconds short of a full 80 minute-long disc. Hope you guys like this one:

01. 'Spanish Moon' by Little Feat
• Sampled for 'A Special Joint (Intro)' by Method Man & Redman
• Produced by Redman
02. 'Funkin' Lesson' by X Clan
• Interpolates lyrics for 'A Special Joint (Intro)' by Method Man & Redman
• Produced by Redman
• Sampled for 'Tear It Off' by Method Man & Redman
• Produced by Erick Sermon
03. 'Stick 'Em' by The Fat Boys
• Interpolated for 'Blackout' by Method Man & Redman
• Produced by Erick Sermon
04. 'Electric Relaxation' by A Tribe Called Quest
• Sampled for 'Y.O.U.' by Method Man & Redman
• Produced by Erick Sermon
05. 'Fat Cats, Bigga Fish' by The Coup
• Sampled for 'Cereal Killer' by Method Man & Redman
• Produced by RZA
06. 'The Rub' by George & Gwen McCrae
• Sampled for 'Cereal Killer' by Method Man & Redman
• Produced by RZA
07. 'Hand On The Pump' by Cypress Hill
• Interpolates lyrics for 'Da Rockwilder' by Method Man & Redman
• Produced by Rockwilder
08. 'Give Up The Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)' by Parliament
• Sampled for 'Tear It Off' by Method Man & Redman
• Produced by Erick Sermon
09. 'The Bridge' by MC Shan
• Interpolates lyrics for 'Where We At (Skit)' by Method Man & Redman
• Produced by Redman
10. 'Sandworms' by David Matthews
• Sampled for 'Maaad Crew' by Method Man & Redman
• Produced by Erick Sermon
11. 'Can I Get A...' by Jay-Z
• Sampled for 'The ?' by Method Man & Redman
• Produced by Redman
12. 'Sassafras Girl' by Pleasure
• Sampled for 'The ?' by Method Man & Redman
• Produced by Redman
13. 'Mic Checka' by Das EFX
• Sampled and interpolated for 'Cheka' by Method Man & Redman
• Produced by Gov Mattic
14. 'The Payback' by James Brown
• Sampled for 'Cheka' by Method Man & Redman
• Produced by Gov Mattic
15. 'Tell 'Em' by Erick Sermon
• Sampled for 'Big Dogs' by Method Man & Redman
• Produced by Erick Sermon & Redman
16. 'Fly Robin Fly' by Silver Convention
• Sampled for 'How High (Remix)' by Method Man & Redman
• Produced by Erick Sermon
17. 'I Am Woman' by The Cover Girls
• Sampled for 'How High (Remix)' by Method Man & Redman
• Produced by Erick Sermon