Sample Set #189: GNX

Sample Set #188: Southside Soul

Sample Set #12: Black on Both Sides

Today is the 15-year anniversary of the release of the mighty Mos Def's debut LP, Black on Both Sides. I've wanted to revisit this sample set for a while now; I figured this was the best opportunity to do just that! This set (#12) was originally compiled back in January of 2008, when Hip Hop Is Read was still just a months-old experiment. Little did I know the one and only Combat Jack would visit the site, download/listen to the set, and give me a shoutout in 2010 on his fledgling radio program - which has now grown into a true cultural phenomenon. Much respect to Combat Jack, who's been down since day one. I've added his shoutout as the intro for this revamped Back on Both Sides sample set - even though he hilariously butchers my last name (LOL), but it's all good! Dallas Penn makes a special (and offensive) appearance, too. But now let's get into the music...

Black on Both Sides interior artwork

The original set contained 24 songs. This one's got 38. Many of the new additions are classic hip hop tracks (Beastie Boys, Eric B. & Rakim, MC Shan, etc.) which were scratched onto songs like "Hip Hop" and "Mathematics". We've also got a couple new and essential reggae tracks (Gregory Isaac's "If I Don't Have You" and Burning Spear's "Marcus Garvey") that are great additions and help to demonstrate the Afrocentric collage of Mos Def's debut. In order to update this set, I revisited Black on Both Sides (after admittedly leaving it in the dust for a few years). It was a rewarding experience. I'm not the best at judging how well albums age as I don't really know how you measure something like that. Black on Both Sides was released, after all, during an age when the "conscious" label wasn't nearly as contemptible as it's been for the past decade or so. But for my money, this album still holds up quite well - arguably better than the Black Star effort by Mos and fellow Brooklyn emcee Talib Kweli. Do yourself a favor and revisit Black on Both Sides on its 15th birthday. Turn it up!!

Sample Set #184: The Pretty Toney Album

Sample Set #183: good kid, m.A.A.d city

Westside right on time LATE AS FUCK! I really shoulda dropped this LAST October, when GKMC first came out (it's been a year already!?), but oh well. At least now you can delete Babylon Cartel's sub-par attempt at a HHIR sample set. (Sorry, guys... your arms hard drive's just too short small to box fuck with god my blog!) No shots.* Just sayin' though... The truth is I already gave you most of these samples back when I dropped the Samples of the Year 2012 compilation. But I can understand why you'd want a complete set dedicated to Kendrick's Aftermath debut. (Shouts to Small Pro for the Saturday afternoon inspiration.) So here it is! I've thrown in some extra samples from a handful of Kendrick's non-album tracks from 2012 for good measure. Hopefully it makes up for this year-long delay. Enjoy... and as always, turn it up!!

*All shots!!!

Sample Set #182: The Infamous

Here's one I've been wanting to put together for a looooong, long time. For years, I was frustrated that the sample for "Shook Ones Pt. II" - arguably the album (and group)'s greatest track - was a mystery. But that all changed when Bronco from The-Breaks made one of the two greatest sample-sleuthing discoveries in recent years. (The other epic find was for Raekwon's "Ice Cream", made by YouTube user patriquino.) Havoc is a damn genius (and fool!) for this one...

That Herbie Hancock track notwithstanding, there are some other great flips on this record. Grant Green's "Maybe Tomorrow", which has been sampled, most recently, for Kendrick Lamar's "Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst" off good kid, m.A.A.d city, is picked apart so delicately here, you'd barely notice hearing it on "The Start of Your Ending (41st Side)", The Infamous' opening track. It's all about those subtle keys! Here's another one: Al Green's "I Wish You Were Here". Again, the implementation is so subtle, but it's there. Havoc wasn't just looping records; he was really getting creative with it. Read more about Havoc's production on "Eye for a Eye (Your Beef Is Mines)" here. The full Complex interview is here. Shouts to Noah Callahan-Bever, Toshitaka Kondo, and Insanul Ahmed.

WTF, Mister Cee!?

The brilliance keeps on coming: Miles Davis' "Lonely Fire", the sirens on Quincy Jones' "Kitty With the Bent Frame", Herbie Hancock's "Jessica" (yeah, I've gotta mention it again!), The Headhunters' "I Remember I Made You Cry" (which really demonstrated Q-Tip's contribution on "Drink Away the Pain (Situations)"), the sinister intro portion off Les McCann's "Benjamin"... maaaaaan, I could keep going. This is just another one of those times in which hunting down samples from an album makes you appreciate the record that much more! As always, click the album cover up top to download the sample set, or peep the Audiomack player below. Enjoy... and turn it up!!

Sample Set #181: SlaughtaHouse

 

This one's for the brainiac dumb-dumbs! About a year ago, I tried this thing on the site called Samplify. I thought it'd take off, but as soon as I realized that Spotify had some severe limitations, I cancelled that b***h. Source Magazine-scanner-extraordinaire Vincent said this one was "too good to leave on Spotify." He was right. So here we are. SlaughtaHouse is an incredible album. (Pssst... Delicious Vinyl re-issued SlaughtaHouse last year with a bunch of bonus tracks. Grab that here!) Masta Ace & Co. flipped the gangsta rap sub-genre so brilliantly on this record. So of course, the James Brown, Parliament, Funkadelic, Ohio Players, and Zapp joints you'd expect are on here. But this set's also got some cool stuff you probably won't hear on any other sample set. A few highlights:

1) I'm a big film noir fan, so hearing a track off of Jerry Goldsmith's score from the 1974 film Chinatown sampled on this album - and being the first (FIRST!) on the InternetS to identify it - was thrilling to me. Spotting that sample was dope, but listening to that entire OST (or watching the film, for that matter)... Believe me, it's worth it. Grab it on wax if you can! 2) Earth, Wind & Fire's "Handwriting on the Wall". I don't fully understand the story behind this track. Apparently you can find it on some vinyl pressings of EWF's first album. Notice how I said "some." My copy doesn't have it. Weird. It's a damn shame that some people haven't heard this track because it's incredible. It sounds more like a Funkadelic song, if anything. Bottom line: Incredible. It's track #23 on this sample set. 3) Miles Davis' "Jeru". Miles' Birth of the Cool album is, simply, cool. Sooo cool. And to hear it on Masta Ace Incorporated's "The Mad Wunz", which is kinda/sort-of a gully reinterpretation of Tribe's "Jazz (We've Got)" makes it all the more cooler.

I could keep going, but why bother? Click the cover above(!) to be redirected to that magical website with downloadable sample sets galore, or, as I've been doing lately, check the Audiomack streamable player below. Enjoy, and as always... Turn it up!!

:^)

Kanye West - Yeezus (Samples Mix)

Sample Set #179

Sample Set #178

Sample Set #177

Sample Set #176

It's been a long time... I know, that's what I said the last time I dropped a sample set (for the fitting classic Paid in Full in July). Well, thanks to the green light from Shady's OG VP of A&R Riggs Morales, I'm back at it again! This Slaughterhouse sample set features a quirky mix of rock and Eurodance, strewn about with some audio snippets from an early Fantastic Four comic, recorded in the '70s. It doesn't get much weirder than this. Enjoy, and as always... turn it up!!

Sample Set #175

"This style is identical to none..."

It's been a long time since I dropped a sample set. I shouldn't have left you. I'm sorry I kept you. As my blog brother over at Up North Trips reminds us, today is the 25th anniversary of Eric B. & Rakim's legendary debut album, Paid in Full. Perfect timing. I'll let him tell it:

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the album, and almost a quarter of a century later, the album's influence is undeniable. From movies [Paid in Full] to today's up-and-coming rappers [A$AP Rocky, (real name is Rakim) named after the God MC] there is no questioning the legacy that this album has left on our culture. Lyrically and from a production standpoint this album changed everything. From Ra's magical visual wordplay and machine gun cadence to Eric B's cuts, this was a special album whose sound quickly furthered Hip Hop's growing reputation. The release of this album, also placed Eric B.and Rakim in the spotlight on the fashion tip. The duo's fresh styles transformed the ordinary 'rapper look' of shell-toed-Adidas-sporting, all-black-leather-everything to a new style of backwards-Kangol-hat wearing, truck jewel-rockin' trendsetters. The album cover even featured (for the first time ever, possibly) the fresh and flashy styles of the young designer, Dapper Dan.

I also happen to be turning twenty-five real soon (next month; '87 'til infinity...), but we'll stick with one celebration at a time. Enjoy the sample set, and as always... turn it up!!

Sample Set #174

I've been planning the release of a sample set for Common's opus, Resurrection, for over a year or so but just never got around to completing the project. As chance would have it, a couple weeks back I was watching the 1991 film The Five Heartbeats and stumbled upon an audio snippet which was sampled at the end of "I Used to Love H.E.R." But best of all, the recent publication of Complex's "The Making of Common's Resurrection" by blog fam Andrew Barber (of Fake Shore Drive), Insanul Ahmed and Keenan Higgins motivated me to put the finishing touches on Sample Set #174. There's not much I can say about this record which isn't already spelled out and examined track by track in this excellent piece of music journalism. So enjoy... and as always... turn it up!!

Sample Set #173

I've written in the past about my adoration for Fiona Apple's music. As I see it, there's a connection to be drawn between the debut and sophomore albums of Fiona Apple (Tidal and When the Pawn...) and Kanye West (College Dropout and Late Registration), namely in terms of production and experimentation. It's not uncommon for a musician to aspire to "grow" on their second album. More often than not - or so it seems - an artist will get criticized for this and thus be hit by the "sophomore slump" stamp of disapproval. Not the case for Fiona or Kanye, both of whom released albums which were arguably as good as their predecessor - if not better - despite shifting gears and trying new sounds. One key ingredient in both of these follow-up records was the production wizardry of Jon Brion, a talented multi-instrumentalist who is known to dazzle crowds at Los Angeles' Largo nightclub (highly recommended!). On Fiona Apple's debut, Jon Brion played various instruments including guitar, vibraphone, marimba and piano. For When the Pawn..., his role was upgraded to producer, experimenting with new sounds including the Chamberlin and intricate drum loops. When the Pawn... had a decisively more fluid, active sound and pace than Tidal.



Image via Passion of the Weiss
On Late Registration, Brion is credited as a co-producer alongside Kanye West. People often point to the "lush" sounds on the album - a change of scenery from the organic, dustier feel of College Dropout. Providing string and brass arrangements for the album, it's evident that credit for Late Registration's lavish soundbeds are owed to Jon Brion. Of course, props are due to Kanye West as well, who effectively showed on Late Registration that he was more than just a "beatmaker"; he was proclaiming himself a full-fledged producer. The album's liner notes provide a thorough justification for this claim, outlining the instrumentalists and vocalists enlisted for the project - not to mention the dug-up gems sampled on Late Registration! I had a blast compiling this set (which has admittedly been a long time coming). 'til the next one, enjoy... and turn it up!!

Sample Set #172

Leading the strike against the West Coast’s domination of the early ‘90s, Black Moon’s Enta Da Stage is one of the earliest examples of NYC hip hop’s mid-‘90s resurgence. Prior to the release of earth shattering debut albums by the Wu-Tang Clan (and its members going for dolo), Nas and Biggie Smalls, there was Enta Da Stage – an aggressive, gritty LP fueled by guns, weed and nihilistic braggadocio. Also known as “Brothers who Lyrically Act and Combine Kickin Music Out On Nations”, Black Moon is comprised of emcees 5 Ft. Excellerator and Duck Down visionary Buckshot – both of whom provide cold-hearted verses and rowdy, posse-targeting hooks delivered with forceful ease. Don’t let their heights fool you! I mean, shit… On “Powaful Impak!”, a then-eighteen-year-old Buckshot kicked this poisonous dart: “Get on my skateboard and do a motherfuckin' driveby/”. A drive-by? On a skateboard? What’s fucking with that? Enta Da Stage’s no holds barred mentality is best described by producer DJ Evil Dee, who in the album’s liner notes wrote: “This album was done on blunted terms. Anyone who is offended by the contents of the album, FUCK YOU. Nuff said.” Evil Dee laced the majority of the album’s beats, with older brother (and subsequent Beatminerz partner) Mr. Walt providing some additional bangers such as the album’s title track, along with the classic “I Got Cha Opin”.


Contributions by Buckshot and 5 Ft. notwithstanding, what stands out most to me about this record has got to be the production. Recorded at NYC’s famed D&D Studios, Enta Da Stage’s soundscape is basement rap at its finest. The album epitomizes the aesthetic of raw boom bap, with DJ Evil Dee (and Mr. Walt) truly mastering the art of hard drums, snapping snares and low, deep basslines which can only be described as “subterranean”. Enta Da Stage was Da Beatminerz’ introduction to the world – and what a great first impression they made! The brothers’ crate digging skills are hoisted up for display, well represented by some impressive gems provided by the likes of Lee Michaels, Ten Wheel Drive, John Klemmer, The 9th Creation, Donald Byrd and Ronnie Laws – just to name a few. You can imagine it was quite a pleasure scooping these tracks up for Sample Set #172. What’s the occasion for showcasing Black Moon’s opus? Well, the group’s still around and they’ve been making the rounds, performing the album in its entirety, backed by a live band (check out this rehearsal video). Buck ‘Em Down!!! Enjoy… and turn it up!


P.S. Check out those liner notes. Notice the black and white inlay (on the bottom right side of my scans above) which specifies (a tiny portion of) the samples on the album. Notice that every Enta Da Stage track listed is spelled differently than how it should be (i.e. “Shit Is Real” instead of “Shit Iz Real”; “Into the Stage” instead of “Enta Da Stage”; “How Many MC’s” instead of “How Many MC’s…”). That can’t just be a coincidence… Or can it…?…

Sample Set #171

Peace to FSD, but I ain't budging from this throne...



Watch me.



*friendly shots fired*

Sample Set #170

Originally dubbed DVX (Devastating Vocal Excellence), SoCal's own Cypress Hill burst onto the music scene in 1991 with their single, "The Phuncky Feel One" (b-side: "How I Could Just Kill a Man"), followed shortly by the release of their eponymous debut LP. This upcoming August 13th marks the 20 year anniversary of Cypress Hill's first album. Compiling a sample set for Cypress Hill came to mind about a year ago, but I wanted to hold off until August 2011... and, well, here we are! Fifty-four tracks deep, this set's about as eclectic as it gets. What other playlist do you know features a song by Suicidal Tendencies followed by three consecutive James Brown tracks? Other gems include my favorite Sly & the Family Stone cut, "Underdog", along with some ancient audio of Fiorello La Guardia reading comics - so bizarre, and somewhat boring, until your jaw drops when you hear the sample in question (at around the 1:17 mark).


Every time I dig in the digital crates for these releases, I always gain a further appreciation for the producer(s) who had the insight, foresight, and of course technical skills to sculpt these samples into statues of sonic perfection. I can't stress this fact more than enough for DJ Muggs, the one producer I'm confident in calling the RZA of the West Coast. Add to that, Black Sunday, the group's sophomore LP with the crossover smash hit "Insane in the Brain", had been my favorite Cypress Hill album for years. But studying their debut LP for the past week or so, I may have to reassess that decision...


Which leads me to the other reason why I held off from releasing this sample set until now: To commemorate the 20 year anniversary of Cypress Hill's release, Get On Down Records is re-issuing the LP on vinyl: glorious, glorious red vinyl! Go cop that! And of course, grab this sample set, too! "I know you gonna dig this..." Turn it up!!

Sample Set #169

Happy birthday, Mr. West!