OK, we’re warming to Drake (NH). We’re generally sceptical of new artists who break out the box with ridiculous buzz but we think this guy’s got it. Only thing we’d say is that he needed Weezy and Yeezy to breakout and those influences show on this video and the Young Money tracks but we’re looking forward to hearing what he can come up with on his own merit.
We want to keep you lot happy though so before we waste any more column inches on this dude we’re asking the question…
As we mentioned in the Jackson Jacker post below we suspected The Heavster was close to MJ’s camp (NH), here he speaks about working with him. We kinda miss Heavy D but maybe that’s a touch of nostalgia in general.
With a back catalogue valued higher than the GDP of France, or something, Jacko has never been in a rush to clear samples, unlike his broke-ass contemporaries. Well, at least that rule applied in the 80’s. If you’d have tried to clear the bassline from ‘Billie Jean’ last year you might have even kept some of your publishing. So, as we mourn MJ’s passing but realise it would have simply been wrong for him to have not died before his time, we look back at how his music influenced hip-hop. Don’t get excited though, only a handful of artists dared or succeeded in clearing samples, but the ones that did were classics. As for his inspiration as a whole? Well, we could have done without Pharrell’s singing and Kanye deluding himself that he will be as important as MJ some day. We’re also grateful MJ didn’t allow himself to be too accessible to rappers in general. Aside from a guest verse from Heavy D and features by Jigga and Eve on the odd remix, the Hip-Hop fraternity never got a real chance to get a piece of him. Let’s see what his new Akon produced album has to offer though. Please don’t let them get any old 3rd rate spitter on a multitude of remixes. Let’s face it though, without MJ, Hip-Hop or Black music wouldn’t be the far reaching commercial force it is today (not exactly a great thing, we know), especially considering the barriers he broke down at MTV. Anyway, we’ll let some doofus ruminate on that in this weekend’s broadsheet glossies. Until then, we’ve omitted anything by Derek B, MC Hammer and most R ‘n’ B. We’ve only focused on substantial usage and omitted any uncleared samples apart from Scram Jones as that’s the whole point of the post. We’ve basically omitted any crap but feel free to school us, this is all goodness baby…
Billie Jean (Thriller, Epic 1983)
Scram Jones ‘Jackson Jacker’
Ice Cube ‘You Know How We Do It’ (check the drums)
Thriller (Thriller, Epic 1983)
Biz Markie ‘Mudd Foot’ (the famous Vincent Price laugh)
Large Professor ‘Mad Scientist’ (there’s that laugh again)
I Can’t Help It (Off The Wall, Epic, 1979)
De La Soul ‘Breakadawn’
Off The Wall (Off The Wall, Epic, 1979)
Chubb Rock ‘Enjoy Yourself’
It’s Great To Be Here (Maybe Tomorrow, Motown, 1971)
Eric B & Rakim ‘Eric B Is On The Cut’ (sample first used on 12″ by Afrika Bambaataa on Death Mix but Eric and Ra cleared it officially)
Original Concept ‘Can You Feel It’
Puff Daddy ‘All About The Benjamins’ (Puff saved the best bit for Biggie’s verse)
ABC (ABC, Motown, 1970)
Naughty By Nature ‘O.P.P.’ (famously Jacking Tony D’s use of the sample on his track ‘Adam’s Nightmare’, see our Tony D posts HERE)
Heavy D ‘The Overweighter’ (the first one to use this…)
Heartbreak Hotel (Triumph, Epic, 1980)
Heavy D ‘Peaceful Journey’ (The Hevster obviously had an inside connection)
Human Nature (Thriller, Epic, 1983)
Nas ‘It Ain’t Hard To Tell’ (Large Pro killed it with this one)
SWV ‘Right Here’ (We had to include this)
People Make The World Go Round (Ben, Motown, 1972)
Mobb Deep ‘Apostles Warning’
Naughty By Nature ‘World Go Round’
With A Child’s Heart (Music & Me, Motown, 1973)
Big Punisher ‘You Ain’t A Killer’
P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) (Thriller, Epic, 1983)
Kanye West ‘Good Life’ (’Ye smashed it with one, clever usage)
Rock With You (Off The Wall, Epic, 1979)
De La Soul ‘Cool Breeze On The Rocks’ (short but sweet)
These were left in the comments section of this week’s Rejected Ideas post but they were so good we decided to make them a post of their own. Feel free to leave more in the comments section. Jacko puns will come in a separate post, watch this space…
Steffi Grafh
Rafa NadAlchemist
Nastase Nas
Red Hot Navratilova Tone
Sharapova Cee & Cassanova Rud
Project Pat Cash
John MacDre’n’Z-Ro
Pete SamPras (from The Fugees)
Michael Stic.man
Arthur Asher Rosh
Fred Wreck Perry
Andre the Giant Agassi
Steffi Graf Luva
Tracy Dallas Austin
Pam Ab-Shriver
Yannick Wiz
Hana Mandlik-Hova
Ivan Full of Pakistan Lendl
Scott La Coste
T La Coste
Rod Flava
Stefan Nappy Ed-berg
Mixed Doubles X Posse
HawkI’N’I
New Yak Ballz please
Georgie Stoop Doggy Dogg
Kutmaster Centre Kurt
Godgather WimbleDon
Gats Wilander
Ty (break)
Deuce Crew Dis
The Last Umpirer
Gift Of The Gabriela Sabatini
Robin Sodermistahling* (* Mistah Ling, of course, being the vocalist who provides the ragga interlude on Mad Flava’s Housewreckers)
Craig McEnroe
S1W19’s
Cypress Henman Hill
Samprass Hill
The Henman Hill That’s Real
The Centre Court Is Now In Session
Monie 40-Love (apply to any other Love’s)
Keith Murray Mania
To The East Agassisyyyyyyys
Grand Slam Verbaliser
The Federeration
I Gotcha US Open
Royal Flushing Meadows
The Seed
Deuce Ace Detonator (tuff crew double pun!)
Master Ace
You Chalk Too Much
Byron Black, Rock and Ron
Bobby Jimmy Connors and the Critters
DJ Bjorn Supreme Allah
Boom Biddy Bye Bye (to the fourth round due to injured opponent)
Greg Nice-edski
Chris Evert-Lloydbanks
Billie Jean King Tee
Mr Lawnge Tennis Association
Gerulaitis Up by Li’l Kim
As Nasir said, ‘No Idea’s Original’. He also said ‘Kelis, will you marry me’. He also (probably) said ‘Kelis, you cheating c**t, I’m calling the lawyers in’ some two years later, so we’ll take his words of wisdom with a pinch of salt. So with a distinct lack of rap news this week the Fat Lace editorial team met yesterday in an attempt to spice up the week’s proceedings. Here are a few ideas that didn’t make the cut.
B.G. meets the Bee Gees
In Full Gear: Daddy O considers names for his new driving school
Float On: While Fruitkwan invests in a hovercraft
Illa than J Dilla: Other rapper’s weird diseases
Erykah Babu: real DJ’s Wives
Mod Deep: Havoc’s love for Quadrophenia
Most-wanted comebacks no.218: Sham & The Professor
Thyme’s Up: OC’s crazy herb-based stock exchange!
Unsteady B: How Parkinson’s is affecting rap’s golden generation
I killed all my landlords: Boots from The Coup’s homeless years
Pfeiffer’s Platinum Pied Ryker Phifer Piper Lifer Cipher: Hollywood star Michelle goes off the dome with Mekhi Phifer, Phife, The Lifer’s Group, the Platinum Pied Pipers and Rowdy Roddy Piper. On Ryker’s Island!
From Lil fame to Lorra Fame: Lil Fame gets a surprising boost in popularity after an appearance on Cilla Black’s ‘Surprise Surprise’
Trends of Culture: Rt Hon Ben Bradshaw MP appoints the 90’s rap group in an ‘advisory’ capacity
Shout out to our mans dem who are celebrating the 10th anniversary of Spread Love, the London hip-hop night which ran things during the mini golden era of 1999-2004. The original cast will be fully reunited on Thursday July 2nd. Expect to hear tracks by Ugly Duckling, The High & Mighty and a lot of DJ Spinna production.
Will C, who put together the rope-a-dope ‘Down the Dial’ project last year (see more about that here), is set to drop his debut album ‘Evil in the Mirror’ on Brick Records. He’s let us have a sneak peak at the single, so peep that right now as you read on - it’ll be available at iTunes and such. He’s also got into the spirit of our Roxanne hunt by upping some vintage audio onto his ever-readable blog. Not content with the Fly Shante on the phone to Fly Ty during a Rap Attack, he’s dug up an apparently unreleased Roxanne wars entry from Starrlite, who used to run the Juice Crew fan club. ‘Watch out Roxanne’ is unlikely to exist on vinyl, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be looking for it…
