Butter Team Weekend Beats Vol. 40 (right-click to DL mp3)
DJ Shadow - Organ Donor intro
Kings of Swing - Nod Your Head to This
Wiz Khalifa - The Kid Frankie
The Emotions - I Like It
RZA - O'Day
Javelin - Andean Ocean Mixtape
Toro Y Moi - New Beat (Fare Soldi Rmx)
Booka Shade - Night Falls
Fatboy Slim - Apache
Fleetwood Mac - Dreams outro
Holy Other - Touch (Supreme Cuts Mix)
NPR recently chronicled the story of a sample - in this case, The Charmels' 1967 single "As Long As I've Got You" - which RZA copped for "C.R.E.A.M." on 1993's Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). That opening piano tinkle from the Stax house band (which often included Isaac Hayes or Booker T. and the M.G.'s) also marked the debut of RZA's most consistent influence - sweet Southern soul.
More than 15 years and 40 albums later, the two most prominent samples from RZA's Digi Snax hail back to 1969; The Tempations' Message From A Black Man, and "I Like It" from Stax staples The Emotions (who just finished their secular conversion from gospel act The Heavenly Sunbeams). Jonathan Kaslow, producer of Stax's The Soul of Hip Hop, said, "After 1969, things got much more interesting rhythmically. The BPM’s got to around 88 or 90…just the kind of tempos that would become perfect to rap to. And a lot of the beats that are sampled from Stax are just so perfect that they just loop it and do nothing else. They don’t have to layer it or anything. They’re perfect."
The beats might be right, but it appears the price is not. When Prefix asked RZA about samples from Digi Snax, he said: "I got mad records, but I didn’t even go through my records and do shit like that for the album...One, I’m a musician now myself, so I can create my own music. And two, the sample business is fucked up because they still haven’t met a standard of doing business. It’s like I do a song and you take 90 percent of my fuckin’ song when your track never even went gold and it’s about to go platinum. Until they get it right soon, I’ve declined on using samples lately."
That's a shame, especially considering what he did with these two:
The Emotions - I Like It (from So I Can Love You, 1969)
RZA - Don't Be Afraid (from Digi Snax, 2008)
The Tempations - Message From A Black Man (from Puzzle People, 1969)
RZA - You Cant Stop Me Now feat. Inspectah Deck (from Digi Snax)
Check out RZA's other classic soul samples on Shaolin Soul or The Soul of Hip Hop.
(pic via Soul Sides)
Other BT sample posts:
Messages From Black Men (Nas, Mos Def)
More Than U Know (Prince Paul, De La Soul)
You Never Knew (Hieroglyphics)
Since I Met You (Avalanches)
You Made A Believer Out of Me (Q-Tip)
3 Feet High and Rising (De La Soul)
Kevin Nottingham's This is Hip Hop has a running series called "Who Flipped It Better?" that we're hijacking to get your thoughts on an epic flow battle - Rza vs. Nas vs. Mos Def.
The original:
Message From A Black Man
Composed by Barrett Strong-Norman Whitfield
Performed by The Temptations
Souled On Music says "The Temptations released the track in 1969 on their Puzzle People LP. Although some critics and fans viewed the song's lyrics as being too political and militant, the track still became a popular radio request. It's often been said that The Temptations themselves were concerned about the tune being too forward-thinking for the times, resulting in their reluctance to play the track during live performances."
But nothing's too controversial these days though, right Nas? "Message" was also recorded or sampled by Charles Earland, Don Julian, S.O.U.L., Byron Lee & The Dragonaires, Mickey & The Soul Generation, The Spinners, The Whatnauts, and Derrick Harriott, MF Doom, and probably Girl Talk.
So considering production, flow and message - who flipped it better?
Mos Def - Undeniable (from True Magic, December 2006)
Rza - You Cant Stop Me Now feat. Inspectah Deck (from Digi Snax, March/June 2008)
Nas - You Can't Stop Us Now feat. Eban Thomas (from Nas, July 2008)
