Before the Night is Over by Joe Simon (1:42)
I’m sure most of you can guess by the first few seconds of Before the Night is Over that it was sampled in So Fresh and So Clean by Outkast. It’s easy for me to forget about those guys because they haven’t done anything as a group for a long time but, of course, the stuff they have done is great.
As corny as it might sound, this is probably the song that got me into hip hop. It’s not that it is a bad song, in fact, I still like it, but it is off a novelty album about Adult Swim (The Mouse and the Mask by Dangerdoom). How much nerdier can I get? In retrospect, it is a little puzzling why this would have been my favorite with other tracks like Old School and The Mask. Space Ho’s is chock full of references that I didn’t get (some I still don’t). On the other hand, it probably has the catchiest and most upbeat instrumental on an album full of catchy upbeat instrumentals. There are a few samples but most of them come from one song.
Rainmaker by Harry Nilsson (0:00)
Not much to explain here. It’s the drum track.
Morning Broadway by Keith Mansfield ((1) - 0:00, (2) - 0:37, (3) - 0:40, (4) - 0:32)
Morning Broadway is where all of the easily recognizable parts come from. (1) starts out with a guy singing “ooohoooohoooohoooooh” for one bar and then no melody in the next bar. This is a bit softer than the others and adds a lot to the song’s dynamics. (2) is a single DING that gets played before Dangermouse loops (3). The only way I can think of to type out the first bit (4) is DOO DEE. I think (4) ends like (3) but with triangle hits (or something that sounds like a triangle). It’s another that doesn’t get looped and is there to give the beat some variation.
The general structure of the song looks like this. There might be some mistakes, but it will give you the basic idea. He cuts what I am calling (3) short a few times for stylistic reasons.
(1)x2, (2), (3)x2, (4), (3), (2), (3)x2, (4), (3), (1)x2, (2), (3)x2, (4), (3)x3, (4), (1)x2, (2), (3)x2, (4), (3)x2, (4), (3)x7
Fat Albert Halloween Special (7:28)
According to imdb, the music in this tv special was produced by Ray Ellis and Norm Prescott. MF Doom used this clip in his song Poo-Putt Platter.
Day-O by Harry Belafonte (~0:37 and ~1:01)
I’m not a Lil Wayne fan but this isn’t a “hey, listen to this song I like” blog. The big news in hip hop this week is that Tha Carter 4 sold extremely well. Some say the success isn’t deserved. I dunno. I haven’t listened to the whole album and I probably won’t because his voice irritates me. He’s obviously relevant to a gigantic audience, so he must be doing something well (even if it isn’t his music). Here’s his song 6 Foot 7 Foot off Tha Carter 4 featuring samples from Day-O.
In Other Words by Ben Kweller (0:00 and 0:14)
Most people haven’t heard Ms. Hill by Talib Kweli since it wasn’t on Quality, Blackstar, or Train of Thought. It is Kweli’s tribute to Lauryn Hill, one of the greatest female emcees of all time. The tone of the lyrics is that of intense admiration and concern (why? read the wikipdia article) and the samples fit that tone quite well.
I’ve been listening to Resurrection by Common Sense, its remixes, and songs supposedly sampled in it all morning, and I’m still barely confident enough to publish a post on it. This song has given me a lot of trouble! Wikipedia listed a lot of samples used in Resurrection but right now I’m operating under the assumption that some of those samples were used in remixes and not the original, because I just don’t hear them there. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong. There are some pretty obvious samples.
Dolphin Dance by Ahmad Jamal (2:44)
Ahmad Jamal is a seriously talented jazz pianist active since the fifties. Piano is easily my favorite instrument for jazz so I highly recommend checking out more stuff by him. The bass loop and the piano both come from this sample.
No Delayin’ by Nice & Smooth (2:25)
I don’t know too much about Nice & Smooth as of this morning but this sample is the “Resurrection” soundbite that gets scratched in the chorus.
The Sorcerer of Isis - The Power of Zeus (0:14)
This is my best guess for the backing drums because the kick hits match up. I’m not 100% sure though.
I’m pretty sure the next two songs appear in the Extra P. and Large Professor remixes and not in the original instrumental by No I.D.
Ice by Spirit (0:39)
This is the main loop in the Extra P. remix.
The Signs Part II by David Axelrod (0:24)
This is the main loop for the Large Professor remix and it reinforces my belief that producers must be some of the most patient people on earth. I can’t imagine digging through songs like this for one awesome five second clip.
The last two songs are my main source of confusion and they are both by the Whatnauts.
Why Can’t People be Colors Too? by The Whatnauts (2:50)
This is one of that songs that tons of artists sampled for the drum break. It does sound like the drums in Ressurection but that is already taken care of by the Sorcerer of Isis… Maybe both were used or maybe I picked the wrong song. I don’t know.
Help is on the Way by The Whatnauts (4:05)
This breakdown has a bass line that is unbelievably funky and was supposedly used somewhere in Resurrection. I would be really surprised if I could miss this one which is why I think it was probably used in another remix. Either that or I am going deaf.
Get Out of My Life Woman - Lee Dorsey
It’s drum break Monday! Not really. I was going to another decomposition but I’m feeling a bit lethargic today and I realized that I need to listen to more music, especially commonly sampled music, before I can break down many of the songs I want to do (wikipedia and whosampled can’t hold my hand on everything). So I’m going to do a series on commonly used drum breaks whenever I have nothing else I would rather be writing about.
Get Out of My Life woman is a bluesy track by a 60s r&b musician called Lee Dorsey. The sample appears at the beginning of the song. It was used in Just a Friend by Biz Markie, Eye Know by De La Soul, Fat for the 90s by Lord Finesse, The Other Side of Town by Master Ace, Flow Joe by Fat Joe, Memory Lane (Sittin’ in da Park) by Nas, New Whirl Odor by Public Enemy, and many many others.
Humpty Dumpty by Marc Moulin
Used in a J Dilla beat I’ve been listening to a lot lately, Love Jones.
Keep it Warm by Flo and Eddie
Listen to Gucci Mane, Big Sean, Trey Songz, Odd Future, Yelawolf, and Fabolous with Nicki Minaj. I won’t say which incarnation I prefer, but there is no question Gucci Mane’s Lemonade came first. It’s worth mentioning that Bangladesh (the guy who produced Lemonade) didn’t actually use any samples from Keep it Warm.
I’ve been meaning to listen to more of A Tribe Called Quest so I guess I’ll start by breaking this song down. With a catchy beat, fun rhymes, and a really interesting structure (pay attention to the verses before and after they start asking each other, “you on point, (phife/tip)?”), Check the Rhime is really easy to get into. I got a kick out of a couple lines that I’ve heard sampled in other songs (“Now here’s a funky introduction…”, “How far must you go to gain respect, UMMM?”). Let’s get into it.
The drums come from the very beginning of a song called Hydra by Grover Washington Jr.
The intro and chorus are predominantly driven by a loop from Average White Band’s Love Your Life starting at about 3:38…
… but if you listen closely, there is also some organ from Fly Like an Eagle by the Steve Miller Band from somewhere around the 2:30 mark.
Finally, they use a loop from the first few seconds of Baby this Love I Have by Minnie Ripperton, a song also sampled by Blackstar in their song Knowledge of Self (Determination), in the verses.
