oh no you didn't just.
back with another edition of the, mostly, weekly wex wednesdays posting. i'd like you all to give a warm round of applause (and keep your cat calls to a minimum please), for our special guest blogger... Emily.
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Hey guys, it's your girl Emily guest blogging this week.
I love lists, so I thought I'd put one out there for you all to add to. This week's topic is songs with the ballsiest samples. That is, conspicuously sampling undeniably uncool songs -- especially when done without apparent irony. (Mase's "Welcome Back," for example, has too much irony/nostalgia to be really ballsy. It's more like an A-Team lunchbox.)
My choices are:
runner up ballsiest: "Hard Knock Life"
number one ballsiest: "Changes"
But you guys all know hip hop way deeper than I do, so I'm sure you can top my picks.
Em.
posted by Hip Hop Karaoke :: NYC at 11:40 AM
15 Comments:
Along the same lines as Hard Knock, there's also Anything.
I vote for Kanye's Jesus Walks. Not that Jesus/gospel isn't cool but it's not the kind of gospel song you'd expect to be sampled.
D. Original Prince Paul for pretty much anything on 3 Feet, but especially The Turtles, Hall and Oates and Steely Dan. Sonic revolution at the time.
As much as I hate to admit, Jay doesn't usually hesitate to bring a ballsy sample on every LP. Like The Takeover has a Doors bite.
Also, I don't know if it's ballsy or not, but Eminem used a Martika sample. I don't think it counts though since both songs are horrible.
I agree with the Newmanator, sampling Steely Dan's "Peg" is ballsy. (Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz's sample of "Black Cow" was good too, but of course a little too good for their own good, given all the litigation that followed. Besides, Prince Paul did it first.)
"Gimme Some More" samples the "Psycho" theme song. That's pretty amazing.
"Impossible" by Wu-Tang Clan samples Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata (Opus 8, No. 13), first movement, which is also my favourite classical piece of all time.
"She Watch Channel Zero" off It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back has the heavy-metalest sample ever: "Angel of Death" by Slayer, a song I seem to keep mentioning in my blog comments.
And of course I have to love the Beastie Boys -- well, the Dust Brothers, really -- sampling the Beatles' "When I'm Sixty-Four", "Sgt. Pepper's..." "Sgt. Pepper's (Reprise)", AND "The End", all in "The Sounds Of Science".
Oh, and the Beastie Boys' sample of Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" at the end of "Finger Lickin' Good" is pretty fucking great.
A Dylan song I've been waiting for someone to sample is "The Mighty Quinn (Quinn The Eskimo)". Funky-ass intro. That's The Band backing him up -- the funkiest Canadian band ever. Including Snow.
nas - the message, samples sting's shape of my heart.
everytime i hear this nas joint i get chills and need to change my diapers when the beat drops in.
get this instrumental and it's on like peter yorn.
yes, if someone can find the instrumental to that "message" joint, me and charlie will team up to bring the f'ing house down. (shotgun, i get the first 4 bars).
i recall seeing it on vinyl at one of the used music places in the east village. would that work for you if i can track it down again?
Wex and Charlie, check your inboxes for an extra-special rDJ gift.
By the way, I don't think "The Message" actually samples "Shape Of My Heart" as much as it interpolates it. That's someone else playing it on guitar or synth or something -- you can tell by the last note of the loop. Should be a major 7, instead it's a 2, musically speaking.
Oops, my bad, sorry, don't check your inboxes. I was wrong, it was a bogus instrumental I found online.
"Yo I'll take it back, I'm the Indian giver,
MCs take notes as I stand and deliver" -Phife (apologies to all First Nations peoples)
"Workinonit" by Dilla is built entirely out of samples from 10cc's "The Worst Band In The World." Kind-of a strange band to sample for a hip-hop song.
The Beanuts sampling a song from the children's show The Electric Company for "Off The Books" was also ingenious. Or KMD sampling Sesame Street on "Who Me?" and "Humrush."
Afu-Ra's "Trilogy Of Terror" sampled "Over" by Portishead, and I've heard of other Portishead samples out there in the hip-hop world.
And of course, the ubiquitous use of Mountain's live version of "Long Red" is pretty ingenious. Who knew the first couple seconds of proto-blues metal rock song would become one of hip-hop's most used samples? Right up there with Billy Squier (??!?!?!) having "Big Beat" become a classic hip-hop break.
Making my way back to the blogosphere...
The first song that came to my mind was EPMD's "Strictly Business" and how they sampled "I Shot the Sheriff"--not Marley's, but Eric Clapton's, which at the time, I had no idea he had even covered.
Alot of people have never heard it before, but there's a song that Ali Vegas did called "Gots to Make It Happen." It was produced by Chops of The Mountain Brothers (remember them? VERY slept on debut album). Anyway, he freaked the theme song from Benson. BALLSY. And it came out fucking fly.
I would upload it for you guys but it's on my old HD which is currently chilling in Westbury, LI right now.
I remember the Mountain Bros, Dee Phunk. I had that album at some point. "Frequencies..."
Galaxies, galaxies, galaxiessssss
MB's
Immortal Technique, out of all people, with "Freedom of Speech", featuring Pinocchio. Ugh. With a sample from "I Have No Strings", I actually have no idea if its a good song or not. I always skip it. Doesn't fit in with the rest of revolutionary vol ii.
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