Joe Williams - ‘Get Out My Life’
taken from Presenting Joe Williams with Thad Jones & The Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra (Solid State, 1966)

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo - ‘Ill Street Blues’
taken from Live And Let Die (Cold Chillin’, 1992)

Biz Markie - ‘Funk Is Back’
taken from All Samples Cleared! (Cold Chillin’, 1993)

Main Source - ‘How My Man Went Down In The Game’
taken from Breaking Atoms Japanese Reissue (Wild Pitch, 1997)

In writing about Joe Williams’s take on ‘Get Out My Life’, I am not just dealing with a quality break that has provided inspiration for the songs here, but in fact scratching the surface of a particular song that in its various incarnations has provided musical elements to a substantial number of rap songs over a period of close to two decades. I believe that the often covered ‘Get Out Of My Life, Woman’ was originally composed by New Orleans producer Allen Toussaint, but perhaps the most notable version is that recorded by Lee Dorsey in 1966, as the opening two bars comprise one of the most repeatedly mined drum breaks in the history of hip hop. Such is the magnitude of this particular song that it could probably form the basis of a crate digging thesis, and I have neither the knowledge nor time to do it the justice it deserves here at FDB. Suffice to say, ‘Get Out My Life, Woman’ in its various forms has made a massive contribution to hip hop and is without question one of the most influential songs on the culture as a whole: let us rejoice.

Although it is largely the drums that have seen the sample treatment when it comes to ‘Get Out My Life, Woman’, Joe William’s version puts forward one of the most catchy and instantly recognisable piano loops in the history of hip hop. Whilst Williams handles the vocals, the musical backdrop is provided by Mel Lewis and Thad Jones’s jazz orchestra who create a booming wall of sound that make this song exceptional. Screaming horns begin the song triumphantly before dropping into the familiar break made up of drums, piano, double bass and the occasional horn stab that has become revered by hip hop heads since its inception into a host of rap songs that have made an impression on the game.

The three songs presented here represent less than a quarter of the instances in which this sample has been used, but they are my favourite cuts that have done so. ‘Ill Street Blues’ is certified classic material, one of many choice moments on Kool G Rap and Polo’s ‘Live & Let Die’ LP which will hopefully see the reissue treatment at some point soon in light of other Cold Chillin’ material being resurrected and hauled over with the deluxe treatment (bring it).

G Rap kickin’ it live in ‘93:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJm3n1HhzSo]

‘How My Man Went Down In The Game’ is not only a slammin’ beat, but also one of the most complete and enjoyable Large Pro vocal performances ever, a cautionary tale regarding letting the woman in your life take control and the consequences if you let them do so, delivered with style and real flava. The spot for third place was highly contested with Funkdoobiest and Double XX Posse (whose ‘Ruffneck’ also jacks the drums from Lee Dorsey’s version of the song) also acting as strong contenders, but the Biz won out in the end just because… well, he’s the Biz. At a time when hip hop so often tends to take itself so seriously, you can’t help but have a soft spot for one of the most charismatic, hilarious and damned right stupid brothers to ever grab a mic, and for this reason if nothing else, he gives the competition a beatdown and sneaks in to claim bronze.

There’s a hell of a lot of diggin’ to do once you realise the extent to which this song has been used over the years, and I suggest you check into The Breaks just briefly to get some idea of this song’s influence in hip hop. The added bonus here is that Joe Williams’s version is wonderful in itself, a beautifully soul-tinged jazz number that I’ve been rockin’ all weekend, the result being a Cheshire Cat style smile having taken permanent residence on my face. I’ll be nursing the lockjaw for a few days to come: you have been warned.

Cypress Hill - Illusions (Q-Tip Remix)
taken from Unreleased & Revamped (Sony, 1996)

Having waxed lyrical about Q-Tip’s proficiency behind the boards in the first installment of this series, his work with Cypress Hill on the ‘Illusions’ remix actually comes as a slight disappointment. Trav of WYDU fame recently noted that if you’re going to remix a track then it better be as good, if not better, than the original, and in this case I am sad to say that The Abstract’s reinterpretation of Hill’s dark and moody classic falls short of the mark. Don’t fret though, there’s still a quality to this particular work that demands discussion, and despite its shortcomings, it displays another angle to Tip’s production style that is relatively unique amongst his wider body of work.

Let’s start with the good stuff. What I like about Tip’s production here is his incorporation of dub reggae influences that work well when teamed up with the heavy drum track, and in particular, the crunching snare hits that punctuate the groove. The main loop and its dose of reverb clearly nod to a dub aesthetic, as does the percussive track that replaces the traditional high hat. The last 30 seconds of the song are the most extreme point at which these influences come into fruition, with big slabs of reverb applied to some of the key elements of the cut, creating a whirlwind of sound that would perhaps be better suited to your local bredrens’ soundclash than a regular hip hop jam. The bouncy, open nature of the beat is enjoyable and original, and it clearly demonstrates Tip’s wide spectrum of musical influences as well as his ability to translate these into a different context.

However, the reason why I am not totally won over by this song is that the production seems to bear little regard for the vocal performance of B-Real, whose distinctive nasal delivery seems uncomfortable here. When paired up with the original beat, the rhymes feel dark and sinister, but Tip’s remix detracts from this quality and the impact of these verses is somewhat lost. A truly great remix avoids this fallacy, putting a different spin on existing rhymes and providing them with a new and complementary platform, but in this case, the beat and lyrics jar rather than mesh.

So it’s a thumbs up for the beat, but a thumbs down for the remix as a whole. If you’re in any doubt as to what I’m getting at, peep the video of ‘Illusions’ in its original incarnation: to my mind, there’s no contest between this and Tip’s version:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI87TtKJI00]

(As a brief aside, I love the Apocalypse Now reference in this video as it works incredibly well with the vibe of the song: it’s seriously dope.)

More Q-Tip beat-based goodness to come in the future: enjoy your Friday night folks.

Talib Kweli - Holy Moly & Electrify
taken from Ear Drum (Blacksmith, 2007)

From the highs of his early work with Blackstar and Reflection Eternal, to the lows of Quality and The Beautiful Struggle, I feel that it has been hard to maintain belief in Talib Kweli for the last five years or so (I remain unconvinced by Liberation, despite the ripple of hype that it caused at the turn of the year). Consequences inevitably follow: unfortunately for Kweli, the erratic nature of his output in more recent years has somewhat tainted my opinion of his earlier works, and although I still love the beats on the Blackstar and Reflection Eternal joints, I have become increasingly despondent about Kweli’s mic skills as time has gone by. At his best he is capable of intelligent and engaging lyricism with regards to content, but his flow often feels contrived and he lacks the swagger and style of more naturally accomplished MCs. It is in light of these feelings that Ear Drum has sat on my desktop for the last few weeks dormant, and it was only yesterday that it made it out of the confines of its zip file and into rotation. I’ve been sleepin’: Kweli’s back on form.

Now I was going to roll out the full album treatment here, but after surfing on the net for a little while and reading The Smoking Section review of Ear Drum, it feels a little pointless, as they’ve summarised many of my sentiments so succinctly that I think I’ll struggle to put it into my own words without mirroring many of theirs. Instead, I thought I would indulge myself in a little more Pete Rock geekery and take a more detailed look at his two contributions to Ear Drum, ‘Holy Moly’ and ‘Electrify’. With one beat placed on a big release already this year (the decent but somewhat uninspiring ‘Gimmie One’ from Redman’s latest album), could the Chocolate Boy Wonder still be rockin’ it for the masses in ‘07? Let’s find out…

I’m going to start with ‘Holy Moly’ because (wait for it) I don’t like it. Apart from anything else, it doesn’t really sound like Pete Rock, and I think you would be hard pushed to identify it as the work of the Chocolate Boy Wonder given the shift away from his trademark style that it represents. In some ways, I can see what he was trying to do with this one, further updating his ‘brighter’ production style that emerged with Soul Survivor II and Ed O.G.’s My Own Worst Enemy, and it does fall in line with current trends in mainstream hip hop production. The sped up soul vocal samples and off beat percussion could perhaps be more easily associated with one of today’s big hitters like Kanye, but it doesn’t work for me, so much so in fact, that I have struggled to make it through the cut in its entirety. I’m gonna chalk this one off as an experiment and forget about it: I suggest you do the same.

With that behind us we can move to greener pastures in the shape of ‘Electrify’, which is an entirely different kettle of fish and currently ranks amongst my favourite beats of the year so far. Built around a jangling acoustic guitar riff and some well chosen soul samples, this is a richly textured song that screams quality, with multiple layers combining to create a truly beautiful beat. In addition to this, the song is aided by one of Kweli’s finest lyrical moments of the album in which he breaks down the echoes of criticism that must have plagued him for the last half decade, answering them with eloquence and style whilst simmering over the beat below.

Here’s the best bit. I always love to ride a song out on a beat, but with ‘Electrify’ Pete Rock accomplishes something truly special. Just after the final chorus hook he lets the grrove roll for another eighteen bars with few changes, but at the 4.03 mark, his genius truly shines. Ascending bass notes carry you into the final instrumental section of the song, and with the soul vocal tracks and strings now gone, the beat opens up for its final half minute or so. Various musical components that have featured at other points in the composition are brought back in, perhaps most notably the two extra guitar tracks which provide the composition with an increased sense of space, and the result is… electrifying. This has had the hairs on the back of my neck standing at attention all day, and I doubt I’ll be able to release myself from its infectious quality for some time to come.

Granted, one out of two isn’t the sensation that I was hoping for when I realised PR had placed a couple of contributions on Kweli’s Ear Drum, but such is the quality of ‘Electrify’ that I walk away from this analysis with a feeling of contentment (I mean, I can’t like everything that he produces). To be fair, my enthusiasm for this particular song is probably boosted by the news I received the other day: Pete Rock is playing at London’s Jazz Cafe on September 28th and 29th. In a pant-wetting fit of excitement I managed to book my ticket yesterday; if you’re going to be in town then I’ll assume that you’ll do the same (pant-wetting remains optional). On a more general note, do make sure that you give Ear Drum a go in its entirety, but needless to say my fingers will be firmly fixed on the repeat button for a little while yet: Mount Vernon’s finest has still got it.

I’m away again this weekend and lack the energy to put together a full post, so I’m falling back on a little video action to get me by. As I said earlier in the week, I’ve finally hit the ground running with Double XX Posse’s ‘Put Ya Boots On’, and as expected, I’ve been killin’ it this week. ‘Not Gonna Be Able To Do It’ is undoubtedly one of the standouts on the album, and the video has a seriously fly early ’90s feel:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izHMv-ZVsbw]

Don’t miss out on the T-Ray post over at Can I Bring My Gat? that covers this song as well as three other slammin’ T-Ray productions in substantial depth.

Enjoy the weekend folks, apologies for the cop out here. My man Scholar tells me that something big is happening at Souled On tomorrow afternoon, so make sure you go and check his dope site out at some point over the weekend. If you like what you read here, I can tell you it will be right up your alley… is that too obvious a hint? I’ll catch ya Monday: laters.

Janet - Got ‘Til It’s Gone ft. Q-Tip
taken from The Velvet Rope (Virgin, 1997)

I’ve been toying with the idea of a special Q-Tip production series for a while now, and I had originally intended this to be a straight compilation with extended commentary, but it feels like I would be doing Queens’ one and only Q-Tip a disservice by limiting his ‘extra-curricular’ production credits to just a singular post. Whereas talk often arises concerning ‘the best producer on the mic’, discussions of the greatest MC on the boards seem more limited, and there is little doubt in my mind that Q-Tip should be considered the blueprint for this category of hip hopping musician. I can see why this imbalance exists: as a producer, you are behind the scenes, crafting grooves in some dusty basement and as a result, there is little opportunity to chisel out a strong sense of identity beyond the music that you create. Conversely, the MC is the person in the limelight, a figurehead for the culture, and the genre pretty much necessitates that you craft a persona which is engaging enough to endure the pitfalls that await any up and coming, fresh faced rapper on the scene. Q-Tip laughs in the face of these generalisations as both the lead voice in arguably the greatest hip hop group of all time, and the creator of a back catalogue of beats that stands up against the top level producers in the game that goes all the way back to the late ’80s. Let’s get real: there is nobody who has combined both arts as seamlessly as Q-Tip. In what will be a spasmodic series of posts over the coming months, I intend to focus on Q-Tip’s non-ATCQ production credits and break ‘em down in the style that you’ve become accustomed to. This will include some of his remix work as well as work with the production super crew of The Ummah, which coincidentally, leads me nicely into the first installment in the series…

Janet Jackson’s ‘Got Til It’s Gone’ is in fact a controversial starting point, as rumours still abound as to who actually put this beat together. However, I would be astounded if the team of Q-Tip, Dilla and Ali Shaheed Muhammad didn’t produce this song, as both the sound of the track and Q-Tip’s guestspot clearly indicate their participation. Taking one of Joni Mitchell’s most poignant lyrics from 1970’s ‘Ladies Of The Canyon’ as its thematic focus, ‘Got ‘Til It’s Gone’ is the perfect hip hop crossover jam, radio friendly enough to keep your average chart fan happy and with enough musical depth and grit to satisfy true heads. The beautifully crisp drum track puts the strain on your neck muscles almost instantaneously, and it works wonderfully with the bass and mellow organ track that warm the beat throughout the duration of the song. Joni’s vocal hook and the baby scratches that introduce it slip perfectly into the mix, and the end result is enrapturing, creating a laid back vibe that is still driven forward with a constant sense of momentum. Perhaps one of my favourite moments in the song is the breakdown at the 3.27 mark. Briefly reduced to just bass and hand claps (you trying to tell me this ain’t Dilla?!), the organ rejoins the mix at 3.38 giving you a little time to breath before you’re thrown back into the beat ten seconds later with Joni’s lyrics still reverberating in your ears: it’s bangin’.

On the vocal side of things, I barely even register Janet’s voice when listening to this cut, but her sultry, whispered delivery does work well here, adding another layer to the composition that fits in alongside the groove smoothly rather than attempting to dominate it. Q-Tip’s verse needs little discussion because it is characteristically excellent, his inimitable sense of style easily carrying the weight of the sixteen bars he gets here, half of which are consumed by the ‘why you wanna go and do that’ refrain: our man must have rolled this one out in his sleep.

If you have hard evidence to suggest that Tip and the boys didn’t produce this then I’m all ears, but as I stated before, it carries so many of The Ummah’s trademark features that if it isn’t them, it’s a striking imitation of their style in this phase of their production output. Perhaps I’m tempting fate: I can already sense imminent evidence to the contrary… hit me up. If I have got this wrong then this will have been the most impotent start to a Q-Tip production series in blogging history, but have no fear: there’s more to come over the next few months. I’m outta here.