For the newest episode of the Hulu-only documentary A Day in the Life, director Morgan Spurlock documents the life and times of Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. Watch as Quest hits the gym with his personal trailer, rehearses with Lenny Williams at the Jimmy Fallon Show, challenges chef David Chang to a fried chicken cook off and performs his DJ gig at Brooklyn Bowl. Enjoy and be educated.

If you’re a fan of hip-hop, you need to know who Bob James is. His work has been heavily sampled in hip-hop throughout the years, and his song “Nautilus” is one of the most sampled songs in hip-hop history.

Speaking with music magazine Wax Poetics, Bob breaks down the records from his first three CTI albums that have been the most sampled by hip-hop producers. He also touches on the sample clearing process and why “he’s flattered to be a part of hip-hop history.” This is a long read, but an informative one. Class is in session, students. Enjoy and be educated.

Source: http://www.waxpoetics.com/features/articles/three-two-one-a-final-say-with-bob-james

I. Quincy, Creed, and the Biz:

What role did Quincy Jones have in developing your career?

Everyone talks about the history of our field and Quincy Jones has a lot to do with my history. You could even say he discovered me. He was very influential at several key stages in my career. He was a judge at a jazz competition that I did when I was still in college, and my group ended up winning the whole thing. Quincy then signed me to do a record called Bold Conceptions in the ’60s. That, of course, was very important to me. Ten years later when I moved to New York, I met Quincy again, and it was Quincy that introduced me to Creed Taylor. This launched my career with CTI. Those two things are extremely important to me, and how my career played out. Quincy was definitely pivotal.

You were with CTI for a few years before your own project debuted. When did Creed Taylor interject and aid in the progression of things?

Well, I was working a lot with Creed at the time for CTI. But I was working primarily as an arranger and would play piano on other jazz artists’ records. After doing this for about two or three years, on a fairly stable basis, and being on the support staff for other artists like Grover Washington, finally Creed asked me if I wanted to do my own album. So of course I said yes. One ended up being my first for CTI.

What specifically was Creed Taylor’s influence during those years? Is there anyone else you’d credit in aiding your career?

Well, Creed’s whole outlook on production was very influential to me. He always believed in hiring the best musicians possible and he put a lot of emphasis into the mixing and production value. He always used a fantastic engineer named Rudy Van Gelder. I can say that Rudy was very important in my development also. He cared about the way things sounded more than any engineer I’ve worked with. He also had a very identifiable sound. I’ve never thought that much about the recording process, just the composing and playing. But together, Rudy and Creed had a definite personality in all their projects. The combination of Creed’s ears, how he listened to things, combined with Rudy’s engineering style made them a great production combo. I’d always try to keep that same feeling going into my works for many, many years after first working with Rudy and Creed.

Strangely enough. Biz Markie is another name that’s attached to your legacy. He claims to have a 12-inch of “Take Me to Mardi Gras.” Can you confirm or deny this once and for all?

I couldn’t really tell you one way or the other. [laughs] It’s definitely possible that a 12-inch of “Take Me to Mardi Gras” exists. I wasn’t personally involved in making the 12-inch edits. Often times, it was made by the engineer. I assume some of these versions are legit and some aren’t. I’ve never physically seen any or heard other versions besides what’s on my LP.

Well, adding to the rumor, Biz says his version doesn’t contain the bells at the beginning.

That intro with the bells sticks out in the front of the arrangement, so I’m sure it would be possible to take chunks and make edits. What I think is very doubtful is that anybody did. Someone would’ve had to go into the masters, and the multitrack tape, and manually take the bells out—or any other individual elements for that matter. There’s a small window of opportunity that an engineer during the time could have taken out the bells after our recording session. But I wouldn’t know why someone would do that. Especially if it was a promotional 12-inch for the LP. The possibility of a 12-inch single could certainly exist. But a version without the bells seems unlikely to me.

II. Three, Two, One: Revisited

Three (CTI) 1976:

I was three years into a solo recording career with CTI at the time, and things were going good. The first two records sold well and I felt like my career was really solid by this time. But I wasn’t really sure where I was headed on this album. Once again, I had no idea of what would become of anything I made. Especially having been in the instrumental jazz field for a while at this point, I was wondering what else I could do. The meat of this album is in the parts where a lot of improvising took place. But with this, I didn’t know what was going to stick with the public. As a musician, improvisation is great; but the public doesn’t care, they just want good tunes. [laughs] This album has some of my favorite moments, but as far as the public was concerned, I think it fell a bit short of what I would’ve liked. And with “Westchester Lady,” it wasn’t until years later that people even wanted it hear it on the radio. This album remains a sentimental one because of the time it was recorded. The music industry was going through a lot of changes. This didn’t sell as well as the two previous LPs, but I’m still proud of it. There’s a certain element of randomness to this LP, which I like.

Track #3: “Westchester Lady”

The tune, the hook, and main melody of this one was just a jumping point for improvisation. At this point I was really into trying new things and improvising almost wildly at points. I mean, of course improvising has always been an important part of my compositions, but I felt like I now truly had the freedom to do whatever I wanted. I was always looking for schematic material to get a song started, and this song did take a while. But I was real happy with the results when we finished this one because it took longer than some other songs we had done by then. For me, “Westchester Lady” is a real signature piece. I love this song.

Track #4: “Storm King”

This is probably the most sampled song on this album. People sampled “Westchester Lady” too, but this album as a whole isn’t as heavily sampled as One or Two. I’m not sure why, because it seems like this album has a lot of the same qualities as my other stuff, which get sample requests all the time. Nothing was really different about the attitude we had coming in to this particular song though. We just went in looking for a hook and a groove, and I think the fact that we found such a solid groove indicates to me that we did our job right on this song. I think that’s what held up about the song and that’s why people sample it. The groove is very solid on this one.

Two (CTI) 1975:

Thinking back on it, this album is like my sophomore year as a recording artist. By the time we went into the studio to cut the album, One was already pretty popular, so we needed a strong follow-up. There are several songs on this record that were continuations of the same concepts as the first one. There was an adaptation of a classical piece on it called “Farandole,” which went on and got a lot of airplay. The other track was “You’re Right as Rain,” which was my arrangement of a popular vocal track at the time. We tried to give a groove to it, similar to “Feel Like Making Love.” This record reminds me of my friend Ralph Macdonald a lot too because Ralph really helped me out. He helped out all the rappers too by playing the cowbell part on “Take Me to Mardi Gras.” [laughs] Ralph has had a lot of success from his records that have been heavily sampled too. And one of his most successful samples is from a tune called “Mr. Magic,” that Grover Washington did. The part from “Mr. Magic” that got used was the arrangement I did for it. But because I didn’t technically write the song, Ralph got all the income from that track. [laughs] I did the arrangement and played piano, but I didn’t see any money from “Mr. Magic.” We talked about it years later and still joke that we’re even, because he never saw any income from playing the “Take Me to Mardi Gras” bells. [laughs]

Track #1: “Take Me to Mardi Gras”

I was a pretty big fan of Paul Simon at that time and even did some work with him in the studio. I’ve always really liked that song and thought I could bring something to it as an instrumental version. So I decided to do it with a kind of Latin groove, and low and behold, twenty-five years or so later, these hip-hop guys used it a lot. I mean it’s a really simple vamp. Ralph [MacDonald] is the guy playing the cowbell on the intro. Ralph played percussion on many recordings in the same era as I did. And he’d played percussion on many of my albums, while I played piano on many of his. So he helped me out this time by sitting in and playing a pretty standard intro section. It wasn’t anything that was really thought about or heavily planned. We were just improvising in the studio and trying to establish a carnival type of mood before the melody came in. We wanted to just let the rhythm section do their thing. But the way the record got mixed, the cowbell part is really prominent. I’m sure lots of rappers were just looking for a loop to rap over and the tempo for it was just right. That’s why I think Run-DMC and other early folks used it so much. I am very fond of this song.

Track #4: “Farandole (L’Arlesienne Suite #2)”

The way we worked with rhythm in that era were often repetitive vamps. There were some real nice bassline vamps that were similar to “Nautilus.” They were short and just two measures long that just repeated, so it is very easy to edit. I think this has been sampled many times because there is a big enough chunk separated from other elements, which made it easy for producers to come in and make a loop out of. It is a classical composition by a composer by the name of Bizet, and I just arranged it and adapted it for a jazz tune. Creed and I liked playing around with compositions.

One (CTI) 1974:

This is the most sentimental project of mine. I’m amazed at the life it still has even though it was recorded thirty years ago. The music business surprises me in all kinds of ways and this has been one of them. The most rewarding thing about this project, which I was committed to and worked so hard on, is that it took on new life years later. It’s amazing really. Given all of that, I never would have anticipated how so many songs from this record would end up in a completely different genre. When I recorded the album, I wasn’t thinking about it in that way. In the back of my mind, I was thinking that this album, at the very least, would give me a chance to record some arrangements that I could use as a demo. [laughs] I wasn’t even thinking about it as a full time solo thing. And that’s why the album is so eclectic. I did all kinds of stuff, used different musicians and orchestras just to have a wide variety of music to show people. One song in particular, “Feel Like Making Love” was also done by Roberta Flack around the same time. Roberta’s version became a huge hit, so I sort of rode on the coattails of that. [laughs] Radio stations at the time would play both our versions back to back, which gave me a lot of exposure. I think Roberta Flack’s success helped catapult my record sales. “Night on Bald Mountain” was another cut that got a lot of airplay. I think those two songs helped make the album a success. I had no idea the record would become commercially successful, so well remembered and so sampled.

Track #1: “Valley of the Shadows”

Well this is the type of tune that would be difficult to convince record companies to do in the later years. But at the time, Creed [Taylor] was very open to letting me do what I wanted to do. I really loved having the chance to do something like this. In a way, I treated this song like a film score because it was very dramatic. And, I suppose that in the back of my mind, I was hoping this song would help me get work in the film-scoring business. Although I can’t trace my film work to this song, I think it did indirectly help me get future jobs in films. I definitely had a lot of offers to score movies after it was released. I think people realized my background allowed me to do that type of music too. It was full of contrasts and was just really different. That song was probably the most radical and daring in that era because it was very different than what anyone else was doing.

Track #4: “Night on Bald Mountain”

Creed Taylor really liked the idea of taking classical music and adapting it to jazz or funk. This song gave me an opportunity to work with a larger ensemble of musicians. Especially for a piece like this, there was a huge orchestra and a big brass section. It also was one of the early recording sessions of Steve Gadd who became very respected in our field. He was one of the most well-known jazz drummers and “Night on Bald Mountain” featured him pretty prominently. Steve often credits this tune as helping him establish his reputation because so many people heard him on this. I’m very proud of that. Steve and I have remained very close friends since.

Track #5: “Feel Like Making Love”

This song was written by Gene McDaniels. I was hired to play piano on Roberta Flack’s record and that’s where I first heard this tune. It was a great song and I had a feeling it could be a hit. We were in the studio recording her version, and within a couple weeks I had the opportunity to do my own record. So I just decided to use the same band, same sax player, same rhythm section; Idris Muhammad on drums, Gary King on bass, and Richie Resnicoff on guitar. So we were just trying to recreate that same groove, but as a funkier instrumental piece. I think it really work out great.

Track #6: “Nautilus”

This song is the most ironic thing of all. [laughs] It didn’t get any attention when the record came out in the ’70s. Then as years went by, I found out that the hip-hop field was heavily sampling it. Of course it was the LP era, so there’s a side A and side B. Often times, producers would put what they consider to be the best cut on the beginning of the A side because the audio is much better on the outer ring of a record. The grooves were wider and just other technical stuff like that. The songs that would be “attention getters” were placed on the outside of the record. And “Nautilus” is hidden at the end of side B. [laughs] So that should give you an indication that we didn’t pay much attention to it. I had written several compositions of my own, primarily so I could get my own copyrights of the album and this was just another one of those compositions. It’s a real simple tune because I was just looking for a nice groove to improvise on. I had a great rhythm section that was in the studio that day so we were just having fun.

III. “…the final say”

What has the sample clearance process been like throughout the years for you?

I’ll listen to the track that is sampling my tune. That way I can make an intelligent decision on whether or not I’m going to allow it. I still get requests for sample clearances all the time. It’s lessened through the years to a certain degree, but I still get requests to this day and it still surprises me. The coordination of the requests has become more well-organized, and simplified, than it used to be. We have a basic formula now for how we treat requests. Record companies are better about the approach nowadays because there have been too many lawsuits and they’d lose money if they did it the wrong way. Fortunately, almost all the records where there have been sample requests, I am the record company. [laughs] I am the artist, record company, and composer by law. So I control all the publishing rights and fortunately, make a lot of the decisions.

Are there any songs that you don’t have full control over?

There is really only one significant piece where I don’t have the final say, and that’s “Angela.” I don’t know if younger people remember, but it was used for the television show Taxi. I heard its also been sampled by some hip-hop artists recently, but the television company owns those administration rights. Of course, for a song like “Take Me to Mardi Gras,” they have to get permission from Paul Simon’s publishing company too, since I didn’t write it. Technically, I just control the recording of my version. So something like that is more of a joint effort, but that’s rare.

Have you heard how “Angela” was used? What do you think when you hear how your work is sampled?

I haven’t heard how “Angela” was used. Even if I didn’t like it, I couldn’t do anything about it anyways. [laughs] But I can’t say I’ve ever heard anything I’ve really disliked. I’m usually just very flattered when I hear someone else interpreting my work.

You’ve never heard something and thought your music got butchered?

Well, there have been a few songs that I’ve heard where my song was sped up so fast, or slowed down so much, that it didn’t even sound like my piece anymore. That can be kind of annoying. But I know why they want to do it, since they’re probably looking for a different tempo to fit with the rapping, or other samples they might of used. But when it distorts my records so much I wonder why they just didn’t get something else that fits better rather than Mickey Mouse-ing my tune. [laughs] There was a reason why we worked so hard on certain grooves and played things at specific tempos. When its changed too much, it gets at best, comical; and at worst, insulting. But that’s rare. I usually like interpretations of my songs.

What are your final feelings on being such an integral part of hip-hop’s history?

Nowadays, I live in Michigan and am still able to tour the world playing music. Life has treated me real well. Being a part of rap history is just another extremely good thing that’s happened to me in my career. I’ve heard about other composers of my era who don’t like their work being sampled or touched—but I’ve never felt cheated. I mean, sampling gave my work a life of its own without me being in the creative process at all. I’m just a bystander watching it happen. It’s a bit strange. [laughs] But it is a good thing because of the exposure. In many instances, it led hip-hop listeners who’ve recognized certain samples to dive into my original works. And seeing how sampling isn’t just a passing fad, or that it was done in a novelty kind of manner, makes me extremely flattered. I still don’t know why everyone chose my music to use. But here we are, twenty years later, and people are still talking about it. I’m very proud that my music has taken on this new life, and for the most part, thehip-hop audience and musicians have treated me with great respect. It seems like I’ve always gotten the final say throughout my career. You really can’t ask for anything more than that.

Download this mixtape for only $3

Note: Physical copies will be made available in the near future

On February 27th, Hevehitta and DJ Unexpected released Duel of the Iron Fists, a concept mixtape starring Ghostface Killah and DJ Premier. The mixtape combined Ghostface Killah’s epic wordplay over DJ Premier’s boom-bap backdrops. The mixtape even included a break beat and sample section for said artists.

Shaolin Temple Strikes Back is a continuation of Duel of the Iron Fists but with more Wu-Tang Clan members and a new producer, the Alchemist. Shaolin Temple combines the Witty Unpredictable Talent and Natural Game of the Wu-Tang Clan with the underground flavor of the Alchemist. A 20 minute Alchemist break section is also featured.

These two titles combined give you Shaolin Rescuers.

The first of its kind, Shaolin Rescuers holds two different projects on one CD. If you have been following the Hevehitta and DJ Unexpected catalog for quite some time, you know they are not afraid to try different ideas with their projects. Shaolin Rescuers also features the famous Shaw Brothers movie dialog – all recorded by Hevehitta and Unexpected – that you have heard on previous Martial Arts Mixtapes. This is a mixtape movie presentation, with Hevehitta and DJ Unexpected as the directors.

Enjoy and be educated.

Tracklist:

Duel of the Iron Fists [Ghostface Killah & DJ Premier] (1st Feature)

1. The Iron Fists Intro
2. Shaolin Vs. Lama (DJ Unexpected Remix) feat. Raekwon, Jadakiss & Styles P.
3. Masked Avengers (DJ Unexpected Remix) feat. Raekwon
4. The 100 Pace Palm (DJ Unexpected Remix)
5. Eastern Evil (DJ Unexpected Remix)
6. Ghostface Killah – Duel Of Ultimate Weapons (Breaks)
7. DJ Premier – Magnificent Natural Fist (Breaks)

Shaolin Temple Strikes Back [Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Method Man, Inspectah Deck & The Alchemist] (2nd Feature)

8. Shaolin Temple Strikes Back (Interlude)
9. Ghostface Killah feat. Raekwon- Battle For Shaolin (DJ Unexpected Remix)
10. Ghostface Killah feat. Raekwon & Method Man- The 3 Avengers (DJUnexpected Remix)
11. Ghostface Killah feat. Superb- Crazy Shaolin Disciples (DJ Unexpected Remix)
12. Inspectah Deck – My Blade, My Life (DJ Unexpected Remix)
13. Method Man – Hand Of Death (DJ Unexpected Remix)
14. The Alchemist – This Man Is Dangerous (Breaks)

Track by Track Description:

Written by DJ Unexpected

1. The Iron Fists Intro – Every story has to have an introduction, and so do all of our mixtapes. For this one, Hevehitta and I decided to shy away from the traditional scratch intro I’m known for and rely more on dialog to set up the premise. With classic background music used in such films as “Flag Of Iron” and “My Young Auntie” as the backbone, the characters are introduced and told about “The Iron Fist”, a legendary style very efficient in defeating enemies. The student (Ghostface Killah in this case), is denied the chance to learn at first, but is taught after enemies (The Lamas) raid Shaolin Temple. Naturally a fight erupts.

2. Shaolin Vs. Lama feat. Raekwon, Jadakiss & Styles P. – With Raekwon as his fellow student, Ghostface Killah engages in combat with Jadakiss and Styles P, the Lamas (a known nemesis of Shaolin) who are there to prove their superiority in martial arts. They are eventually defeated after a grueling duel. While it’s not entirely a DJ Premier influenced remix, he is represented on the first beat (None Of Ya’ll Betta ironically on Jadakiss’s first album), and it would make no sense to abruptly end the story. (Note- this track was originally featured on “Executioners From Shaolin”, Hevehitta and DJ Unexpected’s 1st entry into the Martial Arts Mixtape series).

3. Masked Avengers feat. Raekwon – With “That White” by Fat Joe and ”Poet Has Come” by Blaq Poet as the backdrop, Ghostface Killah and Raekwon use their skill in weaving a story detailing their former life as drug dealers. Once again, the braggadocio element remains intact. Audio dialog is from the movie aptly titled, “Masked Avengers” (including the line used in the intro “We do what we want here…”; why was that included, you ask? Because we can do that!)

4. The 100 Pace Palm – DJ Premier does his part here with “Living Proof” by Group Home and “Mass Appeal” by Gangstarr serving as the backbone while Ghostface Killah reminds you that his style is “Mighty Deadly” (the acapella used here as well). The audio is courtesy of the late Lo Lieh (via Ted Thomas on dubbing) from the film “Clan Of The White Lotus”, where he displays his “100 Pace Palm” on Gordon Liu (coincidentally starring as Pai Mei in Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill 2″).

5. Eastern Evil – Ghostface Killah’s “The Champ” acapella gets the remix treatment with “Above The Clouds” by Gangstarr feat. Inspectah Deck (fellow Wu-Tang Clansman), “MUG” by O.C. feat. Freddie Foxx and “F-U” by Teflon providing the music. Ghostface goes in for the kill against his enemies and his style is enhanced by the interlude between Pai Mei and priest Chi San (from “Executioners From Shaolin”). The outro audio is courtesy of Tommy Lee Ming Man’s character from “The Hot, The Cool & The Vicious”.

6. Duel Of Ultimate Weapons (Breaks) – Simple enough, it’s a collection of original samples used by Ghostface Killah or songs he was featured on. In keeping with the martial arts theme, the title was deemed appropriate (a classic Hwang Jang Lee movie I might add). (Note- some breaks were previously released on my classic series, “Look What I Found”).

7. Magnificent Natural Fist (Breaks) – Same as track 6, but this track focuses on DJ Premier samples, some of which were previously featured on the “Look What I Found” series. The title comes from a Korean film starring Elton Chong and Mike Wong (trivia time- a clip of it was featured on an episode of “How I Met Your Mother”; the villain has a 20 ft. arm).

Written by Hevehitta

8. Shaolin Temple Strikes Back (Interlude) – Shaolin Temple Strikes Back continues where Duel of the Iron Fists left off. Like with many of our mixtapes, DJ Unexpected and I always like to tell a story that will keep the listener wanting for more. In this interlude, you learn that the Shaolin Temple has been burned down to the ground by the evil Manchu government. But Shaolin doesn’t give up that easily. The Wu-Tang Clan will now have to form together to defeat the evil Manchu’s.

9. Battle for Shaolin ft. Ghostface Killah & Raekwon – “Daytona 500″ gets the remix treatment over the Alchemist-produced banger “Dark Riders” by Swollen Members. This blend was originally featured on the Martial Arts Mixtape, “4 Assassins.” Unexpected and I were such big fans of the original blend that we decided to feature it again on this mixtape, but add different dialog to fit the concept of the mixtape. This is just a great blend to start off the story.

10. The Avengers ft. Ghostface Killah, Raekwon & Method Man – “New Wu” by Raekwon, Ghostface Killah and Method Man was one of the stand out tracks from Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2 album. When the acapella finally hit the net, Unexpected knew he wanted to remix it. What makes this blend dope is Unexpected uses multiple Alchemist instrumentals for the backdrop. My favorite part is Raekwon blended over Dilated People’s “Right and Exact.” Man, I just love that beat.

11. Crazy Shaolin Disciples ft. Ghostface Killah & Superb – This was the toughest blend to create for Shaolin Temple Strikes Back. But once Unexpected tweaked it for about the 5th time, we finally agreed this one was it. Ghostface Killah over Prodigy’s “Keep It Thoro” just sounds great. I have to say, it’s unfortunate Wu-Tang didn’t get beats from Alchemist for their albums. He has that sound that just works perfectly with the Wu-Tang Clan.

12. My Blade, My Life ft. Inspectah Deck – Inspectah Deck’s “R.E.C. Room” gets a new soundscape, courtesy of DJ Unexpected. “I’m The King” by Royce da 5’9″ and “Bang Bang” by Capone-N-Noreaga are the two beats used for this blend. The way “Bang Bang” comes in at the :57 mark really brings the blend to life. One thing I love about blends is you hear artists over beats you would love for them to freestyle over. I could definitely hear Deck put some heavy mic work into “Bang Bang.” Of course, the blend ends with some great Kung-Fu fighting dialog.

13. Hand of Death ft. Method Man – This was the first blend completed for Shaolin Temple Strikes Back. Unexpected gave Method Man’s “Release Yo Delf” a totally different feel to it when he blended it over “More Like Us” by Mobb Deep. The energy Method Man brings just fits perfectly with the horns from “More Like Us.” This is definitely the high energy track from Shaolin Temple Strikes Back. Just like the Deck blend, I could hear Method Man rapping his off to this beat in a freestyle. It fits him perfectly.

14. This Man Is Dangerous (Breaks) – This is a twenty-minute collection of original samples used by the Alchemist. The breaks were such a fan favorite on “Duel of the Iron Fists” we had to include it again for “Shaolin Temple Strikes Back.” Some of these breaks can be heard on DJ Unexpected’s successfull mixtape series, “Look What I Found.”

The Beatography of Justin Smith (Just Blaze) was a mixtape I originally planned to release in 2005. It was actually going to be the first solo mixtape of my career, but then my “3 Kings” mixtape series came to fruition.

This mix you’re about to hear is the skeleton of the actual mixtape. These are just ideas I recorded to see how the concept would play out in audio form. Like a lot of my actual mixtapes, this mix is heavy with dialog. The dialog plays a major role as it’s retelling the story of Just Blaze and his successful music career. Hopefully this “skeleton mix” will give you a good idea of where I’m going with this. My plan is to record this mixtape in its entirety and release it to the public.. hopefully before the end of summer.

Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this audio presentation. Feedback can be sent to: Hevehitta@TheDiggersUnion.com

Diggers Union Radio, Episode #4 – The Beatography of Justin Smith (Just Blaze) | Download

Tracklist:

01. Diggers Union Radio Intro
02. Beastie Boys – Check It Out (Just Blaze Remix)
03. Freeway – Flipside
04. Just Blaze Speaks on Flipside (Interlude)
05. Fabolous – Breathe
06. Just Blaze Speaks on Breathe (Interlude)
07. Jadakiss – It’s Time I See You
08. Just Blaze Defines A Producer (Interlude)
09. Beanie Sigel – Get Down
10. Just Blaze Speaks on Being Known Without Selling Himself (Interlude)
11. Memphis Bleek – We Get Low
12. The Brain Makes The Beat, Not the Sample (Interlude)
13. Jay-Z – Dynasty Intro
14. Just Blaze Speaks on Getting Into Music (Interlude)
15. Jay-Z – Flow
16. Joe Budden – Pump It Up
17. Just Blaze Speaks on Pump It Up & Just Blaze Tag (Interlude)
18. Jay-Z feat. M.O.P. – U Don’t Know (Remix)
19. Wherever Like Takes Me (Outro)

Previously on Diggers Union Radio: “The Writers Bench”

As the album campaign for Stretch Money’s 25 Miles Per Hour continues, the album’s producer Nick Speed showcases how he composed the album cut “What’s Hapnin” on his MPC 2000 XL.

Purchase Stretch Money’s 25 Miles Per Hour on iTunes.

Short documentary film on U.S. Army band East of Underground. Produced by Wax Poetics and Scion. Directed by David Hollander.

Purchase the album on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/east-of-underground/id319703205

UK producer The Purist teams up with New York artists Action Bronson, Roc Marciano and Ty Nitty to drop a limited edition (300 hand numbered copies worldwide) 7″ vinyl through his official Bandcamp music page. This limited edition EP can also be purchased digitally. Preview the entire project below, and purchase the entire project here. Enjoy and be educated.

No Idea’s Original is a weekly Hip-Hop show airing every Saturday night (technically Sunday morning) on WVKR 91.3FM in Poughkeepsie, New York. Hosted by Joe Gibbs, Antidote and DJ Enyoutee, No Ideas Original plays only the best in underground hip-hop.

There was no guest for today’s episode of No Idea’s Original, but listen as DJ Enyoutee, Joe Gibbs and Antidote play some new and old hip-hop from the likes of Black Star (Mos Def/Talib Kweli), Ghostface Killah, Rakim, Diamond D, Dilated Peoples, Fat Joe, Gang Starr (Guru/DJ Premier) and more. Enjoy and be educated.

No Idea’s Original Radio Show for 5/6/2012 | Download

Playlist:

01. Rampage – Wild For Da Night (Feat. Busta Rhymes)
02. Rakim – New York
03. Godfather Don – On The Other Side
04. Fat Joe – Misery Needs Company (Feat. Noreaga)
05. Fatal Hussein – Ghetto Star (Feat. Tame One)
06. Blackstar – Redefinition
07. Kyo Itachi & Ruste Juxx – Hot Shit For You
08. Ghostface Killah – Fish (Feat. Cappadonna & Raekwon
09. Barbury’N – Living At Still
10. Diamond D – Hiatus
11. Das Efx – No Doubt (Feat. M.O.P. & Teflon)
12. Bumpy Knuckles – RNS
13. Mobb Deep – 1st Day Of Spring (Feat. Tragedy Khadafi)
14. Bad Meets Evil – Scary Movie
15. Gangstarr – Riot Akt
16. Goretex – Hated
17. O.C. & Apollo Brown – We The People
18. Smif N’ Wessun – Wipe Ya Mouf
19. Yak Ballz – Homepiss
20. Dilated Peoples – Main Event
21. Eddie Whispers – Armegeddon (Feat. Tragedy Khadafi)
22. Royal Fam – United Kings
23. Enyoutee & Tone Cuff – Crack The Gates
24. Enyoutee & Tone Cuff – Your Way (Feat. Alpha Faktion)
25. Sunkiss – We Go Back
26. Big Dro – Spank
27. Enyoutee & Tone Cuff – Mission Complete (Feat. Toxsic Preme, Bob Blakland & Messiah)
28. Problemz – Society
29. Enyoutee – Time For A Change

After a brief hiatus, Diggers Union Radio has finally been updated. For the new episode, I decided to pay homage to one of the foundations of hip-hop – graffiti.

The idea for this mix came from watching the classic hip-hop film, Style Wars. If you have not seen this film, I would definitely recommend purchasing the DVD at: http://www.stylewars.com/. The dialog you will hear on this mix came from this important film. I also recorded dialog from Beat Street and Wild Style.

I did not use all the tracks I collected for this mix. If this initial mix gets a good response, I will consider creating a follow-up. I hope you enjoy this mix, and any feedback is appreciated. You can send feedback to: Hevehitta@TheDiggersUnion.com. Enjoy and be educated.

Diggers Union Radio, Episode #3 “The Writers Bench” | Download

Playlist:

01. The Writers Bench (Intro)
02. KRS-One – Out For Fame
03. Atmosphere – RTFC
04. Pack FM – Click, Clack & Spray
05. The Artifacts – Wrong Side of the Tracks
06. Lordz of Brooklyn – Tales from the Rails
07. Mr. Lif – Wanted
08. Meyhem Lauren – Got the Fever
09. Underground Elements – Graff Writer
10. Chali 2na – Graff Time
11. Typical Cats – The Manhattan Project
12. Talib Kweli feat. Rakim – Subway Surfing
13. Futura 2000 feat. The Clash – The Escapades of Futura 2000
14. Grand Wizzard Theodore – Subway Theme
15. I Make Them Trains Beautiful (Outro)

Transcribed from issue #28 of Wax Poetics Magazine, California native Dâm-Funk runs down his favorite ’80s boogie records. Enjoy and be educated.

Wynd Chymes “Baby You’re The One” (Shakin’, 1980)

Dâm-Funk: Great boogie-funk joint that has a killer sliding synth bass line. The Rhodes chords are just the right volume, it’s laces with a nice synth string line, all topped off with one hell of a soulful vocal! This always gets the room poppin’ at “Funkmosphere.” A real winner!

The Verdict “That’s Where I Come In” (Nuance, 1984)

Dâm-Funk: This label is from Chicago, and this is one of the more hard-to-find releases. As far as I know, it was only issued as a 45. Nice modern-soul stepper with a slight hint of Cameo’s “She’s Strange” background atmosphere. Great vocals and a track that can pass my personal “rollin’ down Crenshaw Boulevard test” anytime. This joint has it, man! This is one that I like to end my night with often.

Pyramid Plus “Comin at Ya” (Lifeworld, circa 1982)

Dâm-Funk: A very obscure 45 that is a monster! One of my prized pieces. Not much info on this one. I would call it early G-funk. A more subdued vocoder vocal effect. More mysterious lo-fi kind of feel throughout. Begins with weird effects, then breaks off into one killer mid-tempo groove. Relatively new on the boogie-funk scene these days. Sounds like it was recorded in probably ’82 (no later) with a very low recording budget. Just the way I like it.

Rah Band “Message from the Stars” (TMT, 1983)

Dâm-Funk: One-man-band electric funk with a sweet female vocal to top it off. This one is out of the U.K. The Rah Rah Band actually ahs more good stuff they recorded throughout the late ’70s to mid-’80s, but this one is my favorite from them. This always gets the ladies up on the floor at any party. The fellas, especially the poplockers (yes, we’re still poppin’ on the West Coast!) dig this one a lot. Great 12-inch with some stellar mixes on the B-side as well.

Kapp Ivory Project “Shock the World” (DM Records, 1983)

Note: “It’s Over”is the on the flip side of “Shock the World”

Dâm-Funk: Nice 45 out of Detroit that is so unique. Its LinnDrum- and chugging-synth-based rhythm really does something to me. I really like what Kapp is singing about on this: “Welcome to the galaxey of music and love” and “I’m not crazy.. I love what I’m doing’… I’m never gonna stop.. (he pauses, then chuckles)… playin’ my music.” Brilliant! The homie James Pants digs this one a lot too. We gonna find you one, James, don’t trip!

Mazarati “Don’t Leave Me Baby” (Paisley Park, 1985)

Note: “100 MPH” is on the flip side of “Don’t Leave Me Baby”

Dâm-Funk: Dynamite B-side-only track from this Prince-protégé band out of Minneapolis. Released in ’85 on the flip of their minor game-funk hit “100 MPH.” This was produced by Brownmark (bass player for the Revolution) and has superior bass thumpin’ and melodic chords throughout. A great late-era funk song.

Impulse Self-Titled (Impulse Records, 1984)

Dâm-Funk: Superior private-press EP out of my hometown, Pasadena, California. On the lines of some of the best electrofunk/Prince style I’ve ever heard. Drum-machine-heavy and great screaming vocals. Four tracks that kill! “Can You Hear Me Calling You” is the highlight. Impulse was a three-man group that included a young Ron (Kat) Spearman, who went on to play with P-Funk years later.

Steve Washington Like a Shot (Rams Horn, 1984)

Dâm-Funk: One of the most obscure boogie-funk LPs in my collection. This was supposed to be released on Salsoul Records but ended up on the Rams Horn label. This great album was the brainchild of the former leader of Slave, Steve Washington. Steve, along with former Brides of Funkenstein vocalist Sheila Washington (aka Sheila Horn) worked together on this solo project that bangs all the way through! My fave on here, the stellar “We’re Not Ordinary People,” passes the Crenshaw Boulevard test.. most definitely.

Mr. Fingers “You’re Someone Special” (Jack Trax, 1989)

Dâm-Funk: One of my favorite artists, [who is also known as] Larry Heard, is known for his stellar mark in the house-music world. This is one of his finest moments on wax! I can’t even pigeonhole this joint in solely the house genre. It’s pure genius: beautiful chords, great drum-machine programming, changes, soulful – yet almost faint – falsetto vocals that floor me every time.

Starshine “All I Need Is You” (Prelude Records, 1983)

Dâm-Funk: Mixed by the great Francois Kevorkian. Heads have murmured that this is one of his best mixes ever! Produced by the mysterious M. Traxxx and penned (and sung) by the equally elusive Michael Bailey. This Prelude jam always brings me joy. Great bass-line action, melodic chords, and loud claps! (Very important in the kind of funk and boogie I lean toward.) Well produced and works well in any room I play. This intro synth line always wakes people up. Comes with one hell of an instrumental version on the B-side for good measure. Top-shelf melodic funk-size bizness! A diamond-cut groove for ya!

Previously on Record Rundown: Easy Mo Bee | Evidence