The beauty of a great hip hop track is, besides telling a story in rhyme, or the flow of the words from the mc, or the slamming beats from the dj, it's also the history behind the samples that are used. As I've gotten deeper into soul music over the years, I can't even name the countless times I've listened to a soul song and immediately recognized it as a sample taken from a hip hop track that I've liked over the years, like the first time I heard Syl Johnson's "Different Strokes", and right away recognized it as a sample used from the Wu-Tang track "Shame on a Nigga", or Eugene McDaniels songs "Headless Heroes" and "Jagger the Dagger", and recognizing the Beastie Boys "Get It Together" and A Tribe Called Quest "Push It Along", or noticing that Eddie Kendricks and The Impressions were sampled by J Dilla, among many, many other examples. It makes you appreciate not only the original soul song in which the sample was taken from, but also the hip hop track in itself, and the dj who might have done some serious crate digging in order to find some obscure soul track. In 1968, soul legend Freddie Scott recorded "(You) Got What I Need". Over 20 years later in 1989, old school hip hop great Biz Markie recorded this ever-so-popular track, "Just A Friend".
Basically, the Biz flipped the chorus of Freddie Scott's soul classic and made uniquely his own. Fifteen years later, The Ghostface Killah recorded "Save Me Dear", where he flipped the verses from Freddie Scott's "(You) Got What I Need", and made it uniquely his own as well.
Interestingly enough, all three tracks work, and all three tracks are among my favorites from each of these artists. This is just one of many examples in which songs can take on so many more forms. It's what makes hip hop so great and what makes soul music so timeless.
No comments:
Post a Comment