Original Flava Tuesdays.. "Upgrade You"

No explanation needed.. maybe ill add the mp3 tommorrow.. for tonite, jus enjoy..

UPDATE: ok ok, here it is..

Betty Wright - "Girls Can't Do What The Guys Do"

Original Flava Tuesdays.. "Memories Fade in the Coldest Winter"

For the last week since the flood that became known as Autotunes & Heartbreak leaked, I've been all over the place as far as how I feel about Kanye's latest project. Initially I cried booo as I was thoroughly disappointed of 'Ye's choice of using autotune to death.. Having had the chance to analyze the project and listening to him explain it on numerous different media outlets, I must admit it has grown on me substantially. This may even end up being my favorite album of the year. If he had left Robocop off of it, I would even go so far as to deem it a classic. It's grown man heartfelt music and Ye's definitely taking chances on this. In the age of one hit wonders and ringtone rap, I for one can appreciate it.

The video above is for a song titled "Memories Fade" by Tears for Fears. It is the song Kanye interpolated for his song Coldest Winter on 808's & Heartbreak.
click below to download the original song.

Tears for Fears - "Memories Fade"


*BONUS UPDATE
Below is a youtube clip of a song entitled "Standing on Higher Ground" off of The Alan Parsons Project's 1987 album "Gaudi". The first 15-20 seconds contains a sample used for the song entitled "Paranoid" off of 808's..




I guess Kanye was really feeling The Alan Parsons Project as he also sampled the title track off of their 1985 album Ammonia Avenue for his song Heartless. Below is super bonus track for your listening pleasure. Peep the strings at about 2:32 in..

The Alan Parsons Project - "Ammonia Avenue"

Original Flava Tuesdays.. Squeeze Me [II]

I love ill concept videos and this right here is one.. The group responsible goes by the name Kraak and Smaak and they're the latest in the trend of European Electro DJ/Producer groups puttin' some pretty creative stuff out to get grabbed by corporate America for marketing purposes.. In this case the company being Rhapsody.. peep the commercial below




P.S. The original record used for this is Johnnie Taylor's "You're the Best Girl in the World" off of his 1976 album Eargasm. I know for a fact I have this in the archives but am extra lazy to connect the external and bounce the mp3 yada yada.. maybe I'll do it tonite if I have nothing better to do..


UPDATE: As promised, heres the original sample..

Johnnie Taylor - "You're the Best Girl in the World"

Original Flava Tuesdays.. (Sunday Version) "Unleash The Flutes Young Guru!"

This is another one of those commercials that left me sayin' Dayum! it's almost like a mini movie without words.. What stood out immediately is the use of a remix to well known score composer Ennio Morricone's "The Ecstacy of Gold." For those that may think the song is familiar, thats because the same song was also interpolated for Young Hov's song "The Blueprint 2" (off the album by the same name) produced by my man Charlamagne. The version in the commercial is actually credited to a producer named Bandini and its called "L Estasi Dell Oro" off of Ennio Morricone's Remixes Vol. 2 album.


Ennio Morricone - "L Estasi Dell Oro" Bandini Remix

Ennio Morricone - "The Ecstacy of Gold"

*BONUS (for those livin' under a rock)
Jay-Z - "Blueprint 2"


P.S. I know this is called Original Tuesdays and I'm posting this on a Sunday, but I was inspired by the crazy weekend of Football games both College and Pro.. Sue me..

Original Flava Tuesdays.. Memories Edition..

Growing up, the person who wore the pants and was the "godfather" (or "godmother" in this case) of my family was my grandma. She pretty much ran the show as far as my parents and grandparents went. She partied the hardest and would drink my dad and grandpa under the table week after week. She also loved herself some "Balladas". These were pretty much the first tunes I can recall being familiar with (besides the corny Menudo records that we were force fed as kids) since the songs played on what seemed like repeat every weekend. I remember stopping at the record shop in Times Square located underground in between the shuttle and the 1 train to browse through LP's en route to go shopping in my grandma's favorite neighborhood in the city; "El Barrio Chino" or China Town in english. Unlike most hip hop fans who came up on soul tunes and LP's from their parents, my first contact with vinyl and music was through these records. I loved analyzing the artwork and reading the labels and logos on the sleeves. One of these albums was Jose Jose's "Secretos". I remember the first track specifically titled "Lo Dudo" as one her favorites.
Fast forward to spring of 1998. That year DMX was taking the industry by storm, replacing Diddy's shiny suit era with gritty street corner rhymes and equally hard beats. His freshman opus "It's Dark and Hell It's Hot" was the most anticipated album of the year and set off an amazing run for the Ruff Ryders crew. I was puttin' in work having already been makin' moves on the spinnin' front and gettin' ready to graduate from Syracuse.. I was trying to get into the production end and that xmas of '97 had rummaged my grandma's Balladas vinyl collection in hopes of going in a different direction than the monotonous jazzy ummah/beatminerz samples and soulful primo & pete rock chops being copied by every new jack producer out.. One of these records I chose to sample was the aforementioned "Lo Dudo". To put a long story short, Younglord beat me to the punch and used it for one of my favorite joints off that first X album, "Let Me Fly" and opened the door for dudes like Alchemist to start invading the Spanish samples section at A1 record shop..


Jose Jose - "Lo Dudo"

Original Flava Tuesdays

So a few months back I came across this youtube clip. It was a scene from Prince's film "Under The Cherry Moon." In the scene there's a wedding performance where they proceed to play a funky drum track n baseline while reciting some lines from Planet Rock. The drum track n baseline they play became one of the most classic breaks of all time in my opinion; Biz's "This Is Something For The Radio." This was one of the songs I recall runnin' to death at my man titi's crib when I first discovered djaying.. Marly Marl is a genius..

*Technically there isn't an audio wave version to this break so I was forced to post yet another youtube clip. I plan on going anti-youtube for May so stay tuned for that.. I just got a nikon d40 so maybe ill just post random images of the hood and birds n trees all throughout May.. we'll see..

Original Flava Tuesdays

For this week's installment of Original Tuesdays, I'm gonna continue on my youtube barrage (which by the way is my way of cutting corners/bieng lazy). This is a pretty cool documentary on the beat diggin' culture.. check it out here or at our ahem (plug time!)
Knockoutkingz TV Mogulus Channel!!


*I plan on posting some tunes later today also don't worry..haha

Original Flava Tuesdays

This past week I've been puttin' together my first mixtape in over a year, which is a commission from a pretty well known print magazine. (Hopefully i'll be able to let the cat out the bag soon enough..) While I can't say which mag, I can say the concept is based around the greatest Hip Hop collabo's of all time. When I started pickin' songs for it, one of the obvious ones I knew had to be on the jumpoff was LL Cool J's I shot Ya remix. This record was arguably Uncle L's peak, as nothing he did after that had hardly as much emphasis. (You could say 4,3,2,1 was flames but he cheated on that.. Can-I-Bus wrote his verse first n LL came through n torched him with unlimited time to write his verse...) Not only did L rip but Joey Krills came wit flames (prolly courtesy of some ghostin' from a lil' known Big Pun at the time) and besides Prodigy's show stealin' verse, it was the intro to the Ill Nana herself and you can't front, whoever wrote that for her killed it. HaHa.. Well that record was one of those that sent me diggin' upon hearin' that sick loop and I actually didn't end up going far as the album by Lyn Collins "Check Me Out If You Don't Know Me By Now" was already in the collection. This album was full of funky joints as one would come to expect from an album produced by the soul man himself James Brown!


Lyn Collins - "Put It On The Line"



*BONUS VIDEO


I Shot Ya Remix Video



**DOUBLE BONUS VIDEO


Lyn Collins Live In Zurich



*Now I just gotta finish this damn mix..

My Song.. aka Original Flava Tuesdays

For this joint I chose to shed light on a song I actually play in the crib more often than the hip-hop version it was sampled by. The song is called "My Song" by Labi Siffre sampled by Kanye West on the aforementioned "I Wonder" off his recent smash "Graduation" (and for the record I dig "I Wonder" a lot so it's no diss to Ye's joint). Well Labi isn't new to the sample game but he's always been a lil iffy about what he clears..
For Eminem's single "My Name Is," Dre tried to sample Labi's song "I Got The ..." off the album "Remember My Song".  Siffre objected to what he describes as "lazy writing" on Em's part..(in the sleeve notes of the EMI re-mastered CD of the source album Remember My Song): "Attacking two of the usual scapegoats, women and gays, is lazy writing. If you want to do battle, attack the aggressors not the victims".
Tough words by homie. Maybe it has something to do with the fact homie's openly gay and been living with his civil partner for like 44 years. Funny but in hindsight, Kanye comin' out the closet for his gay uncle or cousin a while back may have been just another instance of things working in his favor..

Labi Siffre - "My Song"

* Homie Labi on his technology game too. peep his blog..

** Sidebar: Ski had used the "I Got The.." sample for Jiggaman's "Streets Is Watching" off a European compilation like 4 years earlier than Dre. Funny thing is I remember buying that comp in London and thinkin' I had found shangri-la as I was sure noone had it back home, the net wasn't poppin' like that as recent as 10 years ago.. Me having just copped an mpc2000 was officially on my producer shit.. Well I remember like it was yesterday landing in JFK and gettin' in the cab and askin the cabdriver to throw on hot 97.. It happen to be mixmaster weekend and my homie S&S was going in crazy on a new Jay joint... There went my big find..

Original Flava Tuesdays

Ok so to keep me focused on this bloggin' thing, I figured i'd fall in line with every other blog out there and make themes for certain days and I decided on Tuesdays I'm going to post what I call Original Flavas. It's pretty self explanatory but for the sake of clarity here it is.. I'm basically going to post an original sample or break to a song that you may not immediately recognize the origin of...
For this first one I'm going with the break used on The Jiggaman's "Roc Boys" off of American Gangster. Those horns you hear are from The Menehan Street Band's "Make the Road by Walking". The Menehan Street Band is actually a "supergroup" consisting of members of the El Michels Affair (Wu-Tang replays, Raekwon fame), The Dap-Kings (background in a sec), and Antibalas. Tommy Brenneck, guitarist for El Michels Affair and the Dap-Kings, formed the group with Homer Steinweiss and recorded the tracks in the basement of his Brooklyn apartment, on Menehan street, hence the name. Leon Michels, founder of Truth & Soul records and El Michels Affair (Google them, they're keeping the classic soul vinyl movement alive), composed the horn line with trumpeter Dave Guy of Dap-Kings fame. Thats a whole bunch of people yall never heard of but just to put it in layman's terms, The Dap Kings played a majority of the instrumention on miss Rehab herself, Amy Winehouse's super grammy winning album. That should give you an idea of how nice they are...


The Menehan Street Band - "Make the Road by Walking"


* Big Shout to my man Sean C..