Sample This 10:HHT Edition-Black Sheep
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Track:Similack Child
By the time the Black Sheep dropped their debut album in 1992 I was drifting away from living and breathing Hip Hop as I had in prior years. It wasn't that I had a problem with the genre,I was just incorporating more music into my listening.I didn't sleep on Dres and Mista Lawnge altogether (I did have the record), but I sure didn't realize the greatness of A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing either. It's rare that debut artists (on a major label) produce and rap, but the Black Sheep did just that, and did it very well indeed.Take Similak Child, the fourth single off the record. It opens with a sample of Today by Jefferson Airplane, that sets the somber mood for the track. The interesting thing is that Tom Scott's cover of Today is the go to sample for most hip hop producers, so the Sheep are coming original out of the chute.When the verses kick in, oh wait, did I mention the drums for the whole song come from a 4 second break in the middle of a 3 Dog Night tune called I Can Hear You Calling..ok, when the verses kick in the the piano lick comes from a tune called Les Fleur (sic on the French) by Ramsey Lewis. This too is not the usual Les Fleur, producers like Primo or Pete Rock use, they usually sample the Minnie Riperton version.As Similak Child rolls on to its own break, beats are also inserted from Allen Toussaint and Mahavishnu Orchestra. At the time these were the first usages for all these samples, and it is all done in seamless fashion.The flow is an intelligent club pick up scenario, making this track a standout, on an album full of musical,funny, and topical hip hop, along with some major league crate digging.That Black Sheep didn't go on to become stars on the order of fellow Native Tounge Posse people like ATCQ and De La is a bit of a mystery, but so it goes in Hip Hop.If you like hip hop and you haven't heard this classic, please do so.Check out all the songs Dres and Lawnge flipped in comments.
Comments (24)
Excellent post!