The Audacity of Dope

Well, this is embarrassing.  Not the video itself, and certainly not Murs’ song, but you see all that footage inside the metal barriers from what appears to be the desert?  Yeah, that would be the Washington stop of the Rock The Bells tour down at the Gorge.  I think the only positive aspect of seeing all my fellow NW’ers look like idiots wild out in front of the camera is that my dudes got their “Wake Up and Smell The Hip-Hop” shirt in a Murs video.  That’s whassup.  Actually, this reminds me…I have random RTB footage to edit…I should probably get on that.

Seattle people:  be sure to catch Murs and Kidz In The Hall at Nectar on Saturday.  It’s gonna be a great show and it’s a weekend so you have no excuses.  I’ll leave you with a little treat courtesy of Kevin Nottingham‘s excellent blog:

Al Hirt – “The Green Hornet Theme (Flight of the Bumble Bee)”

Video swiped from OnSmash.

Haven’t done one of these Sample Vault posts in a minute, so here’s a classic flipped by a certain Bad Man.  The other half of this song is coming to town next week for all my Seattle people…

Mighty Diamonds – “Illiteracy”

That’s wild, and easily the dopest thing related to this beat.  I’m still not feeling it and all the oversaturation with various “freestyles” definitely didn’t help.  On a related note, I’m sure Busta’s “I Got Bass” will be labeled one of the bangers of the summer, but that beat’s wack too.  Sue me.  I will give Bangladesh props for flipping this random obscure sample though.

Swiped from FWMJ.

True story, I went to a place called The New School in Wallingford for 3rd – 5th grade.  If I would have known about the “Case Of The PTA” then, it woulda been a wrap.

Ramsey Lewis – “The Mighty Quinn”

Also used by Speech & ’em and on a certain Bizarre Ride (shout to Kevin Nottingham).

Without exaggeration, one of my favorite pieces of music of all time.  F-A-B-O also used this for a nice little joint, but Ash’s song with Talib kills that.

John Coltrane & Duke Ellington – “In A Sentimental Mood”

Plus it was used in a classic movie:

(*cue record at 8:45*)

I was watching a movie last night (that I’m too embarrassed to name) that featured this Curtis Mayfield track numerous times, so I thought I’d post it up.  Definitely a classic from one of the greatest soul singers of all time.  Yeezy, in turn, created a modern day classic and introduced a whole bunch of y’all to Lupe at the same time.  Unfortunately for me, I made it my alarm ringtone for about a year.  Whenever I hear those horns, I have 5:30 AM wake up nightmares =/

Curtis Mayfield -“Move On Up”

But it’s so worth it.

Yo. This is the illest thing I’ve seen all week! This dude combined Barack, Breakin’, and “Din Daa Daa.” It simply does not get better.

If you’re not familiar with one of the greatest songs of all time, peep it:

George Kranz – “Din Daa Daa”

It’s been sampled by the Roots, Wyclef, Ying Yang Twins, and more.

Shout to my man Gedi for sending this over.

*pops & locks his way out the post*

In honor of hanging out with one of my favorite dudes in the industry the other night, I thought I’d toss up a sample from one of his classic beats.  It’s also a really dope song by itself.  Alicia flipped this on her last album too (the joint where she put Amy on notice that the retro soul market isn’t hers alone) and I’m bout to post a new song that uses it again.  Timeless.

Wendy Rene – “After Laughter (Comes Tears)”

(ahh, the good ol’ days)

Already been working crazy hard with this Obama campaign stuff…and it just started! It’s gonna be a rough six weeks, but I got this. I was listening to this joint in the ride today and part of the second verse really stuck with me…

“..Needed to chill and take a rest stop/Cause my job got me slavin’ like I’m Dred Scott/Take a break? Nah n***a, you bett’ not/Cause that’s when the respect stops/Energy drained, I need a blast like Hi-Tek got…”

I feel that. Here’s the original:

Bobby Womack – “And I Love Her”

(sidenote, the guys in the last Sample Vault also flipped this for an unreleased song produced by Ayatollah. There’s another usage that I can’t recall right now too…the part from :28 to :44 ish…if anyone knows, leave a comment)

(damn @ how young they look)

Don Randi – “The Fox”

“eschuchela…la ciudad respirando…”