Category Archives: Breaks

Livin’ The Fast Life

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Kool G Rap’s “4, 5, 6” is a classic Hip-Hop album with some of the best beats of the mid-90′s era. Despite the album having common G Rap themes of hustling, murder, and the streets, the record label needed something to service to radio. In walks “Fast Life” featuring a none other than Nas. The label did their best to soften up Kool G Rap by making him rap over Surface’s “Happy“. In their defense, the song was popular and I like it, but it just wasn’t Kool G Rap.

Soon after the song blew up, a remix emerged that you would most likely hear on late night radio. The remix is often credited to Buckwild but I’ve also seen it credited to Salaam Remi. Whoever produced it, they sampled the song “Clear” by progressive rock group Spirit. This cut is from the same album Large Professor used for Resurrection 95. Check it out.

Resurrection ’95

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In 1994, the rapper formerly known as Common Sense was gaining popularity rapidly from his singles “Resurrection” and “I Used to Love H.E.R.“. In order to keep the momentum going, in 1995, his record label re-released the single to “Resurrection” and added 2 new versions, both produced by the one and only Large Professor. Both versions had a totally different sound from the original but were equally as dope. Large Pro used Spirit’s “Ice” for one of the versions. Spirit was a progressive rock group and has several hot joints among their discography.

Come On In

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Jessi Colter is a Country/Rock artist who was pretty popular during the mid 70′s. She had a few hits and had duets with her country singer husband, Waylon Jennings. As with most country albums, this is pretty weak. However, there is a dope drum break on the cut “Come On In“. Capitol records (red label) has been very good to me over the years in terms of drum breaks. As a rule of thumb, I always try to pick up a few.

Can-ye West

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Kanye West is one of the last major artists still thriving based on (dope) samples. Kanye somehow got a hold of Can’s album and flipped it for Drunk & Hot Girls featuring Mos Def. Can is a krautrock group from the 70′s (i.e. progressive rock from Germany). The album Ege Bamyasi Okraschoten was already known around digging circles WAY before Kanye used it. “Sing Swan Song” is actually one of the low points of the album. Most of the other songs are filled with funky prog/rock breaks. The majority of the Kanye track is re-played only using minimal sounds/vocals from the actual song.

* Please note – because of YouTube copyright issues, you unfortunately might not be able to hear this one