Tragedy - They Force My Hand

May 1st, 2013 | By

Hodges, James, & Smith was an all-girl group out of Detroit. The group was formed by Mickey Stevenson, who was Motown‘s A&R during their hit-making years. Using his connections, he was able to get Hodges, James, & Smith high-visibility performances at the best venues. His goal was to mold a group similar to The Supremes. However, they really never struck it big, even though they released several albums. Later in their career, they sang backup vocals for Bobby Womack and Sylvester. Their debut album featured the cut “Signal Your Intention” which was used for the Tragedy Khadafi track “They Force My Hand“.

“They Force My Hand” featured fellow Queens rapper Cormega and appeared on several mixtapes at the time. It was released on white labels and bootlegs, but would eventually end up much later on the album Against All Odds. The track was produced by Spunk Bigga and featured the intro of the sample looped with some light synths and non-sampled drums. Even though you may not recognize the name, he’s actually worked with a dope list of artists including InI, G Dep, McGruff, and AZ. Take a listen to see how he flipped the original.

Pete Rock - Strange Fruit (Unreleased Version)

May 1st, 2013 | By

Soul Survivor was Pete Rock’s first solo effort, released via Loud Records. Before the album dropped, a rare sampler entitled It’s Me made it’s rounds early in 1998. The sampler featured tracks produced by Pete Rock (and strangely a track by DJ Krush featuring Tragedy Khadafi?). The first track is an unreleased version of “Strange Fruit“.

The album version featured Tragedy, Wu-Tang affiliate Cappadonna and Onyx’s Sticky Fingaz. The unreleased version is much longer and has a different line-up. The Tragedy verse and hook remain intact; however, Pete Rock actually spits a weak verse on this one. He’s followed by Tragedy’s cohort N.O.R.E. and finally Meccalicious. Meccalicious hailed from Pete Rock’s neighborhood, Mount Vernon, and even earned himself an “unsigned hype” in The Source. He did a few more songs with Pete Rock, but his career never really took off. In addition to the line up, the intro is also slightly different. The album version has the Billy Holiday sample reversed. The demo version doesn’t.

I admit I don’t own It’s Me. Instead, I found this track on a white label bootleg simply labeled RA-009. The b-side is the DJ Krush song with Tragedy.

Nas - No Ideas Original

February 24th, 2013 | By

Cecil Holmes has been sampled a few times before, but you might not know much about him. Most of the digging crowd knows him for his cover compilations of 1970′s soul hits. What I recently learned is that he was more of a label dude than a musician. He was actually the co-founder of Casablanca Records (Parliament, KISS, etc…). During his tenure, he created his own subsidiary Chocolate City Records (Cameo). The odd part is, none of his own music was released on either of the labels. The Alchemist used his cover of Barry White’s classic “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby” for Nas‘ bonus cut “No Ideas Original“.

The original version of “No Ideas Original” appeared on the import version of Stillmatic. That version is synth-heavy and a total opposite of the one that would later be released on The Lost Tapes. I’m not sure who produced the original version as I can’t find any credits for it. Alchemist didn’t do much to the sample; he basically looped the beginning. The track also contains a drum break which was used by Large Professor for Cormega‘s “The Come Up“. Check it out.

Prodigy feat. Cormega - Three

July 1st, 2012 | By

Marco Antonio Muniz is a famous artist from Mexico. He has several Latin American hits under his belt and has been sampled before (by the Beatnuts). He has recorded almost 80 albums, so it’s safe to say he probably has some other samples floating out there as well. The Alchemist used the intro for “Por Amor” for the classic Prodigy cut “Three” featuring Cormega.

Prodigy’s solo effort “H.N.I.C.” marked a new era in the sound of Mobb Deep (before they got wack and moved to G-Unit). The album was a classic and helped lay the ground work for future Prodigy solo albums and Alchemist collabos. For “Three“, Alchemist looped the intro, hard-panning the left and right channels to isolate the piano loop and the string loop. Check it out.

Live Ya Life

April 22nd, 2012 | By

Billy Paul doesn’t need any introduction from a music or sample stand point. With several hits under his belt and several sample cuts you should be very familiar with him already. I’ll spare a long description and get to the point.

The song “Thank You (for this blessing)” was used by Queensbridge rapper Cormega for “Live Ya Life” produced by J. Waxx Garfield.