Hell yeah, I’m down for that!

The theme for this round was “release,” so I mentioned a few ideas for the track, she refined one of those ideas, and I sat down and started working on a beat–one with a different feel from what I usually make. She shot some footage based on the concept we worked out, and then we went back and forth, tweaking the beat and her filming ideas until I finished off the track, and she was able to edit her footage to fit it. It was a really great creative collaboration with lots of good ideas and feedback flowing in both directions, and the final result is, I think, really cool (she did a great editing job on it). Check it out and see for yourself.

The Commute of Sisyphus from Tararchy on Vimeo.

Big dudes. Little records. Massive fun. And it don’t stop, y’all.

Red Line Radio (DJ Enki Remix) by DJ Enki

Of course, RZA was killing it back then, and basically anything that said “Produced by the RZA” was going to have a banging beat. But the consistency of GZA’s album, the steady feel of the whole thing, really showed RZA’s skill. It wasn’t just an album full of good beats, it was an album with a real texture to it all the way through–dreary, eerie, a bit glum, a bit surly, a bit moody.

Composition-wise, RZA wasn’t just catching great loops (the “Cruisin’” loop for “Liquid Swords,” the “I’m Afraid the Masquerade Is Over” loop for “Duel of the Iron Mic”), he was doing some slick chopping as well. The perfect example: Slicing riffs out of Ann Peebles’ “Troubles, Heartaches, and Sadness”:

And turning them into the beat for “Shadowboxin’”

As most hip-hop heads already know, RZA was a pioneer of the whole sped-up soul sample technique that Kanye later bludgeoned to death. “Shadowboxin’” is a great demonstration of how great the sampling method could be in his hands.

The Ann Peebles song is s-l-o-w. This wasn’t a case of “flip it on 45 so I can dance to it,” it was a case of “flip it on 45 so I can rap to it.” But then came the issue of the loop: The record doesn’t really have a clean one of the basic groove. So RZA chopped out two different pieces, put them together, and created the loop. As a bonus, the little vocal clip that came at the end of the loops sounded like a child saying “oh, man,” as though impressed with the verses of GZA and guest Method Man (who contributes by far some of the best rhymes of his career). If you listen to the beat back-to-back with the original song, it’s easy to hear the pieces RZA took, but to have the creativity to take those pieces out in the first place is what made RZA RZA back then.

So not only is the Fifth Ward Boys’ “Down-Ass Zaggin” a fresh beat, but it’s a technical accomplishment for the way it piles up loops.

For starters, the Boyz loop up Stanley Turrentine’s “Sister Sanctified,” best known as the basis for BDP’s “My Philosophy.” But instead of using a two-bar loop, the Boyz grab the entire four-bar phrase (and occasionally mess with the programming so it’s not just a straight four-bar loop all the way through). They also pitched it down a bit to make it fit with the other elements, and it fits with those elements perfectly–again, no small feat.

So with “Sister Sanctified” set, the Boyz grab a nice slice of War’s “Slipping Into Darkness,” letting the bassline bounce off the sax riff of “Sister Sanctified.” Then, to tie it all together, they bring in the classic Bill Withers “Kissing My Love” drum loop, and it is locked in perfectly — even the syncopated snare from the War loop sounds like an accent to the Bill Withers drums. Everything in the beat works perfectly with everything else, the programming is crisp and tight, and the whole track is perfectly orchestrated. And remember: It was all done with nary a Pro Tools rig in sight. Word to the Fifth Ward Boyz and John Bido.

But for this post, I’m not talking about a Cypress record, I’m talking about a record he did with Ice Cube for Cube’s The Predator album: “Check Yo Self.”

I’d bet that most people associate this song with the remix that was released as a single and got video spins on MTV — the one where Cube’s rapping over “The Message” (Grandmaster Flash, not Cymande). And that was a cool single, certainly a good move by Cube, but to me, the LP version was still better — better energy, better beat, better overall song.

On the production side of things, the beat is essentially Muggs breaking down the Sweet Inspirations’ “I’m Blue.”

Just as most people associate “Check Yo Self” with the remix over “The Message,” most people associate “I’m Blue” with Salt-N-Pepa’s “Shoop” (which, truth be told, is a well-produced piece of pop rap). But Muggs did a hell of a job flipping “I’m Blue” into an entirely different feel.

For the basic track, he looped up a two-bar phrase, then he filtered the bass line while cleverly keeping a ghost of the “shoop-be-doop” vocals in the background to add a bit of extra bounce, especially in the second bar of the loop — the “shoop-be-doop-be-doop-be-doop” part, which he even goes so far as to pan differently in order to add more of an accent. He also made good use of that little two-note horn lick to accent the start of the loop, and to punch up the hook, he added a second vocal sample (that ascending “whooaaah IIIIIII’m”), plus a little scratch of King Ad-Rock saying “check it.” To round out the beat, he added the signature Muggs hi-hat triplets and a Zapp-esque clap placed somewhat low in the mix, but just loud enough to keep the snares from being too sharp. It’s a masterful job of breaking down “I’m Blue” and hooking it up with that perfect 1992 gangsta vibe. And yo Muggs: If you ever want to come on the DJ Enki Show so I can stammer awkwardly at you, just holler.

Hey, you guys remember rap records, don’t you? Hip-hop DJs used to spin them before Serato took over the game.

Jerry Nice remembers rap records, so he started this dope party called Track the Movement that gave us DJs who still keep shelves full of dope rap wax a place to spin those records. I did this party last year and had a real good time revisiting my collection–I have some records I had forgotten about!–and now it’s time for me to invade again and get busy with it. If you love that good ol’ rap music, then this is definitely the party for you. Better yet, it’s free, and there are plenty of drink specials, so come kick it and get down to some great tunes.

Saturday, November 5

The Showdown (6th & Market, SF)
10pm-2am
Jerry Nice and DJ Enki spin top-quality rap strictly off wax. No computers allowed!
No cover!

Back in 2009, I did some gigs up in Ottawa and Montreal, Canada, and I had a great time. In particular, the Grind party in Ottawa was one of the best times I’ve ever had DJing. It’s taken a couple years, but I’m back for another round at Grind! The homie Jon Deck hit me up, and as an added bonus, he said the Halloween edition of Grind is always one of the best ones of the year. How could I resist? I couldn’t, that’s how. I’m seriously excited for this one, and if you’re in Ottawa on October 29, I very highly recommend that you come through, because it’s gonna be an insanely good time.

Saturday, October 29

GRIND!
Babylon Nightclub (317 Bank St., Ottawa)
Jon Deck
Selectah Shellz
DJ Enki

Doors at 11
$7 cover before 12, $10 after

“Hook & Sling” is a monster of a tune — simple, energetic, catchy, and brilliant. Tuff Crew is far from the only group to sample it, but most people who sampled it used pieces of the opening vocals (“You ready?” “Yeeeaaaaaaah!”). Stezo looped up the song’s signature guitar riff for his album cut “Girl Trouble,” but Tuff Crew went beyond that and took out a clip of James Black’s frenetic (not to mention phenomenal) drumming. It’s the kind of sample a lot of producers might have stayed away from because it’s so busy–more a drum fill than a real beat–but Tuff Crew saw that all the loop needed was some heavy kicks and snares to set up the basic drum pattern, and the loop would do the rest, giving the track plenty of swing and manic energy.

Of course, Eddie Bo’s vocals did prove to be irresistible, hence the exuberant “oh!” that gets thrown in periodically, and the “You ready?” “Yeeaaaaaaaah!” exchange opens up the song. And the group filled out the beat with a snatch of horns from the barely-ever-used Part 2 of “Hook and Sling” to keep it funky. Definitely a clever, creative, and original use of a breakbeat classic.

The song: “King Sun with the Sword” by King Sun
The producer: Tony D
The science:
Probably best known for his work with Poor Righteous Teachers (and known-without-being-known for being the dude Naughty by Nature bit the “O.P.P.” beat from), New Jersey’s Tony D (RIP) definitely had that late ‘80s/early ‘90s sound on lock. His knack for grabbing great loops and locking them in the perfect drum programming made him a somewhat in-demand producer during that time, and when King Sun set about putting together his (excellent) sophomore album, Righteous but Ruthless, he hollered at Tony for some beats, and Tony was happy to oblige, even putting his homies PRT on a track with Sun. The album spawned a great single, “Be Black,” and a so-so single, the Mr. Loverman-styled “Undercover Lover,” but the real gem was the first song of the second side, “King Sun with the Sword.”

To me, the most jaw-dropping aspect of this track is the chop job Tony did on “Funky Drummer.” Everybody and their father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate was sampling “Funky Drummer” back then. But most people simply looped it, and why wouldn’t you? Those drums are classic and really need no touching up. Some people would do fairly simple chops to it (witness Dre’s usage on NWA’s “Quiet on tha Set”) or just throw a little snippet of it in as an accent to the track (Freshco & Miz’s “Ain’t U Freshco?”).

But Tony really got busy with it. He took the whole break apart piece by piece and put it back together in a wholly original and ridiculously funky way. As soon as you hear the drums, you know they’re “Funky Drummer,” but they’re doing a completely different pattern. Tony keeps the iconic snare shuffle in the background, but the way he makes it stutter gives the beat a renewed funkiness, and the occasional double snare keeps the drums interesting. To my ears, it’s the best “Funky Drummer” chop ever, and that’s really saying something.

So with the drums in place, Tony augments them by doing a particularly Prince Paul-ish job on the Nite-Liters’ “Tanga Boo Gonk.” As I’ll get into in detail with a later entry in this series, Paul was the master of going through an entire song and pulling out all the best parts. Tony does that to terrific effect here, not only isolating the Nite-Liters’ blaring main horn riff for use in King Sun’s chorus, but also grabbing the guitar riff, baritone sax stabs, and other horn parts and sprinkling them throughout the beat, always keeping the track moving and engaging and showing a real knack for song arrangement and when to deploy particular samples.

Oh, and just so we don’t give King Sun himself short shrift here: He takes an amazing beat and rides it flawlessly.