Great Hip Hop Samples: Volume One

Hip Hop is built on sampling. Starting with the first DJs in the 1970s who took two records and mixed them together before getting a friend to rap over the beat, and continuing until today, hip hop beat makers have always looked at songs from other genres and thought, yeah, I'm going to take that and create something new with it.

Here are a few hip hop songs, and the songs they sampled.

Dr Carter/ Holy Thursday

Dr Carter is the sixth track from Lil’ Wayne’s 2008 ‘Tha Carter III’ album. It samples Holy Thursday, a song by composer David Axelrod, from his 1968 album ‘Song of Innocence’.

Holy Thursday sounds like Axelrod has brought a jazz orchestra together for a jam session, with several of the instruments getting an opportunity to do their own thing. Periods of richness and volume blended with more calm periods, and instruments come to the forefront, take some time in the spotlight, then recede into the background again. The song is very playful, and I can imagine how much fun the musicians would have had riffing off each other.

In Dr Carter Lil’ Wayne raps about the state of Hip Hop, seeing himself as the doctor who can cure what he thinks is wrong with the genre. 

The song strips Holy Thursday, taking out a large amount of the instruments to leave a skeleton for Lil’ Wayne’s lyrics. What remains is piano, the bass and drum beat, and the crescendo of strings and horns. Wayne builds his verses up through the calm parts, before using the crescendo to as his cue to end each verse. I really enjoy how he matched the playful beat with a playful, bouncy flow. I also like how he uses the calm parts of the song to talk to the ‘nurse’, before the drum beat kicks in again.

Through the Wire/Through the Fire

Through the Wire was Kanye West’s breakthrough single, and the song that introduced the world to him as a rapper. Released in 2003, it was the first single from his debut album ‘The College Dropout’. It samples Through the Fire by Chaka Khan, which was released in 1985, and is on her ‘I Feel For You’ album.

Through the Fire is a slow R&B power ballad. It’s very 80’s sounding, with big drums and synths showcasing Khan’s big voice. It also has a very 80’s guitar solo at 3.03.

The title of Through the Wire is a play on the fact that Kanye recorded his vocals for the song while his jaw was wired shut after he was in a serious car crash in 2002. The song is about the accident and its aftermath, when Kanye was in recovery.

The song takes Khan’s vocals from the chorus of Through the Fire and makes them higher pitched. Her vocals appear sporadically in the background of the verses at first, then get more regular towards the end of the verses, before turning into the chorus. 

I think Chaka Khan’s soaring vocals really fit well with Through the Wire, helping to add emotion to what is a song about triumphing over adversity. Kanye uses Chaka Khan's song about fighting through adversity for love to tell his story of fighting through adversity for success.

Machine Gun Funk/Chief Rocka

Machine Gun Funk is the fourth track from The Notorious B.I.G.’s debut album ‘Ready to Die’, which was released in September 1994. Machine Gun Funk samples Chief Rocka, a song by Lords of the Underground, a hip hop trio who had some success in the early nineties. Chief Rocka was released in June 1993, from the album ‘Here Come the Lords’.

Chief Rocka was Lord of the Underground’s most successful single, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s a fun song, with an excellent beat which showcases the Lord’s excellent flow and lyricism.

At 3.19 in Chief Rocka is the part of the song Machine Gun Funk samples. 

Machine Gun Funk builds its whole chorus out of just two lines from the Lord’s of the Underground’s song, lines which were no more important or significant than any others in the original song, showing how sampling can turn the smallest part of a song or a part you'd never think of into something new. 

Most Interesting Serie A Transfers of January 2013

The January transfer window closed last Thursday night with the usual fanfare. In Italy most teams have been pretty strapped for cash for a while, leaving them playing second fiddle to the English and Spanish top divisions, and now the new money upstarts of Eastern Europe. However, Italian teams still found enough money to make some intriguing moves in the transfer window, and here are some of the most interesting.

Mario Ballotelli to AC Milan

With Roberto Mancini finally giving up on trying to rein in the player he first discovered at Internazionale, Ballotelli has returned to Italy, to what is probably the club where he will have the best chance of finally achieving his potential. Ballotelli has always been a Milan fan, even when he was at Inter, and this should give him added motivation to want to do well. A potential front line of Ballotelli, El-Sharaawy, and the developing Mbaye Niang could be devastating, and I wouldn't bet against Ballotelli coming back to haunt Manchester City in the Champions League in the coming seasons.

Guiseppe Rossi to Fiorentina

Perhaps a gamble of a signing, Rossi has been out injured since October 2011, and isn't expected to be fit to play until the end of this season, or maybe even the beginning of next. In spite of this, if Fiorentina can get him fit again, they will have a very exciting player on their hands. In his last full season at Villareal in 2010-11, Rossi scored 32 goals in 56 appearances. He was also becoming first choice for Italy, whose manager, Cesare Prandelli had seen Rossi and Ballotelli as his front pairing. Fiorentina's gamble could pay off hugely if they can get him back to that kind of form, especially if they keep Stevan Jovetic, and manage to get them playing well together.

Mateo Kovacic to Internazionale

After finally ending the Wesley Sneijder saga with his transfer to Galatasaray, Inter have moved to replace him with a player who has been described as the new Luka Modric. Only 18 years old, so maybe one more for the future, Kovacic became the youngest goalscorer in the history of the Croatian top division at the age of 16 years and 198 days, was the youngest player ever to wear the Dinamo Zagreb captain's armband, and in scoring against Olympique Lyonnais in the Champions League group stage, became the second youngest ever scorer in the competition. It will be very interesting to see how he develops. 

Nicholas Anelka to Juventus

Juve have been searching for a striker for long time now. Despite their continuing dominance in the league, the one thing the team could be said to be missing is a 20+ goal a season striker. They were expected to make a big move in the summer but ended up having to settle for loaning Nicklas Bendtner, who now mostly warms their bench. With Fernando Llorente on his way on a free transfer in the summer, signing Anelka can possibly be seen as another attempt at a short term fix, although he will be out to prove he can still cut it at the top level.

Sickle Cell and Me

I was sick a couple of days ago, and I wanted to write about it because I've never really talked about it, but I've got an illness called Sickle Cell. Its not something I talk to people about much and I try not to think about it until I have to, when I get sick. Its not something you would notice about me if I didn't tell you, because most of the time its not an issue, but I've had it all my life.

Most people would never even have heard of it but Sickle Cell is a genetic illness that some people from certain regions of the world get. I'm not going to explain completely what it is here to save time, and because to be honest I'm not sure I understand it properly myself. There's a charity called the Sickle Cell Society that can explain it better than I ever could.

What it means for me is sometimes I get sick; maybe every few months I might start feeling a lot of pain (I mean a lot, it really, really hurts). A lot of the time this starts in the afternoon or evening, small at first, with only a bit of pain that I try to ignore and hope will go away. Sometimes it does go away, which is great! Sometimes it doesn't though and steadily just gets worse. When I was a kid, these episodes would lead to me having to go to hospital and stay there for anything from a few days to several weeks. Luckily I seem to be doing better now I'm older and a hospital visit hasn't happened for a long time.

It usually gets worse for me in the night when I'm trying to get to sleep. Because it hurts so much though, its really hard to get any sleep, and sometimes I end up not being able to sleep until the afternoon or evening of the next day. During those hours sleep is pretty much all I want, because I'm so tired and because it offers an escape from the pain.

Having Sickle Cell I get prescribed some pretty powerful pain pills for times like this and I find myself necking them to try and stop the pain. Sometimes they work first time, and sometimes I have to take a few doses over some hours. I can tell you there's nothing worse than having to wait another six hours to take more pills because the ones you just took haven't worked and you're still in a huge amount of pain. Luckily, one side effect of these pills is they make me feel sleepy, so that sometimes helps me get to sleep before the Sun comes up.

Getting sick usually means I have to stay in bed, and all I want to do is sleep. A lot of the time I can't even bring myself to eat, and I'll pretty much sleep all day and then all night as well, helped by the pain pills, or morphine if I'm in hospital. 

One thing about getting sick is it does give me some clarity, things that I would have been stressing over a couple of hours before don't seem that important when I just want to not be in pain any more. Also, perhaps because of all the pain pills, or maybe because of the euphoria of feeling better, I do feel amazingly zen when the pain starts to go away, like nothing that I've been stressing about could be that bad, which is one good side to the whole Sickle Cell thing.

So that's my relationship with Sickle Cell, its a part of me and my life, and its made me who I am today, but I don't let it define me.

6 Star Albums

Part 4: The Recession – Young Jeezy

The Recession is an album many British people would never have heard of before. Young Jeezy is a rapper who rarely appears in the British charts; at best many people might know him from collaborations with artists such as Usher on 'Love in This Club', and 'Hard' with Rihanna. However, this just means that many people are missing out on one of the best rappers around, and this album is his masterpiece.

The first song, the title track 'The Recession', captures the essence of the album. An intro of voices speak about the financial crisis then drop into one of the huge beats that is Young Jeezy's trademark. Using this beat Jeezy paints a portrait of the difficulties of trying to make ends meet, and as in much of his best work, blends dopeboy swagger with discussion of the worries of trying to make it from day to day. 

The next two songs 'Welcome Back' and 'By the Way' are standard street bangers, with Jeezy in thug mode talking about money and guns. However, track four, 'Crazy World', is where the album truly starts to get going. Another song that fits with the theme of struggling, it has a sense of frustration seen in the refrain "God damn another trap, I think Bush is trying to punish us", and lines such as "I want a new Bentley, my auntie need a kidney, and if I let her pass her children never will forgive me" mix rap aspiration with worries recognisable to anyone who's ever felt the weight of responsibility on their shoulders, in a bouncy, fast-paced song. The next track 'What They Want' is another bouncy track that I dare you to be able to stop yourself from moving to, as Jeezy slickly uses sport metaphors to describe his hustle game. Track six, 'Amazin', is another street anthem, with Jeezy flowing over a beat with awesome, almost subsonic bass. Things then slow down slightly with Track seven, 'Hustlaz Ambition', a more introspective song that again ties into the theme of the struggle, and sees Jeezy express his determination to be able to provide for his family and be a success.

The best songs on The Recession can be divided into two categories. In the first category are the fast paced street anthems such as 'Crazy World', 'What They Want', and 'Amazin'. The second category includes slower songs such as 'Hustlaz Ambition', track nine 'Don't Know You', track 12 'Vacation', and track 15 'Don't Do It'. These are songs where Young Jeezy is more thoughtful, and talks more about the darker side of hustling.

Other notable tracks on The Recession are 'Circulate', a song suited to these times of austerity and government cuts, sampling a Billy Paul song of the same name that is also well worth a listen. Also great are 'My President' featuring Nas, an ode to Barack Obama, who was to be elected soon after the album was released, and 'Put On', an anthem that was adopted by several sports teams to warm up crowds before games because of its riotous and infectious nature.

The Recession is a relatively unknown gem; an album that passed many people by, but that has all the things I love about hip-hop. It manages to be both fun and thoughtful,  and as a package of songs, works as well as any album I've ever heard, with its consistent themes, and flow from one track to the next. That's why its a 6 star album and one of my favourite albums ever.

5 Entertainment Highlights in 2013

Its almost 2013! A new year, a new start, etcetera etcetera. Another year of stuff happening and things to experience. To help you start planning for a new year of activities, here are 5 entertainment highlights in 2013 that you should know about.

5. Detox

The long awaited third album from Dr Dre was originally scheduled to be released in 2005, but it has been put back continually since then. As Dr Dre is an artist who has only ever released two solo albums, 'The Chronic' and '2001'; two albums which are widely recognised as classics, Detox is highly anticipated and has taken on almost a mythical status. Tentative whispers have put a release date of April 2013 for it, but it remains to be seen whether that will be put back again.

4. Man of Steel
A dark-looking film reboot of the Superman franchise scheduled to be released in June 2013, 'Man of Steel' stars Henry Cavill, aka the Duke of Buckingham from the television drama series 'The Tudors'. The film will portray Superman's origin story, and try to recover the franchise after the disappointing 'Superman Returns' with a darker tone that would have been encouraged by Kevin Nolan's Dark Knight film trilogy. The film's producers will be hoping that Man of Steel can imitate the success and critical acclaim enjoyed by 'Batman Begins', 'The Dark Knight', and the 'Dark Knight Rises', and trailers released so far do look intriguing.  

3. Game of Thrones

The epic fantasy drama returns for its third series in March. This gives anyone who hasn't caught this show yet time to catch up on the first two seasons, which have some of the best plots and characters of any show on television ever. Many people may be put off by the swords and sandals fantasy genre, but give Game of Thrones a chance and you will not regret it.

2. Arrested Development

One of the funniest comedies on television and a cult classic, the show was cancelled after three series in 2006, but a fourth season will be released on Netflix early in 2013, to much rejoicing from fans. Arrested Development focuses on the formerly wealthy and hugely dysfunctional Bluth family, in a comedy that rewards viewers with long-running jokes, amazing characters, and surreal storylines. A film adaptation is also said to be in the works.

1. The final series of Breaking Bad

After five fantastic seasons, Breaking Bad comes to a conclusion in 2013. The evolution of Walter White from meek high school chemistry teacher to crystal meth kingpin will come to an end with what will hopefully be a suitably dramatic climax. The best show most people have probably never seen, due to it criminally not being shown on English TV, Breaking Bad is a show that deserves to be seen by more people because of its unflinching realism, great characters, and excellent acting performances from former bumbling dad on 'Malcolm in the Middle', Bryan Cranston as Walter, and Aaron Paul as his assistant Jesse Pinkman. Following the cliffhanger ending of part one of series five earlier this year, it seems as if there are only a few ways it can end for Walter, and none of them look good. Do not miss it.

An open letter to my game collection

Dear pile of games on my living room table,

As I look at you, stacked up all pretty with your beautiful box art, its saddens me to think how little time I get to spend with you now. Since I was a little boy you have been one of my biggest passions; from the moment mum first brought home that NES and I fired up Super Mario Bros, I fell hopelessly for you.

Since then we've had a beautiful relationship, I've watched you grow through generations, from NES to SNES, to Playstation 2 to N64 to Gamecube and beyond. Even when I couldn't afford you, I'd throw longing glances at you through game shop windows, game magazines and the internet. Early this year I rejoiced when I became a gamer again with the purchase of a PS3. My list of games to play is long, and I set to it with gusto.

Whole days were spent with you, playing FIFA, and God of War III, and Burnout Paradise. I picked up gems like Red Dead Redemption and Arkham Asylum second hand for bargain prices, and built up a wonderfully genre-spanning collection.

Then one day LIFE happened. Work got real, social life intervened, and things changed. Now I barely have time for you, I come in at the end of the day, tired and unable to dedicate myself to you like I used to. If I'm lucky I can snatch half an hour with you if I get home early enough. I ask myself, when did I grow up? 

I made a promise to myself not to buy any more games until I complete the ones I have, and so I've been watching triple A releases pass me by. SSX, FIFA 13, Need For Speed, and more have gone by while I try to complete the God of War Trilogy, Red Dead Redemption, Arkham City and Borderlands 2 half an hour at a time. 

That's the irony of it all; now I can afford you, I have no time for you. If I want to eat, if I want to do things like buy more of you, this is the way it has to be and I guess I'll just have to keep sneaking time with you when I can. Whatever happens though, know that I love you.

Jude

P.S. Don't even get me started on trying to find time to play Football Manager

The Derby of Italy

Tonight possibly the biggest game in the entire Serie A calendar takes place as Juventus and Inter go head to head in the Derby d'Italia.  Although both teams have a strong rivalry with their city cousins, Torino and AC Milan, there is no doubt that Juve and Inter are each other's bitterest rivals. 

The match gained its grand name in 1967, when Inter were the Italian team with the most international titles, and Juve had the most league wins. These two teams are also the first and second most supported in Italy. In addition, before the Calciopoli scandal in 2006 when Juventus were demoted, both teams were the only ones in Italy never to have been relegated from Serie A. This has added to the rivalry even more, with Juventus outraged at the awarding of the 2005/06 Scudetto to Inter after it was stripped from them.

Even without the historical rivalry, tonight's match is highly important, as it is a top of the table clash between a seemingly unstoppable Juventus team, and an Inter team that has hit an excellent run of form and emerged as Juve's most likely title contenders. While Juve are on an unbeaten run which now stands at 49 matches, Inter have also begun rolling and have won eight straight matches in all competitions. Inter are four points behind Juve in second place, and are now looking like the only realistic challengers with a chance of stopping the Juventus juggernaut claiming another league title.

After a summer of big changes and player departures, Inter were not expected to be in this position, and did have a slow start to the season. Since a 2-0 loss to Siena in September however, they have been surprising everyone, with a new-found strength showing in their eight match winning streak. Credit for Inter's play goes to Andrea Stramaccioni, the young former youth team coach who took over as manager towards the end of last season. Stramaccioni has been managing to get the best out of his players, and switching to a three man defence after the Siena match has seemed to suit the team. Players like Esteban Cambiasso, defender Juan Jesus, Diego Milito, and Antonio Cassano are also in great form. Cassano, a boyhood Inter fan, has flourished since moving from AC Milan in the summer, and has five goals and several assists already.

Juventus are a formidable side, the only criticism that possibly be leveled at them is a lack of a 20 goal a season striker. This hasn't seemed to affect them too much though; along with Roma they are the joint top scorers in the league with 22 in 10 games, with goals coming from all over the team. Players like Andrea Pirlo, Arturo Vidal, and even Paul Pogba have been chipping in with goals, relieving the pressure from their strikers. Definitely the strongest side in Italy at the moment, and with home advantage, Juve will be Inter's biggest challenge so far.

Both these teams will come into this Derby d'Italia relishing the chance to break each other's streaks, and inflict a potentially morale-destroying loss. With two teams with such a fiery history now fighting for the championship, although this match will probably not be decisive this early in the season, it should be a hugely interesting spectacle.