When you own one of the most heavily sampled catalogues in hip-hop history, it’s something of a no-brainer to streamline it into one easy-to-access anthology. Accordingly, Concord Music Group, who re-launched Stax in 2007, are attempting to cash-in with this very well-curated starter’s guide. If for some reason, you don’t know about Stax, Netflix Wattstax immediately.
In the meantime, this compilation gathers the usual suspects: The Emotions’ “Blind Alley” (“Ain’t No Half-Steppin”); Isaac Hayes’ “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic”(“Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”) and “Hung Up On My Baby” (“Mind’s Playing Tricks on Me”); Wendy Rene’s “After the Laughter” (“Tearz”); The Charmels “As Long As I’ve Got You” (“C.R.E.A.M.”); and The Sweet Inspirations “Why Marry” (“Criminology”), among others. Arguably the most interesting is David Porter’s “I’m Afraid the Masquerade is Over,” a song so sonically rich it provides the foundation for “Duel of the Iron Mic,” “Who Shot Ya,’” “Strawberry,” and LL Cool J’s woefully unsung, “Ill Bomb.”
Download:
MP3: David Porter-”I’m Afraid the Masquerade is Over”
MP3: The Notorious BIG-”Who Shot Ya”
MP3: Ghostface Killah ft. Killah Sin-”Strawberry”
MP3: LL Cool J-”Ill Bomb”
Amazon: V/A–Stax: Soul of Hip-Hop
5 comments
sam says:
April 6, 2009 at 10:54 pm (UTC -7)
I’m sure the D. Porter sample has been flipped many other times that you are probably aware of so this isn’t me being like “oh you forgot this one yo”… Anyway, I just wanted to add that Jake One’s flip for that Freeway song off his most recent album was pretty damn brilliant. My favourite one is still DJ Scratch’s for Ill Bomb though. Does anyone remember if that Funkmaster Flex album The Tunnel was any good?
Passion of the Weiss says:
April 7, 2009 at 12:36 am (UTC -7)
Yeah, really that entire Jake One album was pretty solid. That Funk Flex album certainly had its moments, but I always preferred the 60 Minutes of Funk mixes.
MAX says:
April 7, 2009 at 3:44 am (UTC -7)
damn i find a new rza sample liquid swords seems a little less special
MAX says:
April 7, 2009 at 3:46 am (UTC -7)
*every time I
Sach says:
April 7, 2009 at 8:17 am (UTC -7)
I wrote a review of that Funk Flex album back when. Always had a special place in my heart for some reason. Maybe because that was the last era where I could truly claim to enjoy everything going on in mainstream hip-hop
http://www.ohword.com/reviews/289/funkmaster-flex-and-big-kap-the-tunnel