Max Bell has a Hieroglyphics baseball bat.
Jeff’s already said all that need be said about Souls of Mischief and their canonical LP 93 ’til Infinity (read here), which is 20 years young and still worth many cab fares, a concert review, and more. Thus, though the words Bridget, frigid, and midget are forever linked in my mind, I’ll keep stanning to a minimum.
Rhymes, little people and cold 40s aside, the production on this record has also been revered for a years, often imitated but never duplicated, as the fitting cliche goes. For when loops reigned supreme — they are still around and well, but sample clearance is one way to go out like a sucka – A-Plus and the crew knew how to connect those that made you feel like you were both in Oakland and Maui with sativa by the sack. With this in mind, the good folks over at Wax Poetics have linked up with Who Sampled to deliver Chris Read’s sample tribute to the Souls debut. It’s one of the best mixes I’ve heard in recent memory, seamlessly combing the sample material with the Souls instrumentals, as well as deftly transitioning into and out of the vocal tracks. If you want the audiobook/cliff notes version of the “Behind the Music” for 93 ’til, this mix is as close as it gets.
For those of you who want to hear each sampled song in its entirety, Hip Hop is Read‘s Ivan Rott, who continues to do God’s work on an almost daily basis, has compiled that material for you in a playlist, which you’ll find below the jump. I’ve also posted “Cab Fare” and the original (read: better) version of “Batting Practice” because this is the Internet and it’s like that.
Listen/Download:
