Friday, July 15, 2011

Pete Rock - Strange Fruit (1998) sampled David Axelrod - The Smile (1968)

Artist:  Pete Rock
Song:  Strange Fruit
Year:  1998
Album:  Soul Survivor



Continuing the Pete Rock and Sticky Fingaz collaboration from my last post, here is another jewel.  Pete Rock assembled a diverse and interesting cast for this haunting beat:  Tragedy Khadafi, Cappadonna and Sticky Fingaz (sounds great here).




Artist:  Lord Finesse
Song:  Actual Facts
Year:  1995
Album:  The Awakening (Hidden Bonus Track)



Three years earlier, Lord Finesse assembled an All-Star team on a similar beat:  Sadat X, Large Professor and Grand Puba.




Artist:  Royce Da 5'9"
Song:  Shake This
Year:  2009
Album:  Street Hop



There is some good music in the David Axelrod song outside of the piano samples and Royce Da 5'9" took advantage of that.




Artist:  David Axelrod
Song:  The Smile
Year:  1968
Album:  Song Of Innocence



David Axelrod is responsible for some of the greatest Hiphop samples.  I also admire him for the concepts he brings to his albums (i.e. religion, environmentalism, etc.).  Pete Rock used two samples:  The two note piano sample located at 3:08 and the other piano at 3:13.  Lord Finesse used the 2-bar loop starting at 3:07 and added to that foundation.  Royce Da 5'9" used 4 samples.  The first is for his chorus, it appears at the 1:16 mark, but he also uses the note at 1:27 to start subsequent loops.  The verse uses three samples as it builds, located at 2:01, 2:09 and 2:19.

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