Mobb Deep - Keepin' It Real (1994) sampled Bob James - Feel Like Making Love (1974)

Artist:  Mobb Deep
Song:  Keepin' It Real
Year:  1994
Album:  The Infamous Demo Tape

Honorary mentions to "Hazardous" by Godfather Don and "Can't Stop Rockin' (Tribute) (Goldfinger's Remix)" by Jemini The Gifted One, but I want to highlight those who sampled this song the best. Imagine if this song had made it on to The Infamous album? Perfection might have been even better. Excuse the sound quality, it's from their demo cassette.

Artist:  Termanology (featuring Skyzoo, Torae and Reks)
Song:  Get Away
Year:  2014
Album:  Shut Up And Rap

This is the song that inspired the blog post.  I was listening to this for the past 2 months constantly.  Termanology has a good ear for music to put his killer flow on.  This song has a good video as well.

Artist:  Rapper Big Pooh
Song:  My Mind
Year:  2005
Album:  Sleepers

Sleepers is a classic album, in part because of this song.

Artist:  Main Source
Song:  Scratch & Kut
Year:  1991
Album:  Breaking Atoms

Speaking of classic albums, this song uses a different sample, a one-bar loop that could repeat forever and still sound good.

Artist:  Bob James
Song:  Feel Like Making Love
Year:  1974
Album:  One

I don't even know where to start with this album, it has been sampled hundreds of times.  I still remember the first time I heard this record back in Hip Hop's golden era.  The Mobb Deep and Termanology sample is the four-bar loop from 0:00.  The Rapper Big Pooh sample appears at 4:11.  The Main Source loop is the one bar at 1:16. 

Rapper Big Pooh - Wooden Wall Silverware (2011) sampled Pondersoa Twins Plus One - Bound (1971)

Artist:  Rapper Big Pooh
Song:  Wooden Wall Silverware
Year:  2011
Album:  Fat Boy Fresh Volume One - For Members Only

The Fat Boy Fresh series has three volumes to date and is worthy of a box set, especially if more quality material gets added over the years.

Artist:  The Large Professor
Song:  Bowne
Year:  2009
Album:  The LP

This song was on the official 2009 release of "The LP", but not on the 1996 bootleg version that floated around. 

Artist:  Kayne West
Song:  Bound 2
Year:  2013
Album:  Yeezus

Besides the fact that the video for this song was what caught people's attention, I thought it was the best track on the album. 

Artist:  Ponderosa Twins Plus One
Song:  Bound
Year:  1971
Album:  2+2+1 = Ponderosa Twins Plus One

An album cover like this begs one to listen to its contents.  How can there not be a sample inside?  Rapper Big Pooh used the two-bar loop at 2:17.  The Large Professor used the two-bar loop at 0:01 for the verses but the two-bar loop at 0:14 for the chorus.  Kanye West used the same sample at 0:14 and also used the two-bar loop from 1:02.

Rapper Big Pooh - Between The Lines (2004) sampled The Fatback Band - Baby Doll (1973)

Artist:  Rapper Big Pooh
Song:  Between The Lines
Year:  2004
Album:  Sleepers

I give up 9th Wonder, you're a genius.  I can't figure out this beat fully, the flutes are difficult to recreate.  Another masterful production by Harvard Professor 9th Wonder.

Artist:  The Fatback Band
Song:  Baby Doll
Year:  1973
Album:  People Music

I dig the singing in this song, it makes for great vocal samples.

Rapper Big Pooh rhymes over 4-bar loops made up of many samples pieced together.

During the verse, you hear many flute samples from 0:27 to 1:07.  One of which is at 0:47 and another at 1:04.  At the 3 and 11 beats is a vocal sample "oh oh oh oh" from 5:39.

During the intro and chorus, more vocal samples.  "Love you" from 1:31.  "Honey I love you" from 1:30.  "Cause" from 1:54.  "My Love" from 2:37.

Rapper Big Pooh - FootPrints (2013) sampled Minnie Riperton - Completeness (1971)

Artist:  Rapper Big Pooh
Song:  FootPrints
Year:  2013
Album:  Fat Boy Fresh Vol. 3.5 - Happy Birthday, Thomas

I was listening to Fat Boy Fresh Vol. 3 from the day it came out last summer and then was really pleased that Vol. 3.5 came out with a few more tracks, such as this one.  Classic album!  I hope Pooh puts out a box set of all the Fat Boy Fresh series in 20 years.

Artist:  Tracey Lee
Song:  Big Will
Year:  1996
Album:  Many Facez

It's too bad that Tracey Lee and The Reepz didn't put out more material, but I'll settle for what they gave me.  This song actually didn't sample Minnie Riperton, but was inspired by her.

Artist:  Minnie Riperton
Song:  Completeness
Year:  1971
Album:  Come To My Garden

I wanted to sample this song ages ago so it makes sense that someone would eventually make use of it.

Rapper Big Pooh sampled 7 bars starting at 0:19 for the intro.  The rest of the song samples the two-bar loop from 0:00.

 

Tracey Lee was inspired to not sample but play the 4 bars starting from 0:00 and also threw in some singing similar to what is heard at 3:13.  A great way to get around a sample clearance.

F.T. - F.T. (The Anthem) (2009) sampled Prince And The Revolution - The Beautiful Ones (1984)

Artist:  F.T.
Song:  F.T. (The Anthem)
Year:  2009
Album:  Purple Pain Mixtape

F.T. AKA Fuc That (Street Smartz) is the Brooklyn Beast.  Black Milk created a mixtape of beats using Prince samples and F.T. rhymed over those tracks.  This one is my favourite but there are other great songs as well.

Artist:  Rapper Big Pooh
Song:  When I'm Done
Year:  2010
Album:  The Purple Tape

Phonte might technically be the better Emcee from Little Brother but Rapper Big Pooh has grown on me over the years to become the one I'm following closely.  After F.T. introduced me to these beats, I was really excited to learn that Rapper Big Pooh blessed them again.

Artist:  Black Milk
Song:  Track 9
Year:  2008
Album:  Music From The Color Purple (Beat Sampler)

When everyone was listening to Thriller by Michael Jackson, I was more into Purple Rain by Prince.  I think that Black Milk is a genius for chopping up Prince's sounds and making a whole album of instrumentals inspired by the Purple One.  F.T. and Rapper Big Pooh did justice to this effort.  Press play and get your freestyle on.

Artist:  Prince And The Revolution
Song:  The Beautiful Ones
Year:  1984
Album:  Purple Rain

Since Black Milk reveals the Prince sample at the end of each track, it wasn't too hard for anyone to figure this out, but he put some work into the construction of this beat.  All three Hip Hop tracks use the same 4-bar loop composed of the following pieces.  At around 3:24, Prince sings "Do you want him?" and the loop starts with the word "him" and continues until Prince sings "or do you want me?"  The "or do you want" is replaced by part of the loop from bar 1 and bar 2 begins with the word "me" (3:28).  After Prince sings "cause I want you" just before 3:34, there are three guitar notes.  Note 3, then note 1, then note 2 conclude the second bar.  The third and fourth bars are the same as the first two except at the end of the fourth bar when the order of the guitar notes becomes 2, 3 and 1.