Friday 1st May @ Purple Turtle Reading

Yes that's right the Nu Urban crew will be taking over the Purple Turtle in Reading for a night of Drum n Bass vibez. Don't miss it yo!

Sampled By Who?? Incredible Bongo Band vs Hip Hop

The year is 1960, the month is July and the Shadows - who were probably most famous for their work as Cliff Richards backing band, were enjoying a 5 week stint at the top of the hit parade courtesy of a Jerry Lordon written number inspired by the 1954 western "Apache". The song re-appeared numerous times over the next ten years before The Incredible Bongo Band bought their funk fuelled bongo driven break monster to the table. Micheal Viner the MGM exec is widely credited with putting the Incredible Bongo Band project together, using the MGM studios when they weren't booked up and utilising any musicians (who were never credited) passing through the MGM offices to record the tracks. Rumour has it that one or two tracks from the 1973 debut album included Ringo Starr thumping the tubs and many other notables also appeared on other tracks across the 2 LPs they released.

Incredible Bongo Band - Apache


This tune was first released on the 1973 Bongo Rock LP although it was until much later in the decade when pioneers like DJ Kool Herc and of course Grandmaster Flash backspinning two copies of this tune plucked it from obscurity and showcased the break for the B Boys. He done this live on two 2 x turntables and a mixer:

Grandmaster Flash - Apache (Turntable Mix)



And then Salaam Remi produced this banger for Nas' 6th studio LP in 2003. Also released as the first single this tune is simply badness and marked a return to form for Mr Jones after a steady decline in the intensity of his work after he dropped the classic mid nineties joint 'Illmatic'


Nas - Made You Look




The Incredible Bongo Band has been sampled many times over by drum and bass artists as well and I'll be whacking up some examples online over the next few days. In the meantime here's a little list of others tunes that took a chunk out of Apache:



2 Live Crew - "Megamixx"
Apache - "The Beginning"
Breeze - "Watch the Hook"
Busta Rhymes - "What the Fuck You Want!!"
Busy Bee - "Old School"
Chubb Rock - "3 Men at Chung King"
Coldcut - "Say Kids, What Time is It?"
Dee Patten - "Who's the Bad Man"
Digital - "Metro"
DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince - "Live at Union Square"
Double D & Steinski - "Lesson 1"
Double D & Steinski - "Lesson 2"
Double D & Steinski - "Lesson 3"
Everlast - "Syndicate"
Faith Evans ft Black Rob - "Love Like This"
Freddie Foxx - "Stop Look & Listen"
Freestylers - "Breaker Beats Pt 2"
Future Sound of London - "We Have Explosive"
Geto Boys - "Do it Like a G.O."
Goldie - "Inner City Life"
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five - "Freelance"
Hammer - "Turn this Mutha Out"
Insane Poetry - "The House That Dripped Blood"
J. Majik - "Your Sound"
Jive All Stars - "No Stoppin'"
Jurassic 5 - "Jurass Finish First"
Kool G Rap - "Men at Work"
Kool Moe Dee - "Way Way Back"
KRS-One - "Who are the Pimps?"
Leaders of the New School - "My Ding a Ling"
LL Cool J - "You Can't Dance"
MC Paul Barman - "Burping and Farting"
Ministere Amer - "Le Droit Chemin"
Missy Elliot - "We Run This"
Moby - "Machete"
Nas - "Made You Look"
Roxy Breaks - "Apache Rock"
Run-DMC - "What's it All About?"
Schoolly D - "Housing the Joint"
Sugarhill Gang - "Apache Rap"
Tone Loc - "Ace is in the House"
Ultramagnetic MCs - "MC's Ultra"
Ultramagnetic MCs - "We're Ultra III"
West Street Mob - "Break Dance Electric Boogie"
Young MC - "Know How"
Young MC - "Watch the Hook"
SHY FX - This Style
Shy FX - Mad Apache
Chase n Status - Against All Odds

More Doom!

I'm back with an update on the latest happenings on all things Doom related. Latest news is that this is a tip top ale, comin straight out of the Cornish Rock brewery, i think i've had about six and it's still goin down sweetly. Doom Bar!

Sampled By Who?? Magical Trevor vs Yellow Pages

Jonti Pickings is a funny guy. And that tune is gonna get stuck in your head!! I warns ya!

Sampled By Who?? Ike Turner vs Jurassic 5

Ike Turner was a player in the music industry for many years before releasing his first proper solo LP 'A Black Man's Soul' (backed up by his long time band The Kings Of Rhythm), working his way up from humble beginnings aged just 8 years old. This was released back in 1969 as an all instrumental project and was squeezed in between the stuff he and Tina were doing at the time, but it's still chunked out with classy funk cuts. Getting Nasty is probably the pick of these, according to sample count anyway, and you will recognize it straight away - a piano groove led slice of raw funk! The pressing sounds a bit curious apparantly cos it was 'electronically reprocessed for stereo using the original monographic recordings.', but also it's the last track on side A so those levels are getting crunched anyway.


Ike Turner & The Kings Of Rhythm - Getting Nasty



Can you tell where Jurassic 5 might have used that? Yep the Californian group's DJ /Production duo, Cut Chemist and DJ Soundlab chopped and looped it to fine effect creating this monster late nineties hip hop classic.

Jurassic 5 - Concrete Schoolyard




An Main Source also nicked a bit of it, honest, I'm not just posting wicked main source tracks up on here for no reason again! This one does actually sample Getting Nasty. Right at the start, listen:

Main Source - Snake Eyes

Sampled By Who?? All The People vs KRS 1

Released back in 1972, this was written by Willie G. Hale and produced by Steve Alaimo and Willie Clark. The singer on this version is Robert Moore I believe. Fucking Bad Tune!

All The People - Cramp Your Style



And then the Blastmaster KRS One got his mitts on it and popped this out back in 1988 the year after Scott La Rock was murdered. You can find this on the 'By Any Means Necessary' LP by Boogie Down Productions.

KRS One - I'm Still #1




And back in the early 2000's I came across this Smoothe & Trigga session on the KRS beat


Smoothe The Hustler & Trigga Tha Gambler - Smith Bros

Sampled By Who?? Isaac Hayes vs Smif n Wessun

Most of you will probably remember this tune from the Austin Powers soundtrack where Burt Bacharach plays it on a piano mounted on some kind of horse drawn get-up, and thats very fitting as Bacharach originally penned the music. Some guy called Hal David wrote the lyrics sometime after and they stuck like glue. Originally recorded by Dusty Springfield for the Casino Royale soundtrack in 1967, this song has since been covered by virtually everybody who has lived since.
Let's vote for scientology and concentrate on the late Isaac Hayes' version though. It appeared on the 2nd album he released in 1970 'To Be Continued...' which featured very long drawn out compositions typical of his syle at the time. This tune has been sampled by a few people like Jay Z and the Lost Boys but the sample you're looking out for is around 9 Minutes in!


Isaac Hayes - The Look Of Love




Produced by Evil Dee, one half of NYC's Da Beatminerz this is probably my favourite track from this heavyweight debut LP 'Dah Shinin' from Tek an Steele aka Smif n Wessun aka Cocoa Brovaz. Dropping to high praise from critics and heads on the street back in 1995, this is a little slice of hiphop being done to perfection. The wistful horns perfectly compliment the theme and delivery Tek and Steele lay down creating a brooding but not quite moody sorta atmosphere. The rest of the LP is laced with pure hip hop badness as well with such tracks as 'Bucktown', 'Wontime' and 'Sound Bwoy Buriel' if you haven't already, go Check It Out:

Smif n Wessun - Stand Strong