Carrie Lucas - Street Corner Symphony (1978)

1. Street Corner Symphony
2. But My Heart Says No
3. Tic Toc
4. Depths of My Soul
5. Edge of Night
6. Questions
7. Simpler Days
8. Reflections
9. Street Corner Symphony (12 Version)
10. Tic Toc (12 Version)

Get It (320 kbps)

What do I have in common with Keyshia Cole?

Answer: We were both in Hip-Hop Weekly last week. Okay, bad quiz.

Diggers' Hotline: The Sylvers, Creative Source, Turkey.

Every now and then Memory (mostly him since he drives) and I have the fortitude to dig across town. We managed to hit four spots the day after Thanksgiving. Some notable finds included The Chambers Brothers, Circle of Fire, Linda Lewis, The Sylvers, and Creative Source.


I planned on uploading the Creative Source and Sylvers albums, but I found that two other bloggers had already done the job.



The Sylvers

"Something Special"

(1976)

Thanks to Good Groove for
posting this album
in 192 kbps.

Creative Source

"Creative Source"

(1973)

Originally posted at
Frisian's Other Favorites.
Thanks for doing the hard work!

Wet wipes and prog rock

Up until very recently, I felt as though I was one of the few hip-hop producers who dug specifically for not only soul/funk/jazz but for progressive rock as well. Of course if you've been listening to hip-hop for a while, you'll hear the occasional Supertramp, Styx or Alan Parsons sample, but these were groups that managed to reach mainstream U.S. audiences at one point in time. I figured that Renaissance, Baltik and a few other relatively obscure prog records were more or less untouched and unsampled. Wrong. Leave it to Cam'ron (DIPSET!!) to shatter my delusion. On his 2006 album "Killa Season," which I found out DID reach gold (it was his lowest selling album, but come on...), Cam proves my notions of prog sampling wrong... twice.

Firstly, his track "Girls, Cash, Cars," produced by "Stay Gettin'" samples Rick Wakeman's "Black Knight." I was sitting on that sample for a while after I bought the record, along with "The Six Wives of Henry VIII." There went my chance. This track is also interpolated in the intro to Young Jeezy's "The Recession."

The second example on Killa Season is ever stranger than the first. The track "Wet Wipes" has the signature Alchemist sound-- dark, heavy and warm sounds, driving drums (see Lil Wayne's 'you aint got nothing')-- but I figured he produced the whole thing on a Nord Lead or something similar (I don't even know if he uses a Nord, but I wish I did). I was wrong. While I was looking through my own samples, I end up finding this:



Now check the Cam/Alchemist version:



Downloadable Clips
From the following albums:

Brandy Vs. Ace Spectrum

I won't give up the exact track I sampled, but I will share the final product. It's especially hard to remix a track made by a producer with so many credentials, i.e. Darkchild, but it was fun either way. Any thoughts?

JR Bailey - Just Me 'n You (1974)

1. After Hours

2. Heaven on Earth

3. Just Me 'N You

4. She Called Me

5. Cute as a Button

6. Love, Love, Love

7. I'll Always Be Your Lover

8. All Strung out Over You

9. Not Too Long Ago

10. Everything I Want I See in You


Get It (192 kbps)

Interview with Kevin Nottingham

Here's a story of a respectable radio DJ turned producer who gets a spot on a Billboard 1 album, reaching Gold status in around six weeks. We're talking about DJ Pain 1 and his track "Don't Do It" off Young Jeezy's The Recession. DJ Pain 1 stopped by the site a couple of months ago when we had featured his beat in a "who flipped it better" contest against Chad "Wes" Hamilton. My man Thomas suggested that we hit Pain up to hear his story. Here's how it came out…

Read the full interview here

"We Goin' Platinum, Maybe"

From sohh.com:

Reminding fans of today's tough economic times as seen from the closing of major banks, Young Jeezy's The Recession has hit No. 15 selling 26,800 copies this week. His third Def Jam release is led by the hit single "Vacation" and after a month and a half on shelves has officially been certified gold with 516,500 copies sold.

So I'm a gold certified producer. I don't know when the plaque will come (platinum status is still feasible, and there's a process for requesting the plaque from the label/riaa), but the accomplishment is very real. Now the real work starts.

At a photoshoot last night for Felicia Alima's "Trade Song" campaign against human trafficking, I was joking a bit about wasting my advance on a Jesus Piece. A friend of mine, trying to provide some context for the joke, said loudly, "He's (referring to me) really modest, but he has a beat on the Young Jeezy album."

I don't know that I'm necessarily modest, but I was never raised to brag, especially when I feel as though I haven't done anything that anybody else couldn't do. I mean, I appreciate my own talents more and more each day, but with the right combination of hard work, creativity and luck, the average person can find success in certain arenas.

Because of my gold status, I was asked to judge the big producer battle here. I turned it down. I wouldn't feel right sitting in that chair, judging a competition that I haven't even won yet. My peers are all extremely talented and I love being a part of the event as a competitor.

I don't feel much different after the going gold thing. I am proud, happy and determined, yes. I am thankful for my manager Brendan, for CTE's a&r's, for Young Jeezy and for the fans who purchased the album. I know that I'm on the right track, and a little closer to reaching some more of my major goals as a producer.

In the meantime, not much has changed... other than the price of a beat. One major advantage of gold status is this: An RIAA certification is a palpable and more than valid excuse for me to answer "no" to the following questions:

"Let me get a beat."
"Give me a beat to rap to."
"I need a beat but I can't pay."
"I will make you famous if you give me a beat."
"Give me a beat, dude, do it for hip-hop."

Here's what my gold plaque might look like:

Best sample based beats pt 1: "Travelin' Man"

Click here for the original
Below is the nothing-short-of-genius DJ Honda/Mos Def version.

Clarence Reid - Like Running Water (1973)

It's hard to imagine that this is Blowfly, especially on the super-smooth title track.

Get it (192 kbps)

1. Living Together

2. Ny City

3. Good Enough For Daddy

4. Real Woman

5. Please Accept My Call

6. The Truth

7. Ruby

8. Love Who You Can

9. Please Stay Home

10. Like Running Water