I Do It For Hip Hop

Around 2000, Common had recently dropped Like Water For Chocolate. Ludacris was topping the charts with singles from his Back for the First Time album. Kanye was producing songs for the likes of Jay-Z and Talib Kweli but was also showing signs that he wanted to rap as well.

Like Water For Chocolate was one of my favorite albums of the year and is still one of my favorite Common albums. On the other hand, I would almost cringe whenever I heard songs like "Southern Hospitality." I was not a fan of the southern rap sound and grouped Ludacris together with Masta P and the No Limit family. I also dreaded the thought of Kanye rapping. I didn't have anything against his flows. I didn't think they were bad, but they were nothing great. I thought Kanye was a great producer, and I felt that rapping would detract from his producing.

Fast forward to today. All three artists have released new albums in the past few weeks. Kanye released his 808s and Heartbreak. Ludacris put out Theater of the Mind, and Common just dropped Universal Mind Control. I think all three are good albums, but back in 2000, I never would have guessed that Luda's new album would (at least on first listen) be my favorite of the three.

A few quick thoughts about the albums:
Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreaks:
My first reaction to this album was disappointment. I really like the production on most of the songs, but the entire album is Kanye singing (or auto-tuning?). The album has grown on me a lot since. Awhile back, I didn't think Kanye should rap. He's proved me wrong and turned into a good MC. In a few years, will I feel the same about his singing?

Ludacris' Theater of the Mind:
I really like a lot of the songs on this album. He has a lot of good guest spots on the album, but at the same time he showcases his skills too. His style and flow has really evolved since the "Southern Hospitality" days, and I've liked his last few albums. His track "Do the Right Thang" with Common sounds more like a Common track than many (most?) of the songs off Universal Mind Control. My favorite DJ Premier produces a hot track "MVP," and both Jay-Z and Nas spit verses on "I Do It for Hip Hop." Does anyone else thinks it's odd to hear both Nas and Jay-Z on the same song saying that they are the best MC out, given their history?

Common's Universal Mind Control:
I probably don't hold any other MC out right now to higher standards than I do for Common. Maybe that means I think he is the best MC still making music ... maybe not. He's definitely up there on that list. Off the top of my head, Black Thought and MURS would be toward the top of that list too. That being sad, I was hoping for more from this album. Right now, I don't think Universal Mind Control is as good as Finding Forever, and it's definitely not as good as Be, but I still think it's a good album. There are a lot of tracks ("Changes," "Gladiator," and "What a World") on the album that I really like, but on a whole I think there is a little too much of the Neptunes synth sound for me.

Now I got to go give Q-Tip's new The Renaissance a listen. I've been hearing good things about this one.

Jackin' for Beats

For all of you who know your hip hop history, you know that hip hop was born with samples. Hip hop started with DJs flipping back and forth between the "break" section of disco, funk, and soul records. Back then, hip hop was more mixing different music, and no one was calling it their own original work.

Eventually the samples became a little more subtle, and there were rhymes on top of them. DJs and producers would take small snippets of multiple songs and put them together to make their own musical arrangement. Sometimes the samples were recognizable, but often they weren't. I remember DJ Premier talking about using Jimi Hendrix in his production. He said taking a guitar riff would be too obvious, and instead, he would take an obscure drum beat and make it his own.

Of course, there is (and probably will always be) producers like Puffy (or P Diddy or Sean Combs or Diddy or whatever he is called today) who will take other people's music and use it unchanged, calling it his own.

The best producers will get you digging in the crates trying to figure out what they used to get a particular little piece of sound. There have been countless times I have been with Terence or Shawn or Jay and hear something on the radio. Our ears will perk up, and we'll be like, "Who used that?" If I can't figure it out right away, it will eat at me ... and eat at me ... and eat at me ... until I figure it out.

Anyway, I recently came across this article listing out what the author thinks are the 8 most over-used samples in hip hop. Before I read the article, I tried my guess at what I thought would be on the list. I only got James Brown's Funky President right. I thought that Apache would be on the list and am REALLY surprised that it's not.

What do you guys think?