Is Hank Crawford familiar to you ? I didn’t know that much about the jazzman before doing some searching.

But what I knew about him is a sample strolling around from MC’s to MC’s since almost twenty years.

“Wildflower” released in 1973 on the album of the same name is for sure a gift made to Hip-Hop producers.

He couldn’t guess his saxophone’s riff and xylophone notes will be sampled over and over but he must have lived a peaceful life due to numerous royalties he’d received till he died in 2009.

Hank Crawford – Wildflower (sample appears at 0:00)

So among tracks which contains Hank Crawford, I picked five and according to name on the list, the former musical director of Ray Charles had a financial secured life.

Same rule as the Stones/Beatles, if Notorious B.I.G is quoted, 2Pac has to be as well.

Incarcerated for sexual abuse in 1994, Tupac Shakur met Suge Knight who offeredhim to pay his bail (1.3 million $. In return, 2Pac had to sign a deal at Death Row Records and release three albums under label’s name.

Pac wanted to fulfill his contract obligations as soon as possible to be free from Death Row hold. Even though, he recorded “All Eyez on Me” in a hurry, the double CD album figures among the greatest of all time.

And because we’re interested in Hank Crawford’s track “Wildflower”, “Shorty Wanna Be a Thug” instrumental is based on it.

He really gave birth to this loop (high-pitched here) which would be covered over and over talking about youngsters acting like gangsters on this one.

 2Pac – Shorty Wanna Be a Thug

 

A year later in 1997, a white kid from Detroit City is releasing his second project after “Infinite” in 1996.

Marshall Mathers aka Eminem just before signing on Dr Dre’s new label Aftermath really launched his carreer with his first EP “Slim Shady EP”.

It contains 10 tracks and one rise above the others: “No One’s Iller” featuring his former friends from the 313. And you surely guessed it, it samples “Wildflower”, but sax is less present leaving space to the ambiant bassline all along the track.

Eminem – No One’s Iller

 

Next on the list, Dynospectrum. Probably never heard of it, but you might know his leader.

Slug from Atmosphere formed what we call a supergroup (really fashionable those days) but an underground one. Major figures from Minneapolis rap scene joined it (Musab, I Self Divine, Ant). The band recorded only one eponym album but what an album.

Ant, co-founder of RhymeSayers Entertainment and DJ-producer for Atmosphere took care of the whole production of the album released in 1998.

“Anything is Everything” is the song we’ll look for. And no need to precise the sample, but notice the heavy snare behind the loop carries it powerfully.

Dynospectrum – Anything is Everything 

 

Here we go again.

Don’t worry, there’s only two left. As a French dude, I try to honour my flag as much as I can through this blog. And MC Solaar will help me with that.

Claude M’Barali (real name) is known as a rap precursor in France. Since his debut in 1990 he has been criticized or acclaimed. But he remained engaged in his lyrics and kept his accurate feather all his carreer long.

In 2001, the Senegal native released “Cinquième As”, which represent from far his best album sells. Thanks to tracks like “Dégats Collatéraux”, MC Solaar achieved to talk to the new generation at the new millenium dawn and created a sort of bridge between the two decades.

“Un peu comme si ici on ne faisait que souffrir
Pire que depuis des décennies y’avait pas eu un sourire
Sais-tu qu’ici qu’un gros salaire est le SMIC
On peut même pas se payer une mort tragique sur le Titanic”

Mc Solaar – Dégats collatéraux

 

OK, last one is Kanye West. I apologize for that, but we got to admit that he sometimes had some genius thought in the past.

Like “Drive Sow” for instance, out his second album “Late Registration” contains of course the Hank Crawford famous sample. Song’s theme is a metaphor of car driving. He gives advice about taking things slow in life, not to rush into stuffs, and be careful about life’s danger.

I chose to put the “Late Orchestration” version of “Drive Slow”, an album full of live records of some of his most famous songs. A sort Best of live.

The music on the footage is played by a orchestra; melody got even better with a dozen of violins players and a DJ set.

Real talk right now uh ?

Kanye West feat Paul Wall & GLC – Drive Slow