Tagged: Guru

A change has came

In 1964, Sam Cooke delivers a message of hope to the Afro-American community, “A Change is Gonna Come”.  Then, the song will be representative of the Civil Rights Movements all over the country to fight against segregation.

A year later, a Soul and R&B singer who goes by the name of Otis Redding releases his third album filled with some great covers like “Satisfaction” from the Rolling Stones, “My Girl” from the Temptations, and so “A Change is Gonna Come” from Sam Cooke.

The two soulmen died in 1964 and 1967. But they left behind them a legacy to every compositors, samplers, song writers, rappers, singers, players. Whatever.

Picture Credit: lastfm

Like Wendy Rene, the song has been sampled and covered uncountable times.

The Otis’ version differs from the original. Why? Isaac Hayes is playing the piano and the Booker T and the MG’s take care of the rest (guitar, bass, drums). What a squad !

Here’s some of the greatest tributes given to the King of Soul. First, push play to this and give your spirit a little happiness.

A Change is Gonna Come

 

In 1993, Guru decided to take the leap and started his solo carreer. He launched a series of album called the Guru’s Jazzmatazz. Well, he wasn’t really solo, DJ Premier was still here to produce him and a wide range of Jazzmen playing for the rapper.

Two years after the first critically-acclaimed opus, he releases the second: The New Reality. And Otis Redding’s sample comes out at the track 4, “Looking Through the Darkness”. The trumpet appears on chorus and the guitar on verses.

Looking Through the Darkness

 

The Wu Tang Clan since its beginning in 1993 has always flooded the Hip-Hop industry with contents due to the solo albums from its members. in 1996, it’s Ghostface Killah’s turn with “Iron Man”.

Just like Guru, he’s circled by his close collaborators: Raekwon and Cappadonna features the whole album, U-God, Inspectah Deck and Masta Killa performs on some tracks while RZA is directing all instrumentals.

Except for one let to True Master. He kept the most dynamic loop of Otis’ song with a nice drums to go with.

This might be my favorite one. High level on beats and rhymes.

Fish

 

A couple of years on, Joell Ortiz and Immortal Technique, still him, insufflated some fresh air to the worldly known song.

“Modern Day Slavery” appears on Joell Ortiz’s album in 2007. The title speaks for itself. This time, the loop used for the beat is very short in length and the voice is high-pitched. The result is touching. On top of that, both MC’s kills their verses shooting bullets of truth via the microphone.

Enjoy.

Modern Day Slavery

 

As usual, last one for the road.

Soul Square, ex-Drum Brothers, is a French DJ group from Nantes, like C2C. Their first disc released in 2010, “Live and Uncut” features a lot of underground American rappers, like Justis for instance who’s dropping verses all along the tracklist.

“Change” contains sample of “A change is gonna come” as well. Otis’ voice is put on the foreground on this one.

Change

“I’m the motherfuckin’ man”

Year 1992. The Maastricht Treaty has just been signed by European countries. Bill Clinton is about to become the new face of America. War is happening in Yugoslavia. We’re the fifth of may, and a couple of days before, riots have burned the city of Los Angeles and its suburbs.

On the other side of the country, Gangstarr, a Brooklyn resident band composed by DJ Premier and Guru, is releasing his third album, “Daily Operation”, after the huge success of “Step in The Arena” in 1991.

In this tensed atmosphere, DJ Premier creates something highly innovative for the Hip-Hop industry.

Picture Credit: mixtapetorrent

He proposes three differents beats for the three differents verses of the track, “I’m the Man”. The song features Lil’ Dap from the underground band Group Home and Jeru the Damaja who’s doing his first steps on the microphone.

Let’s listen to the three main samples. And a fourth one for the drums. And then the full song.

As a starter, Premier, also known as Preemo, picked trumpet’s sound from James Brown’s “White Lightning” which appears in the motion pictures soundtrack Black Caesar. Guru drops first verse on that sound appearing in the first seconds.

James Brown – White Lightning

For the drum part, Preemo went digging in “Uphill peace of mind” from the 70’s rock band the Kid Dynamite.  He uses it for the first and the third verse. Sample appears at 2:59.

Kid Dynamite – Uphill peace of mind (drum sample)

There comes the second verse. To sample, you could also get served from Hip-Hop colleagues. Like Schoolly D for instance, and his song considered as the first gangsta rap track in 1985, “PSK, What Does it Mean?”. Lil Dap from Group Home, an underground band from the early 90’s produced by Preemo, came on rapping to this drum’s loop.

Schoolly D – PSK , What does it mean ?

And finally, the last verse. It belongs to Jeru the Damaja who was beginning his career on this one. He will be produced by DJ premier for his firsts albums as well. As you’ll could hear after listen to the contrabass sample from the great Charles Mingus, Jeru is really damaging the microphone. Sample appears at 0:28.

Charles Mingus – Haitian Fight Song

Here comes the long awaited track. All three rappers are matching on the beats’ tempos. That’s what makes Preemo that good on turntables. He knows how to give to every rapper the perfect sound that goes with their flow.