Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Classic samples: Lonnie Liston Smith to Jay Z

I though maybe today I would share some music, as I dabble a little in producing. I've mainly been using Adobe Audition and learning stuff as I go. About a year back I wrote a rhyme to the original Jay Z- Dead Presidents instrumental. I recently decided to cut up and rearrange the beat a little so it would be different from the original. Unfortunately I couldn't find a higher quality version of the track to use so I just went with the one I had:
The Precedent 2.0 by The Velvet Vulture
I'm a sucker for that plush mid-90's sound. The original Dead Presidents track is so smooth and has those classic 90's hip hop snares and kick drums. Plus like a lot of other instrumentals from the era, it features a sample from an old 70's jazz, soul, or funk record. In this case, the original track is Garden of Peace by Lonnie Liston Smith off the 1979 record Dreams of Tomorrow. One of my friends posted it to their Facebook wall, and it was great to finally hear that classic hip hop sample in it's original context. I find whenever I can trace a song or sample that I really enjoy back to it's roots, it makes me appreciate it so much more. It also opens up new avenues of music and different artists to explore based on the original artist and all the artists who sampled the original track.

I'm out for presidents to represent me: Off the 1996 release Reasonable Doubt

Here is the original track by Lonnie Liston Smith. The piano is really beautiful.

I remember I was first introduced to Jay Z's Dead Presidents by a friend who suggested that it would make an excellent Drum n Bass sample. And lo and behold someone had taken my friend's advice:
Other artists which have sampled Garden of Peace include Dj Krush, Mary Jay Blidge, O.C., Dave Owen, and Dj Deckstream. Its interesting to hear how many different ways this track can be chopped, altered, and manipulated. And although my production skills are novice at best, I find its fun to cut up tracks myself and make my own remixes and beats out of them. There are a bunch of other musical sample connections I wanna make in up-coming posts so keep your eye out if you are into this kind of stuff or have a slight interest. Peace!

31 comments:

  1. Good music man, i'm more of a technopop fan though

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  2. I never new Lonnie Smith was so talented!

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  3. Interesting to see how music has changed

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  4. Jay-Z is just too sick for his own good

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  5. Nice finds, love reasonable doubt great album

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  6. Sounds great! I have my Reasonable Doubt album lying around somewhere.. lol

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  7. love the dead presidents beat/instrumental. i freestyle to it all the time with my friends when were fucked up keep up the good posts!

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  8. you mayve heard about this site, maybe not im not sure? but whosampled.com has a database of ever sample ever used by anyone haha, includng the original sample and the track made with it. enjoy! followed

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  9. not bad, not a fan of the genre myself, personally

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  10. Never really been a fan of stuff like this, but now I love it.

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  11. Awesome post. I love to dig and find truly obscure oddball little records. Pull some crazy samples... and then hear the samples in 10 different releases. Feel like hip hop has completely strip mined music in general! Is there nothing entirely virgin left to sample?

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  12. Good mix of music in this post. Keep em coming!

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  13. Nice one. The original instrumental piano song is enchanting.

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  14. I really like this thrid song you posted. Nice and mellow.

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  15. nowaysj: There is plenty of music out there that hasn't been sampled yet. It's just up to the producer to find it. I just bought a 4 disc compilation of old 60's and 70's Brazilian music than I'm looking forward to playing with.

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  16. Great song. I love sampling, it's such a great art form that's misunderstood by the hip hop haters who ignorantly claim that rappers/producers are just ripping off "real" artists.

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  17. Hope you keep us updated with stuff that you do play with.

    Also, do you have any experience using Fruity Loops Studio? I've tried using it on a mate's laptop, but failed quite spectacularly!

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  18. His old stuff is so much better then his new crap.

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  19. Love the Lonnie piece, kinda reminds me of Spirited Away in some parts.

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  20. I loved your mix! I really miss 90's hip hop, my favorite group was A Tribe Called Quest. Thanks for sharing!!

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  21. I love the Classics. what great things around us.

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  22. The only thing that bothers me about sampling is when people accuse the original band of ripping off the new one. I actually heard someone say the Clash ripped off MIA. What???

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  23. So many people hate on sampling, which is understandable, but I think it all depends on how they use that sample.

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