them that made me love h.e.r

 

 

 

This is how I'm going to tackle the fact that music sucks. I'm going to bring you some of the most prolific, provocative, and most importantly beautiful music we as lovers of the art have encountered. I need to start somewhere that I will admit I may have overlooked. I must start with jazz. The backdrop to any hip-hop worth listening to started with James Brown/Funk and jazz. Bob James is a catalyst for hip-hop and the landscape his music provided.

OK fuck that. I'm going to back this post up and clarify the deeper meaning behind this post. True hip-hop heads are some of the most serious, bougie music listeners who don't get the credit they deserve for their ear and taste. I just mentioned jazz and funk were the inspirations behind some of if not all classic hip-hop that is sorely missed today. Dudes sampling Bob James and a host of others first had to know where to go to find these samples. Trust me kids back in the day these cats released vinyl with maybe a good 4 or 5 songs clocking in at 9 minutes with no problem. You MUST have appreciation and a serious ear to take apart these songs and know just where to break up the music.

Bob James had many groundbreaking albums during the 70s but 3 stand out among them for hip-hop heads. Simplistic in title but complex in musicality One, Two, and Three have served and been done proud. Nautilus from the One album has been sampled well over 60 known times. I'm only going to give you the tip of the iceberg because we'd be here all day. Slick Rick's Children's Story, Ghostface's Daytona 500, and Run-DMC's Beats to The Rhyme (now stay with me folks because one of the most recognized samples is coming with the DMC).

Did I mention and not that it matters, but Bob James is one of the funkiest white dudes to ever do it. The multitude of musicians who played on these 3 offerings was down from the first record to the last, talk about loyalty, camaraderie, and respect. Everyone from Grover Washington Jr to Earl Klugh has collaborated and they've done joint ventures. Remember those 2 names because they will be revisited.

Now what you've all been waiting for. The heaviest and to me most representative of Bob's work is the sample from Run-DMC with Peter Piper, OMG the bells are INSANE. The sample comes from James's Take Me To Mardi Gras of the Two album. When I listen to the original it amazes me that this man could come up with something so funky and melodic and it wasn't even the main focus of the song. Then you fast-forward to the 80s and Run and DMC straight ripped the beat. Nasty.

Lovelies I gotta break these posts up because I could talk all day long and night about music. There is so much I've discovered and so much more to the point where it literally never ends. It scares me to know I've only uncovered a chunk of the music available around the world. I'm in a 70s period of all types of music. I could honestly hit you with some Patti Smith or Chaka right now but I'm not going to do it.

On a side note I've just figured out the main focus of this blog. Music history, its influence, the decline, and the one are filling it with hope again.

God Bless us ALL.