The ’90s Loved The ’80s: #FAIL

I gotta say… sampling got a lil’ out of control in the late-’90s. Not that sampling is a bad thing, but many artists/producers thought they could get away with damn near anything if it was a hit the first time around. Previous hits being recycled to make new ones became a huge trend, but it wasn’t for everybody. In a few cases, them shits shoulda never even been cleared. Take for instance, these five situations here. I don’t know about y’all, but in my humble opinion, any one of these would make a great case for why strict sampling laws should be enforced. Wow.

The 90s Loved… The 90s?

Some of y’all are familiar with my “The ’90s Loved The ’80s” series, right? Well, as fate would have it, the ’90s occasionally sampled some other joints from the ’90s as well. It mostly went on during the later half, although not as much as the rampant ’80s-jacking that went on. As I might’ve said once before, ’90s music still hasn’t been sampled as much as stuff from the previous decades, mostly because they were so busy sampling theirdamnselves during the ’90s. This entry is prime evidence of that, because there was so much sampling that some of the joints that didn’t contain samples… got sampled.

Confused? You won’t be, after this edition of… “The ’90s Loved The ’90s”. (Shoutout to whoever gets that reference)

The ’90s Loved The ’80s: ZAPP

About a month or so ago, I happened to be on Youtube and came across an episode of TVOne‘s Unsung, the documentary show about R&B artists of the ’70s and ’80s whose stories have rarely been told. This particular episode featured Zapp, the ’80s funk group headed by Roger Troutman. In addition to noting that my iPod was lacking a lot of their music that I liked, I also had to put them down for a future “90s Loved The 80s” entry, considering how much of their music was sampled during the ’90s.

The 90s Loved The 80s: (More) Punk Smooth Sh*t

Some of you early, early DLT90s readers might recall the first time I covered this, but I’m a superfan of them smooth ’80s R&B joints. I zone with those when I’m in coolout mode and whatnot. For that same reason, I also rock with a lot of the hip-hop tracks that sampled them during the ’90s. Truth  be told, when a newer song samples one I used to like, there’s a 75/25 chance I’m automatically gonna like it. While that’s not always the case, it helps a lot. So this brings us to today’s entry, with four more tracks from the ’90s that I hold in such esteem, which borrowed heavily from four from the ’80s that I like just as much.

The ’90s (And Mariah) Loved The ’80s

So… today, Mariah Carey hits the big 4-0. Even though she tends to come off like the  old broad who thinks she’s still cool, and I’ve always been “blah” about most of her music, MC is aiiight with me. Matter fact, I’d wife her up if I was sure she didn’t have a drinking problem and she wasn’t wild’n out with Nick Cannon. She’s also a big ’80s R&B fan, as can be gathered by how many classic joints she’s revisited over the course of her career. There’s also that awful Glitter movie she made, but that’s neither here nor there. Here’s a few of her remixes from the late-’90s and the tracks they borrowed from.

(Oh, and don’t y’all go judgin’ me about seein’ Glitter– my niece used to fukk with that movie hard.)

The ’90s Loved The ’80s: “White People Music”

Growing up in the ’80s, once I got hooked to music, I started listening to everything. I listened to both the R&B and pop stations, watched any video show I could find on TV, the whole shit. Much to the surprise of my friends around my way, I liked a lot of what was often referred to as “white people music”. At the time, I hadn’t looked at or listened to it that way- it was all just music to me. The only real difference I knew was that there were “singin’ songs” and “rappin’ songs”. I could rock with this just as much as I did this with no problem. Unfortunately for me, I got clowned more than a lil’ bit about that shit.

Apparently, a lot of rappers and producers must have felt the same way. Along with the fact that some white artists used to be played on urban stations, some of these people seemed to have grown up equally exposed to “white people music” from the MTV era. From Method Man referencing a Hall & Oates hook to (of course) Puffy‘s use of The Police’s “Every Breath You Take”, lots of pop hits have been sampled/flipped/interpolated/etc. in the hip-hop world. It especially started happening more frequently in the last couple years of the ’90s, which brings us to today’s entry.

The 2000s Loved The ’90s!

Ah, yes… as I noted in my first “The 90s Loved The 80s” entry, there hasn’t been as much lifting of ’90s hits by the artists of this decade. Part of that, obviously, is due to how much those artists themselves were sampling from older music. But, there were a few quality remakes and whatnot that took place in the 2000s. Some of them were hot, like Carl Thomas & Faith Evans singing over The Firm‘s “Phone Tap“. Others were eehhh, like Fabolous & Tamia recycling “So Into You“. But here are five that stood out the most to me over the last ten years…

The ’90s Loved The ’80s: Between The Sheets

The Isley Brothers have had lots of their songs sampled and interpolated, especially “For The Love Of You”, “Choosey Lover”, and “Footsteps In The Dark”. But if there’s one Isleys song that’s put the most food on the table for them and others, it’s “Between The Sheets”. Mr. Biggs n’nem have caked off crazily from the song that put them back on the map in the ’80s. Lemme start from the beginnin’, at the top of the (abridged) list.

The ’90s Loved The ’80s: Jam & Lewis

Not too many artists or producers can say they were part of Prince‘s entourage, got fired, and went on to do better things in their careers. Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis are two of the very few. After being ousted from The Time in ’83, they went on about their business and ended up being one of the greatest production teams in R&B & Pop music. They’re largely credited with popularizing the use of the 808 (which is still used by producers today), and they’re also notable for changing the sound of ’80s R&B not once, but twice during their run.

Even if you don’t recognize their names, either you or your moms loves something they did. Whether it’s New Edition‘s “If It Isn’t Love”, Mary J. Blige‘s “Everything”, Human League‘s “Human”, Cherrelle‘s “Saturday Love”, Jordan Knight‘s “Give It To You”, or damn near all of Janet Jackson‘s hits- you’ve heard a Jam & Lewis track before. As fate would have it, so did a lot of hip-hop artists and producers. Despite having to cough up a GRIP to use the samples, a lot of ’em just couldn’t help themselves. Here’s a few:

Bone Thugs N Harmony “Dayz Of Our Livez” (1996) sampled Force MD’s “Tender Love” (1985) AND Herb Alpert feat. Janet Jackson & Lisa Keith “Making Love In The Rain” (1987): I don’t know if this was some kinda “two for the price of one” deal or they just said “fukkit, what’s another $12,000?” but BTNH and their producer DJ U-Neek went mega-hard and sampled TWO of (in my opinion) Jam & Lewis’ best. The result was one of the best and most loved songs in the Thugs’ own catalog, so all was not lost.

The Firm “Hardcore” (1997) sampled Cheryl Lynn “Encore” (1984): If there was ever an album that looked good on paper, but was “blah” in stereo… but that’s a story for another day. Here, one of ’84’s most memorable gets lifted for one of ’97’s most forgettable, as Nas & Foxy Brown trade verses over Cheryl Lynn’s Jam & Lewis-produced hit. Meanwhile, AZ and Nature twiddle their thumbs, wondering why this Firm album is turnin’ out to be so half-assed.

Camp Lo “Coolie High” (1995) sampled Janet Jackson “Funny How Time Flies” (1986): Camp Lo, enthusiasts of all things ’70s, still took time out of their days to listen to some ’80s music. Case in point: Janet Jackson’s Control album, the one that made it happen for her. Producer Ski aspires to make it happen for the Lo by sampling the album’s closer, “Funny How Time Flies”. I still don’t really know what this song is about, but hell if it ain’t somethin’ kinda slick anyway.

Maxwell “Ascension (Remix)” (1996) sampled S.O.S. Band “No One’s Gonna Love You” (1984): Back in ’96, I thought I was diggin’ Maxwell’s “Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder)” already… but I hadn’t heard shit yet. With the late J Dilla on the track, Max remixes it with a sample of one of my favorite Jam & Lewis productions, “No One’s Gonna Love You”. Actually, “No One’s…” had been used a few times prior (Foxy, Spice 1, Dru Down, etc.), but this was really the only song that did it justice.

NEXT MONTH: I know I said this last time, right… but next time, The ’90s Loved The ’80s will cover all the “Between The Sheets” madness of the early-’90s.

-D!

The ’90s Loved The ’80s: Never Come Wack On An Ol’ School Track

The same way hip-hop has gratuitously borrowed from every other genre of music imaginable, R&B eventually began borrowing from hip-hop (which, in some cases, was really just borrowing their shit back). It started with New Jack Swing in the late-’80s, then continued with the Hip-Hop Soul era around ’92-’93. By the time we got to the late ’90s, every other R&B artist out there was singing over tracks that had been big on the rap scene in the ’80s.

Hence this entry, “The ’90s Loved The ’80s: Never Come Wack On An Old School Track”. There were many more instances than these five of course; nonetheless, I’m goin’ innnnn…

Montell Jordan “This Is How We Do It” (1995) sampled Slick Rick “Children’s Story” (1988): In ’88, Slick Rick was the newest star on the Def Jam label and scored a classic with his debut album, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick. By early ’95, Def Jam was in a slight slump and Rick was locked up. As Rick’s third album Behind Bars was bricking like crazy, one of his great records from seven years prior helped create a new star on Def Jam- Montell Jordan. Montell’s Rick-esque rap inflections were all kinds of corny, but he def. pulled a hit out of the bag.  “Gotta get your groove on!”

Allure feat. Nas “Head Over Heels” (1996) sampled MC Shan “The Bridge” (1986): One usually doesn’t think of hip-hop music from the Queensbridge Houses of Queens, New York and get reminded of Mariah Carey‘s short-lived Crave label. But in ’96, she was putting her chips on a girl group named Allure. Their lead single (with Queens’ own Nas on the assist) lifted “The Bridge”, a classic by MC Shan- a song which is not only one of the most recognizable old school hip-hop beats, but also unintentionally started a feud known as The Bridge Wars.

Total feat. Da Brat “No One Else” (1996) sampled Boogie Down Productions “South Bronx” (1986): Speaking of the Bridge Wars… “South Bronx” was the song that set it off, with KRS-One goin’ at Shan in response to “The Bridge”. 10 years after that feud got kicked off, Bad Boy Records was in one of its own with Death Row Records. In the midst of all that, Puffy & co. continued making hits- one of them being this one by Total.

Christion “Midnight X-ta-C” (1997) sampled Beastie Boys “Paul Revere” (1986): For anything good to be said about Roc-A-Fella Records… that label in no way/shape/form EVER had a strength in managing R&B artists. At least Christion got an album out, though (and a good one at that). “Midnight X-ta-C” is probably best known as the song that plays while two strippers dyke it out on Streets Is Watching, but it’s also notable for using a Beastie Boys classic from their Licensed To Ill album. “Paul Revere”, with its unique reverse-beat, is one of the Beasties’ most revered (yeah, pun intended) from Licensed.

Shai feat. Jay-Z “I Don’t Wanna Be Alone (Remix)” (1996) sampled Biz Markie “Nobody Beats The Biz” (1987): ’96 was an epic year in both hip-hop and R&B. It represented new sounds/styles/artists coming in, while others were going out, and they all kinda met up in the course of that year. Take this song for example- Shai had run their course for the most part, while Jay was still “new” on the scene and building his profile. This remix is produced by Marley Marl, who also did Biz’s theme song from ’87.

NEXT MONTH: “The ’90s Loved The ’80s” asks just how many times and ways the Isley Brothers‘ classic “Between The Sheets” could be used to create a hot song between ’90 and ’95. Possibly more than you think.

-D!