Converse and Champs Sports have launched a competition featuring Philly-based rising stars of hip-hop Chiddy Bang. The duo has been on our radar for a while due to their fresh takes on contemporary songs, sampling tracks by the likes of MGMT, Ratatat and even Morrissey. This competition is all about inspiring Chiddy Bang’s creativity. To apply, head to this Facebook App and give your best shot at providing inspiration for the group’s next track. Be crazy and creative, because the lucky winner will be sent to NYC to hang out with the duo at the Converse Rubber Tracks studio! There are also daily winners who will each receive $50 Champs gift cards and a copy of Chiddy Bang’s latest CD, ‘Breakfast’. So what are you waiting for? Head over to the competition page now and blow them away with your ideas!

The competition is open to US and Canada residents only. This is a sponsored post courtesy of Converse.

Last Saturday our team took part in a unique event organised by Mixcloud and the Big Chill House in London: the very first Digital Soundclash in the world, pitting 8 of the world’s most exciting music startups against each other in a musical battle. Our tiny team competed against some of the giants of the scene: Shazam, Spotify, Songkick, Deezer, Mixcloud, 22tracks and Bleep. This wasn’t about how many users you have, how much money you’re making or how much venture capital you’ve raised. This was about who can play the best music. And we’ve won!

The format was simple. Teams were randomly selected to go head-to-head against each other and take turns in playing a track each, with 3 tracks per team in each round. The evening’s host, The Last Skeptik, kept the momentum of music flowing, and got the crowd to cheer for each team at the end of the round. Whoever got the loudest cheer was announced as the winner. Our team has prepared some sure-fire ammo on its laptop, helped by suggestions from the WhoSampled community, so we were representing the entire WhoSampled family at large and were determined to do it proud.

The first round was the hardest for us to win. Following Mixcloud’s shock exit after losing to Deezer, we were put up against the Netherlands’ finest export, 22tracks. A serious hip-hop/dancehall battle ensued, in which we’ve dropped ‘Watch Out Now‘ by the Beatnuts, the Rogue Star remix of ’Come Around‘ by Collie Buddz and following 22tracks’s use of one of our secret weapons, ‘Simon Says‘ by Pharoah Monch, we went for Dead Prez‘s anthem ‘Hip-Hop‘. The crowd cheered for both teams and a tie was announced, leading to a tie breaker of one track each. 22tracks played an electronic track and we responded with the garage track to rule them all, ‘Ripgroove‘ by Double 99, and went through to the next round.

Other rounds saw Songkick beating Spotify, and Bleep winning against Shazam. We went against Deezer in round two and decided to move our level of aggressiveness up a notch. We dropped ‘Mama Said Knock You Out‘ by LL Cool J, then the (very) explicit version of 2Pac‘s ‘Hit ‘em Up‘, and eventually ‘Suck My D***‘ by Blowfly. Deezer gracefully accepted defeat and we went through to the final. We’ve watched Songkick beat Bleep and went back to the DJ booth for one last battle.

We had to make the first move and tried to throw Songkick off-course by NOT playing hip-hop. We dropped recent dubstep tune ‘Fire Hive’ by Knife Party, and then the massive ‘Poison Dart‘ by The Bug feat. Warrior Queen. Songkick decided to throw a curveball with Britney Spears‘s ‘Toxic‘ (great sample BTW) but it backfired, and the track saw the first booing of the night. It was ours to win and we dropped one of the most popular tracks on the site in recent weeks, ASAP Rocky‘s ‘Peso‘, to great response. The crowd made its voice heard clearly and awarded us the title!

The (rather ginormous) trophy now proudly resides at the WhoSampled office, until next time…! Big thanks to Mixcloud and the Big Chill House for hosting this fantastic night. And to any music startup out there thinking they can defeat the almighty WhoSampled… bring it on!!!

Our sample spotting competition for the new Perception/Today Records compilation on BBE Records has come to an end. Well done to everyone who got the question correct! To those of you who couldn’t work it out the answer was You & I by Black Ivory, as sampled by Q-Tip and Madlib - just one of many great tracks on this compilation. We’ve had lots of entries to this one but unfortunately there can be only three. Here are the winners, but even if you are unlucky this time, keep on reading because there is a treat for everyone below.

• Tommy Berardocco
• Adolfo Delosrios
• Dave Shepherd

Congrats guys!

Sorry to all of you who weren’t so lucky this time around.  As a consolation surprise, BBE extraordinaires Chris Read and DJ Spinna have recorded two mixes to celebrate the compilation. Check them out below!

By Casey Brown

This week marks the anniversary of both Marvin Gaye’s birth (April 2nd 1939) and sadly also his passing at the age of 44 (April 1st 1984). But in our music at least, it’s like he never left. With some artists there’s just something special about their work, their voice, and their performance that makes them icons. With a tenderness and gravity-defying range, Gaye could charm singing about everything from the bedroom to politics. He was a Motown icon that slowly turned into musical visionary.

Today Gaye’s sonic afterlife still pays tribute to the soul he poured onto records and into our musical history.  I’m not just talking about trendy shout-outs to the name that rhymes with Chardonnay. I’m talking about the musical legacy that keeps finding its way way into our grooves and into our consciousness.  Here are just three of many compelling Marvin samples/references around:

Mos Def – “Modern Marvels”

If Marvin was alive now, wow..
I know the minor world would probably look strange to him
Would he feel like today had a place for him?
Global imprisonment, sickness, indifference
When he said, “Save the babies,” was we listenin?

Mos Def’s 2004 track discusses Gaye’s legacy in a modern context. The commentary, however, is preceded by the track’s psychedelic use of “Flyin’ High (In the Friendly Sky)” as if creating an intergenerational dialog. Lovely, introspective… quite a “collaboration”.

Amy Winehouse – “Tears Dry On Their Own”

The loop behind the famous Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell duet accompanied yet another artist with a tragic tale and a timbre to match it. Only this time it’s not a love duet but a hook-up-break-up anthem. Amy Winehouse sings: “He walks away / The sun goes down / He takes the day but I’m grown / And in your way / In this deep shade / My tears dry on their own”. Tragic, lovely, not to mention catchy.

Monica ft. Rick Ross – “Anything To Find You”

Let’s take it all the way up to 2011 with a new jam. At thirteen seconds in, Monica quotes Gaye’s “You’re All I Need To Get By,” singing “Like the sweet morning dew / I took one look at you / And it was plain to see / You were my destiny”. But this recent track isn’t all Marvin and Monica have in common. Last weekend Monica kicked off the NCAA basketball tournament Final Four semifinal game with her rendition of the national anthem. Twenty-nine years before Gaye shook up America with his free-flowing, Star-Spangled rendition at the NBA All Stars game.

By Casey Brown

Blackalicious is backalicious! Well, half of the ‘90s hip-hop duo, that is. Today (March 27th), Gift of Gab (aka Gabby T) is to release his 3rd solo album, The Next Logical Progression. The sound is deliciously old school and features a rich funk montage. Piano loops abound, as do a Motown chorus, the occasional record scratch and even a spaceship-like pew-pew every now and then. And that’s just the beginning. Perhaps the album is in fact a “natural progression” from Gift of Gab’s work with producer Chief Xcel under the name of Blackalicious. Still dedicated to a splice-and-riff jazz feel, Gift of Gab’s 2012 album is reminiscent of the good old days of sampling. Hailing from the generation that made sampling a fine art, Blackalicious was one of the most creative and prolific groups at the turntables. Check out these three tracks that made waves in sampling history.

Swan Lake
Still one of my favorite sampled tracks, “Swan Lake” marks the hip-hop duo’s first single. Released on SoleSide Records (today Quannum Records) and published by the now legendary Mo’Wax Records in 1994, Xcel and Gift of Gab (Co-produced by fellow Solesides member DJ Shadow) wet the whistle with this smooth sailing number. The backdrop is a patchwork of clips from various covers of “People Make the World Go Round.” Dovetailing with Gift of Gab’s chill flow, the track rings out “true blue homie till the end.” It opens with a raw Cold Crush Brothers sample from ’81, and even interjects a Flava Flav quote into Gift of Gab’s lyrics at 1:19. Listen closely or you just might miss it.

A to G
Unless you have the gift of Gab, the lyrics on “A to G” are a mouthful. An Etude in alliteration, this song is quite possibly the world’s longest vocal exercise — second only to “Alphabet Aerobics,” their track from the same 1999 EP. Through the first part of the song, Gift of Gab spits his flow over a sampled loop of gospel piano/guitar and Jonny Jerkins on drums. But the end of the song is the true tour de force in production. Spliced together are snippets of songs by artists from the Fugees to J.V.C. F.O.R.C.E., each proclaiming the phrase “gift of gab.” Okay, Gabby T. We get it — you’ve got it.

Rock the Spot
The same cut-and-paste sampling rocks on “Rock the Spot,” the 1999 track and exposé on “classic” rap samples. Want to get up on your ‘80s and ‘90s hip-hop? Just check out the samples on this track and you’ll be well on your way. Interspersing Gift of Gab’s lyrics with sampled clips, the end of the track reads like an auditory ransom note. Take a look at some of the lyrics:

“I say we drop it on a [One – (Boogie Down Productions)]
We drop it on a [Two – (Kurtis Blow)]
We comin’ out [Fresh – (Fab 5 Freddy)]
And we do it [For you – (Run-DMC)]
You know the deal with Blackalicious, we don’t play
[From New York, New York – (Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five)]
To [The streets of L.A – (2Pac)]”

From humble university radio beginnings to indie label super crew, Gift Of Gab and the whole Quannum Collective are unmatched over beats and rhymes. Why else would we be bating our breath for The Next Logical Progression?

Our friends over at BBE Records dropped us a promo of a new forthcoming compilation and we just had to share it with you. If you like your grooves served rare and your funk crackly then start licking your lips!

BBE got DJ Spinna to dig deep and compile the very best tracks released on Perception and Today Records. These legendary labels are hard to pin down in terms of genre. They started in the late 60′s with artists that played everything from jazz, funk and disco to poetry, pop and pretty much everything in between, but what they were known for is providing a breeding ground that gave exposure to many artists we all know and love such as The Fatback Band and Joe Thomas. During their time they also put out many records by favorites like Dizzy Gillespie and Astrud Gilberto. Amazingly the labels only ran for 5 years until they closed their doors in 1974 but with such a wealth of great music put out during that time, this compilation is the perfect way to re-open them!

The release comes beautifully packaged with extensive sleeve notes written by renowed DJ and compiler Dean Rudland, and will be accompanied by two 7″ vinyl releases.

Sample Spotting Competition!

BBE have kindly offered us 3 sets of the entire release package. This includes the vinyl LP, CD or download (in the format of the winner’s choice) and both singles (7″ and download) plus the BBE 15th Anniversary mix CD (Mixed by Chris Read) and the Strange Breaks & Mr. Thing double CD mix!

To the task at hand – how to win one?

We have taken a snippet of one of the tracks off the compilation (below). All you need to do is work out which song it is and e-mail us the artist and track name of one song that has sampled it. Easy when you consider the track listing is written at the bottom of this post! When you have an answer just send us the info and a link to the sample page on WhoSampled to competitions@whosampled.com with the header ‘BBE Perception & Today Records Competition‘. You have until midnight GMT on 11th April.

You’re gonna have to listen hard though… we messed with the track to make it a bit more interesting!

So there you have it folks….. Here is the track listing – Get digging!

CD1

1. Dizzy Gillespie – Matrix
2. The Eight Minutes – I Can’t Get No Higher
3. Adam Wade & Johnny Pate – Brother (Title)
4. JJ Barnes – You Owe It To Yourself
5. Debbie Taylor – Too Sad To Tell
6. Joe Thomas – Chitlins & Cuchifritos
7. The Fatback Band – Njia (Nija) Walk
8. Bartel – Naturally Good
9. Madhouse – Get Some Of This
10. Astrud Gilberto – Gingele
11. The Albert – One Life
12. Bobby Rydell – Honey Buns
13. Black Ivory – You And I
14. The Eight Minutes – Take My Love Don’t Set Me Free
15. Wanda Robinson – Instant Replay

CD 2

1. Fatback Brother Bill Curtis – Dance Girl
2. Bartel – Boogie
3. Dizzy Gillespie – Alligator
4. Black Ivory – I Keep Asking You Questions
5. Julius Brockington – Rock Steady
6. Tyrone Washington – Submission
7. Joe Thomas – Every Brother Ain’t A Brother
8. Bartel – You’ve Just Been Bitten
9. Black Ivory – Surrender
10. The Eight Minutes – Find The One Who Loves You
11. Astrud Gilberto – Take It Easy My Brother Charlie
12. James Moody – Heritage Hum
13. J. J. Barnes – Wishful Thinking
14. The Eight Minutes – Looking For A Brand New Game
15. Wanda Robinson – A Possibility (Back Home)

Anyone in the world can enter the competition and no payment is required to enter. The competition will close on midnight GMT on 11th April. Three winners will be randomly selected from the entire pool of entrants. Once the winners are selected we’ll get in touch with them via e-mail to arrange for delivery. Good Luck!

An essential ingredient in her career was the ability to turn existing songs into chart gold. Many of her biggest hits were covers – she injected old songs with new life, making them her own to the extent that it’s easy to think that they are her originals. Her vocal performances, coupled with matching chart-friendly productions, took those songs to the next level, adding depth, soul and meaning in the process. Let’s have a look at some of those greatest moments in her career.

Hold Me (1984) – Cover of Diana Ross (1982)
Whitney’s 1984 debut single was a reinterpretation of a Diana Ross song from two years earlier, delivered as a duet with Teddy Pendergrass. Whitney already shines with a strong, confident performance, and it’s interesting to compare it to Diana Ross’s widely different singing style. The song made it both to Pendergrass’s album ‘Love Language‘ as well as Houston’s debut, ‘Whitney Houston‘.

Saving All My Love for You (1985) – Cover of  Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. (1978)
Whitney’s first US #1 and one of the major contributors to her early success was this cover of Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr.‘s ballad from 1978. Here, Whitney showcases the formula that made her into the incredible success she was: transforming existing songs that are underpinned by strong songwriting into huge hits, by delivering hugely confident, breathtaking vocal performances.

The Greatest Love of All (1985) – Cover of George Benson (1977)
Another #1 from her debut album, a song that is now widely associated with Whitney even though it was originally recorded by George Benson in 1977 for the soundtrack of ‘The Greatest‘, a documentary about Muhammad Ali. It was a huge hit (the 3rd biggest in Whitney’s career) yet always seems to generate strongly divided opinions due to its outright self-importance. One of its most well-known spoofs is Eddie Murphy‘s memorable (and often quoted) rendition in the film ‘Coming to America’.

All the Man That I Need (1990) – Cover of Linda Clifford (1981)
Yet another #1, and Whitney’s 4th biggest hit, is this powerful cover of Linda Clifford‘s ‘All the Man I Need‘. The original version of the song didn’t have much impact on the charts, and even the mighty Sister Sledge gave it a shot with little success in 1982, before Whitney took it to the next level on her third album, ‘I’m Your Baby Tonight‘ and nailed yet another definitive classic.

The Star Spangled Banner (1991) – Cover of Francis Scott Key and John Stafford Smith (1814)
Whitney’s iconic performance of the American national anthem at the 1991 Super Bowl was released as a charity single towards the end of the Gulf War, and later on re-released following September 11. These two releases are the only times in history when ‘The Star Spangled Banner‘ appeared in Billboard’s Top 40.

I Will Always Love You (1992) – Cover of Dolly Parton (1974)
By numbers, ‘I Will Always Love You‘ was Houston’s biggest hit. Well, that’s a bit of an understatement – it’s actually the biggest selling single by a female artist in music history. An absolutely huge success, it topped the Billboard chart for an unprecedented 14 weeks and dominated charts worldwide for months. By delivering what is probably her most iconic vocal performance, Whitney turns Dolly Parton‘s somewhat timid country ballad into an empowered anthem.

I’m Every Woman (1992) – Cover of Chaka Khan (1978)
The second smash hit from the soundtrack to ‘The Bodyguard‘ turned Chaka Khan‘s disco classic into a full-on uplifting House anthem. Produced by Narada Michael Walden alongside Robert Clivillés and David Cole of C+C Music Factory, then the hottest name in chart dance music, Whitney’s version worked equally as well on the radio as it did on dancefloors worldwide.

I Believe in You and Me (1996) – Cover of Four Tops (1982)
The lead single from Whitney’s soundtrack to the film ‘The Preacher’s Wife‘ was a US Top 5 hit and landed her with yet another Grammy nomination. It’s a powerful rendition of a forgotten single released by the Four Tops in 1982, delivered in a style not too dissimilar to that of the rising star of the day, Mariah Carey.

When You Believe (1998) – Cover of Michelle Pfeiffer and Sally Dworsky (1998)
And it was with Mariah that Whitney recorded her last huge cover song. Well, it’s not a cover in the classic sense of the word, but ‘When You Believe‘ was originally performed by Michelle Pfeiffer and Sally Dworsky in the film ‘The Prince of Egypt‘ itself, while Mariah and Whitney’s version was a re-recording that spearheaded the soundtrack to the film as well as its end credits. While the song’s chart success was relatively modest, it added another important accolade to Houston’s collection: an academy award for best original song.

‘Bongo Rock’ by Michael Viner‘s Incredible Bongo Band is a truly seminal album in sampling culture. It started life as studio project initiated by Viner, then MGM’s head of music, to record a soundtrack for an obscure horror film. It then evolved into an instrumental album of cover versions, that was released in 1973 and didn’t get much attention. However, it did get the attention of the early Hip-Hop pioneers of the mid-70′s, notably DJ Kool Herc, who adopted it for its infectious tribal grooves and lush orchestral production. The track that got all of the attention was ‘Apache‘, a cover of the Shadows with an epic drum break. It had such a massive impact at parties that Herc calls it ‘the national anthem of Hip-Hop’. ‘Apache’ went on to become one of the most sampled records of all time, from its early central role in Hip-Hop to helping to spawn new genres such as Jungle / Drum & Bass. Over the years, producers have started to pick up on other great tracks from that album, making sure every bongo hit gets the attention it deserves.

Fast forward to 2012, we were incredibly excited to learn that one of our favorite contemporary musicians, the multi-talented Shawn Lee, is reworking the entire ‘Bongo Rock’ album… in Bollywood style! Lee, who has already impressed and entertained us in the past with the brilliant Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra, where he reworks chart hits and even Classical music in an old school Funk style, has this time formed ‘Shawn Lee’s Incredible Tabla Band‘ and made another crazy, soulful, brilliantly executed gem.

The album was released last week on Ubiquity Records and the label was kind enough to offer the WhoSampled community 5 copies to win! Even better still, winners will be able to choose the format they’d like the album in – vinyl, CD or digital. To enter the competition, just tweet a link to your favorite Shawn Lee / Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra / Shawn Lee’s Incredible Tabla Band cover on the site. Make sure you tweet in the following format to make sure we can see your entry:

@whosampled @UbiquityRecords #ShawnLeeComp This is my favorite Shawn Lee cover: [paste WhoSampled link here]

Anyone in the world can enter the competition and no payment is required to enter. The competition will run until the end of the week and close on Friday, January 27th at midnight GMT. Five winners will be randomly selected from the entire pool of entrants. Once the winners are selected we’ll get in touch with them via Twitter to arrange for delivery.

Oh, and to catch up on the best Bollywood samples of all-time, make sure you read our past posts here and here.

To those of you who couldn’t make it to the event in London, we made sure to capture the interview on video, and hereby present the result. 36 minutes of great stories about the music industry from the hardest working people in the business, as well as their views on sampling and today’s music. From talking about Bowie, Serge Gainsbourg, Giorgio Moroder and the Beatles through to Jay-Z, Onyx and Sugarhill Gang, there’s never a dull moment with the lads.

We hope you enjoy watching this as much as we’ve enjoyed hosting it! Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel – there will be more stuff coming soon!

PS we’ve also made this available on Mixcloud for your listening pleasure: http://www.mixcloud.com/whosampled/the-mohawks-interviewed-by-mark-rae-for-whosampledcom/

http://toiletries.wordpress.com/2011/12/18/complete-seasons-beatings/

We all know that sample spotting is for life, not just for Christmas, but seeing as it’s that special time of the year we thought it would be good to do our ‘Twelve Breaks of Christmas’.

1. Milly & Silly’s ‘Getting Down For Xmas’ sampled in Main Source’s ‘Peace Is Not the Word to Play’

A novelty record from the 70s here with a ridiculous open drum intro, pitched down and used in devastating fashion by Large Professor as the intro to side two of Main Source’s classic album ‘Breaking Atoms’.

2. Kurtis Blow’s ‘Christmas Rapping’ sampled in Public Enemy’s ‘Night of the Living Baseheads’

‘Christmas Rapping’ is probably the most sampled Xmas record due to the ‘hold it now – wait, hold it’ intro (the Beastie Boys‘ ‘Hold It Now, Hit It’ springs to mind and there are dozens of other records that have also used it) but PE slyly take a different section for the chorus of ‘Baseheads’, using the ‘T’was the night…’ repeatedly to great effect.

3. Clarence Carter’s ’Back Door Santa’ sampled in Run-DMC’s ‘Christmas in Hollis’

‘Back Door Santa’ is an ace holiday record with a nice hint of sleaze and it’s used to great effect for Run-DMC’s classic breakthrough Christmas hit which was brought to the mainstream by Bruce Willis’s chauffeur in ‘Die Hard’, who got down to this in the basement of the soon to be shot up Nakatomi Building.

Run-DMC need to get extra credit due to being undoubtedly hip-hop’s most festive crew – reference the usage of:

4. Gene Autry’s ‘Frosty the Snowman’ –  not only on ‘Christmas is‘ but also on:

5. The Run helmed (featuring an incredible supporting cast) ‘Santa Baby‘

6. James Pierpont’s ‘Jingle Bells’ sampled in Wu-Tang Clan’s ‘Dashing’

The Wu like Christmas as much as anyone and they show this by interpolating ‘Jingle Bells’ into this track from their ‘Iron Flag’ album. Eggnog is served in the 36 Chambers.

7. Paul McCartney’s ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ sampled in De La Soul’s ‘Simply Havin’’

A very non Christmassy De La record using a sample from a very Christmassy record from a certain ex-Beatle (not sure how they ever cleared this…)

8. Nat King Cole’s ‘The Christmas Song’ sampled in Ras Kass’s ‘Jack Frost’

A traditional Christmas song here from the legendary King Cole given a 90s moody hip-hop rerub by Ras Kass, who doesn’t sound exactly full of Christmas cheer.

9. Thurl Ravenscroft ‘You’re a Mean One, Mr Grinch’ sampled in Busta Rhymes and Jim Carrey’s ‘Grinch 2000′

Another sample from a well-loved TV special, with Busta Rhymes taking the clear money path and joining forces on the rap with the then Hollywood man that could do no wrong, Jim Carrey.

10. Vince Guaraldi Trio’s ‘Christmas is Coming’ sampled in MellowHype feat. Frank Ocean’s Hell

Is ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ the ultimate Xmas TV special? We think so and someone was surely bound to have used the incredible score so here’s our boy Frank Ocean teaming up with MellowHype for great Xmas effect.

11. Procol Harum’s ‘Christmas Camel’ sampled in Planet Asia & Evidence’s ‘Gold Chain Music’

Great use of a Christmas sample on this little heard track from Babu’s Duck Season Vol. 1 mixtape.

12. Doris Day’s ‘Here Comes Santa Claus’ sampled in Ludacris’s ‘Ludacrismas’

Unfortunately Vince Vaughn’s forgettable feel good Yuletide caper ‘Fred Claus’ isn’t on our list of unmissable Christmas movies. Its one silver lining is this Ludacris banger that nicely flips Ms Doris Day.

Seasons Beatings y’all!

Jsquared and Hudson

Check out over 150 more samples of Christmas songs here. Which ones would make your list of 12? Write ‘em down in the comments below!