Four years ago the legendary Ol’ Dirty Bastard otherwise known as ODB passed away. At the time I found out of ODB’s passing, I wasn’t nearly as big a fan of Wu-Tang as I am now, and I only knew Ol’ Dirty from his hit “Got Your Money.” Back then, his antics and his persona outweighed his abilities as an MC for me. Well, turns out I was wrong. I’ve really been getting into his material recently, and the man was a genius.
According to Method Man at the end of the track “Can It All Be So Simple” on the Wu’s 36 Chambers album, Ol’ Dirty Bastard got his name “’cause there ain’t no father to his style.” And there is no truer statement. His half-sung half-rapped unpredictable and sometimes humorous style is one of a kind, and I don’t think there is any MC that could even touch Ol’ Dirty in terms of originality, creativity, and style.
Check this song out. It’s testament to the man’s skill.
Yes. It’s true. We are constantly breathing life back into the lungs of this blog. But hey, what are you gonna do. See Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Story of My Life
This week’s edition of Saturday Morning Samples is on “Buck 50″ by the great Ghostface Killah, which I have been listening to religiously for the past several weeks. I had a few Ghostface albums that I picked up back in the day, but I was missing the critically acclaimed “Supreme Clientele” album. I decided I needed it, and the rest is history.
Supreme Clientele Album Cover
Although there are a ton of standout tracks on the album, “Buck 50″ immediately caught my attention. Ghost is joined on the track by Method Man, Redman, and Cappadonna. They’re all stellar MC’s it’s a fact, but what really got my attention was the soul based beat that goes from a pretty hard hitting verse to a really nice soul hook for the chorus. Good shit.
I immediately went to look for the sample/samples that could be making up this beat. I was pretty convinced that the different parts of the song had been pulled from various sources, being that they were so different. Turns out I was wrong. It’s pretty amazing how you can chop up one song and scrap it for it’s different parts and come up with a nice full beat from one song.
The sample used in “Buck 50″ comes from “Hard Times,” a song by soul legend Baby Huey. After hearing “Hard Times” a few times via internet, I went and purchased Baby Huey’s one and only album “The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend.” Again, another great purchase by yours truly.
The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend Album Cover
Baby Huey has a pretty interesting story, that’s worth reading about. The singer tragically died of a heart attack at the age of 26, but his influence on hip-hop music was an important and lasting one.
So that’s it from me. I still owe you guys another Saturday Morning Samples for skipping last weekend. I have an idea in mind for that one, so it should be coming up later in the week. Below you can find “Buck 50″ and “Hard Times.” Enjoy. And if you like them, I suggest getting both albums. They’re pretty great.
As you’ve seen throughout my feature, samples from existing musical compositions are often taken and reworked into a new song or beat. This is not always the case however, as any type of sound can be sampled, and serve as the basis for a song, or even an entire album.
Movies and music have an important relationship with each other, as music plays a crucial role in creating memorable scenes and providing ambiance in films, and movies influence music with themes and ideas, and often provide inspiration for songs.
It is no secret that the Wu-Tang Clan is heavily influenced by Kung fu, martial arts, and samurai films, even taking their name from the classic “Shaolin and Wu Tang.” The influence of these films on their style can be heard in numerous dialogue samples scattered throughout their group and solo albums, and has persisted throughout their careers.
"Liquid Swords"
GZA a.k.a. The Genius, one of the founding members of the Wu-Tang Clan, released his second solo album “Liquid Swords” in 1995. The album instantly became a hip-hop classic, and drew heavily on dialogue samples from the classic samurai film “Shogun Assassin.” The samples serve as a leitmotif for the album, with the dialogue playing an important role in creating a cohesive feel between songs. Truly a genius way to create and album, it helped solidify its place in hip-hop history.
“Shogun Assassin” is a classic in its own right, having influenced Tarantino’s “Kill Bill.” The movie is even featured in “Kill Bill Volume 2″ towards the end where the main character and her daughter watch part of it. I’ve watched “Shogun Assassin” several times now, and it’s definitely worth a watch.
The eerie synth soundtrack featured in “Shogun Assassin” also adds to the theme of “Liquid Swords,” allowing for very unique production work throughout the album. The following clip is one of the more memorable scenes in the movie, and also provides the opening to the legendary track “4th Chamber.”
The album opener to “Liquid Swords” which shares its name with the album title, features a sample from the opening monologue to the film, which contains the memorable line, “people said his brain was infected by devils.”
This line also made it’s way into Cage’s “Agent Orange,” which prominently features a sample from another classic movie. “Agent Orange” samples the title music from “A Clockwork Orange,” which is cleverly named “Title Music from A Clockwork Orange.” Cage also opens the song with his take on the opening monologue from “A Clockwork Orange” which can be seen below.
Below I have featured “4th Chamber” by the GZA featuring Ghostface, Killah Priest, and RZA, a remake of “4th Chamber” by Jin featuring Chan and LS, “Liquid Swords” by GZA, “Agent Orange” by Cage, and “Title Music from A Clockwork Orange” by Wendy Carlos. Also, check out the sweet fight scene from Shogun Assassin at the bottom. If you haven’t seen “Shogun Assassin” or “A Clockwork Orange” I highly recommended them. And all of these songs below are sick. Enjoy.
11 13th, 2008| 
