Jake One by egotripland.com
Coming
straight outta the Pacific Northwest repping Seattle, Washington, esteemed
producer Jake One is a true hip-hop rarity: one of the few beatsmiths who can
claim contributions to albums by mainstream megastars like 50 Cent and Snoop,
yet still enjoys no shortage of props from purists. (Those unfamiliar with
dude’s super sonic talents may wanna peep his various collabs with Freeway, or
his own acclaimed White Van Music
LP from a couple years back.) Recently, we caught up with the new dad between production
sessions and stroller cruises (can White Mini Van Music
be far behind?) to ask him what his ten favorite sample flips are. Much like
his own diverse output his picks run the gamut.
READ & HEAR JAKE’S LIST AFTER THE JUMP…
1. Jay-Z – “Never Change” (Roc-A-Fella, 2001)
JAKE ONE: Coming from
the record collecting/D.I.T.C./we-must-have-the-rarest-records-era, when you
think about sampling David Ruffin it’s like [unimpressed],
oh yeah, David Ruffin that’s cool. But then you heard the Jay-Z song, and it’s
just the shit. I think I had the David Ruffin record at the time this came out.
It’s not the craziest chop, but what Kanye did was exactly what needed to be
done with that record. That’s kind of what he does in general. He’s not gonna
wow you with technique, but he’s got the perfect feel for how to put the shit
together. It’s definitely not a loop because I don’t think there’s any one part
that just plays all the way through. He might use two bars at one point, and
then he takes another one bar later in the song, and then he puts the little
vocal sample in there every once in a while. I don’t know, to me that shit is
fuckin’ great. Some people just have a knack for it. I think he’s underrated in
that aspect. When you’re dope you can make something really filthy out of like
three sounds. He’s one of those guys. He’ll just literally have a drum loop he
chopped up and a sample and that’s the beat.
2. Madvillain “Fancy Clown” (Stones Throw, 2004)
JAKE ONE: Man, this
Madvillain record was one of those I had the original sample for and I even
made a beat out of it, but it just wasn’t nowhere near as good. [laughs] You know, as a producer when somebody
uses a sample you already touched you just automatically hate on it off the top
for no reason. We all do that. But this shit – I don’t know, it just was so
dope to me I just had to give it up. I felt like, okay, you slaughtered me with
this one. Madlib has this knack for doing the super grungy, lo-fi, sloppy shit.
That beat sounds all fucked up. But that shit is great to me. When I used the
sample I was trying to make it way cleaner and glossier. I probably did that in
the early 2000s at some point. I might have even had that dumb-ass triangle
sweep sound that the Triton had. I was trying to make it sound like it might
have been on The Blueprint.
It was cool. But it was not dope like that shit.
3. Kurupt “We Can Freak It” (Antra, 1998)
JAKE ONE: It’s actually
an interpolation Battlecat did. It’s one of those songs that’s always been a
big song West Coast wise, it’s kinda like a classic. I always liked the song
and when I randomly stumbled upon the Raydio thing I was kinda like, wow, that
was really clever how he did that shit. Battlecat’s one of the best dudes ever
at replaying shit and maintaining his own sound. It’s like he’s doing a cover
version of it but it sounds like his shit no matter what he’s re-doing. He
totally maintains the integrity and feel of that kind of music. And that shit
is a lot harder than people think it is – to do replays and put your own spin on
it and make it yours. He’s definitely one of my favorite producers. This is
something that people will listen to and be like [dismissively],
oh, that’s a keyboard beat. But it’s rooted in hip-hop and samples. Fuckin’
filthy.
4. Above the Law – “Livin’ Like Hustlers” (Ruthless,
1990)
JAKE ONE: This has the
feel of the N.W.A era/D.O.C.-era Dre. And it’s just one of these sample
collages that’s just fuckin’ the shit. That’s one thing that’s totally been
lost in the 2000s: the idea that you can put ten records together and make it
something different – probably just because to clear that record would cost so
much money to do it that way. But I think it’s way harder than people realize.
He’s got the Quincy Jones thing, which is the main part. Then on the chorus part,
which is my favorite part, he puts in James Brown, and all this random shit.
There’s “Big Beat” in there. And there’s a vocal sample too. It’s just filthy,
man. And it just flows so dope back into the other part. It’s like a flawless
blend. Back then they didn’t have time stretchin’ or none of that shit. So he’s
somehow getting all these things in key. Just basically just doing it 4-track
style on the turntables. The Public Enemy approach, but he brought his own
thing to that style.
5. WC & the MAAD Circle – “You Don’t Work, U Don’t
Eat” (Priority, 1991)
JAKE
ONE: It’s a Parliament song, it’s “More Bounce,” it’s “God
Make Me Funky” – there’s about ten records in this one. It’s another one of
those songs where it’s just the way it’s put together. When I was listening to
songs like this as a kid I didn’t understand anything about samples or breaks
or anything about how they were doing this. I just remember just thinking that
beat was so dope. I like the whole album but this one in particular. The
records from this era have a little bit of everything. They might have a main
loop that drives the song, but there’s always other parts that came into it and
went out. It’s always dope how they used to do that. Like on this song when MC
Eiht comes in they just start scratching in random samples he’s already rapped
over. That’s not happening now. [laughs]
I did some stuff like that on my album and I got sued.
Over dumb shit. Not over even anything that was important. Little dumb shit
like that I put in there I got in trouble for. That shit kills you. I got sued
for like four different things. And it’s all the Internet. You have these
websites – whosampled and the-breaks. And people are just into the music, so
they’re hyped about finding samples. But all these artists have a Google alert
which is leading them to the treasure chest. That’s all people are doing when
you do that on line. At least misspell the name or some shit.
6. Gang Starr “Above the Clouds” (Noo Trybe, 1998)
JAKE ONE: Premier
probably inspired me with chopping more than anybody. I coulda listed so many
of his. I remember when that beat came out I listened to the song over and over
and over. And then when I found the record he sampled, I was just like, man,
this record is so dumb – how did he even just listen to this and find this part
and put it with these drums. I don’t know. He’s just the best ever at that –
taking just some miniscule shit that’s not really great on its own and making
it great. He just has such a sound. To me, that was one thing as a producer
that I always wanted to be able to do was take all these things from different
sources but make it your shit. No matter what Premier sampled it sounded like
Premier. And I think when you get to that point that’s when you get really
good. He was just amazing with that shit.
7. Ghostface Killah – “Be This Way” (Def Jam, 2004)
JAKE
ONE: I think what’s dope about it is Nottz didn’t take that
much of the record, he took the vocals and the strings. But it’s the drums he
put behind it and the bass line. It’s just a hard ass beat, man. Nottz is like
a good friend of mine. So I have all kinds of beats of his. He left me a whole
beat CD of all Curtis Mayfield sampled stuff. And shit will all be dope.
[laughs] So like he just has his formula he does, the way his drums sound and
the bass lines – it’s just amazing, man. He’s the shit.
It’s funny when I started trying to do major label
shit, him and Alchemist were my role models of what I wanted to do. They would
just end up with songs on all these random albums that were big, but they’re
shit didn’t sound like the rest of the albums. They would have the one dope
song on there. They’re doing shit that’s hip-hop but it sounds big without
sounding corny – which is a fine line. There’s big like Puffy with his
triangles. And then there’s Just Blaze big. Nottz, Bink big. So they made a
good career just making those types of cuts, and I was definitely trying to
follow in their footsteps with that.
8. Slum Village “Fall In Love” (Goodvibe, 2000)
JAKE
ONE: Another one of these classic two instrument beats.
They’re both loops. He looped the Iron Butterfly drums, which a bunch of folks
used, and then the Gap Mangione sample. That was a record I had. I think I
sampled the beginning part and never even listened into the song to hear the
best part. But it’s just a great record. And that’s what makes him the shit: he
knew exactly what the right thing to do was depending on what the sample was.
That, and just his constant sense of timing. It just sounded good rocking with
the drums and the loop. A lot of other, more complicated beats of his people
couldn’t even reconstruct them if they tried. But it was all his sound. A lot
of Fantastic Vol. 2 is loops,
but with the drums he put on there, the bass lines, it all just worked.
I was trying to think with him what would be like the
best chop, but I don’t know. There’s so many of his. And with a lot to his
songs the rappers might not be the greatest, but the beats are so dope I just
like ’em anyways. With Slum Village as a whole I just thought they had a great
chemistry over those beats. They might not be good on other people’s beats. But
the way they rapped on his shit was probably better than getting whoever the
super-ass rapper dude was at the time over them. It was just that chemistry.
9. Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth – “For Pete’s Sake”
(Elektra, 1992)
JAKE ONE: Pete Rock is
probably the best to me at putting samples together as far as harmonizing
everything that I’ve ever heard. I don’t even know how many samples he’s got in
there. But they all sound like they’re in key with each other. The main part is
Freddie McCoy. Then there’s an Eddie Harris part in there. He puts the fuckin’
Sly Stone horns in there for no reason. [laughs]
The scratches, everything. And “Substitution” again for the drums. How many
times has that been used? But it just works. Like I said, listening to stuff
when I was young I didn’t even know what the fuck he was doing. I was just
like, man, this shit sounds crazy, I like it. You start getting into figuring
out the science behind it and you’re like, that shit is hella hard to do!
10. Freeway “When They Remember” (Roc-A-Fella, 2007)
JAKE ONE: It’s a Gladys Knight sample and it’s really just a loop, but he went in
there and put these live drums behind it that just make the shit sound amazing
to me. It’s one of those where I could listen to that beat all day. It’s a
random album cut. But that tends to be the shit I like the most. Usually like
somebody putting live drums on a sample is not gonna be dope to me. But that
shit is just fuckin’ ridiculous. And I actually talked to Free about the song.
He said the drums that were there first did he didn’t like, really. So Bink
went in there and started playing the drums, and all of the sudden it was the
shit. I wish I’d been able to witness that. That’d have been pretty dope.
Definitely something I wouldn’t have been capable of.
Download Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?g985ye5gqdgbj0f
My faith in hip-hop had been tarnished by the foul-mouthed, women hating, big headed rap stars that turned the genre mostly into a money-making, immoral platform for fools. However, last night saw my love of hip-hop return. Once I heard KRS One ‘whooping’ the sound of the police, I was on my feet dancing on the floor with the students and hip-hop lovers like I had never left the scene. The DJs killed it, big time!
The show began, DME entered the stage. Firstly, I was struck by the attire of the men on stage. They weren’t dressed like the typical rappers. They had on black suits, white shirts and ties, accompanied by the freshest looking white trainers you have ever seen. ‘Quite impressive!’ I thought.
My favourite song was led by Rochelle singing the chorus’s lyrics ‘I Don’t Wanna Break Your Heart’. As a woman hearing men say those words, it oozed their vulnerability, love, understanding, empathy, sincerity and if I was a groupie, the guys may have found a pair of undergarments in their pockets by the end of the night, because of that song.
