this is old news, but it involves one of my favorite samples used in rap music: AL KOOPER'S "love theme from 'the landlord'"... here's a snippet of it following a jay-z song that used it.
the JAY song is "soon you'll understand" - produced by JUST BLAZE. you can see a video of it that features no video, just song, below:
it's a banger, but i like what THE ALCHEMIST did with it more. his version is "hold you down" and features PRODIGY (of MOBB DEEP) and NINA SKY. THE ALCHEMIST managed to chop AL KOOPER's lyrics in way to make the loop say "hold you down" - shit is bad. here's footage of THE ALCHEMIST and PRODIGY making the beat and writing the lyrics (thanks for the tip mr. g wiz... PAUSE).
finally, here's the video for the completed "hold you down" - unfortunately the concept of the video makes the song seem even cornier than it already is. WHATEVER, duke. the best part of the video is at 2:31. shop til you drop!
for all the people i work for, blow the four four for...
it's always real funny to write a rap. i say this because usually when i start writing a real heavy rap, the only thing i have to work with is like 50 nonsense one or two liners (or barz, what have you). BUT. i gotta start somewhere. so, i go to my blackbook that i write in everyday and i look for the hottest shit chicken scratched in the margins. the idea is to come up with a whole rap jam out of one or two lines or fragments of thoughts. or at least get an idea for something bigger. many times i'll pick a bunch of these little 5-7 worders and be like, 'i def wanna use these in the same hot 16, let's make it happen.' and then i sit and think about it...
welcome to my secret rhyme craft- something that i should work on a lot more than i do (which is maybe once or twice a month unless something weird happens and i write the words to like 2 whole bangers in a week). idears come in spurts, that's just how i do. so, the process is real slow. here's an example:
up until a couple days ago i hadn't even attempted to write some shit in a long time. so i was like, 'BET. let's look at the blackbook.'
the first page i turned to had the title of this blog entry scrawled at the bottom. 'throw yr baby glocks up' is the very end of the chorus of this pretty garbage jay-z song, "where you at?" featuring eve (when she was still xl) and amil. 'where my ladies in this place, who hold they (buddie's) space, when they locked up, throw yr baby glocks up,' is how it goes.
'throw yr baby glocks up' is a pretty exciting thing to say so i figured i'd work off that. also on that page, i had written "beast of burden." i saw that and i was like wtf. this immediately brought to mind bucks with tiny guns. so here's my rap:
trumpet the beast and burden it brings with the hooveclop beat that keeps the dream grinding parlay asleep, i bathe in goldleaf and slowdriftthru murk in a sea of godskeet idiot maw, let the spittle drip fall and mimick the gimmick before i adhere to cat calls blowin cancer-cause, blood of a bull in bottle strollin side of rotten water, scrutinizing business models we're in the land of dutches and Dutchmen and some women grin red from a Jericho intention walk like a duck as the 'j' displayed but i'm blitzed with a fix for the guts to be grazed mind hazed, phased, i watched as birds flew not a sickness, but a scattering of wings toward blue
this is how rap works. two more goddambarz and i'll have a verse.
** don't get it fucked up-the 'j' i'mreferring to is NOT short for "joint" (you know, weed). it is referencing the rap god KURIOUS JORGE, who had the hit, "walk like a duck" in '94. "you spell it with a JAAAAY, and not with a GEEEE." get it get it.
