Anatomy of a Sample Posted by Kevin

Black Sheep: Similak Child From: A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing [Mercury, 1991] Jefferson Airplane: Today From: Surrealistic Pillow [RCA Victor, 1967] Three Dog Night:I Can Hear You Calling From: Naturally [ABC-Dunhill/MCA Records, 1970] Ramsey Lewis: Les Fleur From: Maiden Voyage [Chess, 1968] Mahavishnu Orchestra: You Know, You Know From: The Inner Mounting Flame [Sony, 1971] I've been interested in the art of sampling ever since I heard Afrika Bambaata's Planet Rock and recognized the Kraftwerk sample. Beat-diggers continue to mine the crates for obscure samples that makes the hip-hop heads pay attention. Sometimes they dig for hours and leave empty handed, but the journey is always more important than the destination. Black Sheep, a member of the Native Tongues tribe from the early 90's, perfected the art of crafting obscure samples with head-nodding beats. Even though they were considered to be the "Black Sheep" of the Native Tongues family due to their irreverent lyrics about sex and smoking blunts, Black Sheep managed to keep things light by delivering clever rhymes laced with double entendres. The samples used in Similak Child range from classic rock to jazzy piano licks. In the beginning of the song, there is an entrancing flute and guitar part taken from Jefferson Airplane's "Today" on Surrealistic Pillow. It took me forever to figure this one out, but one day I happened to be listening to "Today" at this record store and I thought it was Black Sheep. However, after the first five seconds when the vocals came in, I realized that Black Sheep had sampled Jefferson Airplane. Twenty seconds into "Similak Child", the pounding breakbeat from the 1:25 point in Three Dog Night's "I Can Hear You Calling" gets the track moving. Then, when the first verse begins on "Similak Child", a sample taken from the 5 second point of Ramsey Lewis's "Les Fleur" colors the track with a funky piano and bass vamp. Finally, at the 1:46 point of "Similak Child", an acoustic guitar and bass is sampled from Mahavishnu Orchestra's "You Know, You Know". It is definitlely more difficult to pinpoint the exact part that was sampled, but I think it was taken from the 14 second point of "You Know, You Know" This concludes the anatomy of a sample for Black Sheep's "Similak Child". I hope you enjoyed this journey into the mind of a DJ.