Mar 152009
A Tribe Called Quest- Bonita Applebaum
From: People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm [Jive, 1990]
R.A.M.P.-
From: Come Into My Knowledge [Blue Thumb, 1977]
The Cannonball Adderly Quintet-
From: The Price You Got to Pay to Be Free [Capitol, 1971]
Little Feat-
From: Dixie Chicken [Warner Bros, 1973]
Rotary Connection-
From: S/T [ Cadet, 1967]
It seems like it has taken me forever and a day to follow up the last Anatomy of a Sample post, but I’m pretty sure that this one is full of joints that’ll keep the heads noddin. Thanks goes out to the rest of the crew at Ear Fuzz, especially Junior and Chuck Da Fonk, for keepin’ it real over the past month.
For those of you who missed out on the emergence of the Native Tongues collective in the late 80’s and early 90’s, it was one of the most exciting periods to ever take place in the canon of hip-hop. The progenitors of this movement included De La Soul, The Jungle Brothers and A Tribe Called Quest, but would eventualy include such stellar talents as Black Sheep, Fu Schnickens, Queen Latifah and Leaders of the New School.
Out of these groups, it was A Tribe Called Quest who would go on to achieve the greatest amount of popularity with such hits as “Can I Kick It,” “Scenario” and “Check the Rhime.” It was, however, a little tune on their debut record People’s Instictive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm that would give these guys the extra push that was needed to gain a much deserved audience. The tune I’m speaking of is “Bonita Applebaum”.
This song definitely had something fresh and exciting about it that grabbed your attention and wouldn’t let go, at least not that easily. I vividly remember where I was when I first heard it, because it stopped me dead in my tracks. In the early 90’s, when television began showing blocks of rap videos, I would often race home from school and immediately flip on BET to check out the latest hip-hop joints. Suddenly this track came on that instantly pulled me in with it’s catchy chorus, slow rhyming style and jazz-inflected samples. “Bonita Applebaum” seemed to usher in a new era of hip-hop, one in which jazz samples and positive lyrics would seemingly overshadow the negativity of gangsta rap. Who knew what the future would hold for hip-hop ?
Today, I am essentially pulling apart the different sections of “Bonita Applebaum” to reveal the sources of beauty that were sampled, manipulated, tweaked and slowed down to deliver the final track that the hip-hop heads know and love.
The opening salvo is taken from two sections of Rotary Connection’s “Memory Band.” The first part that you hear is a vocal part taken from the the eighteen second mark of “Memory Band ,” whereas the second part is actually a sitar sample taken from the fifteen second mark of the same song. The vocal sample sounds like phaser and reverb effects have been applied to it in order to mask the sound of the original song, and the sitar sample sounds like it has been sped up a notch. After repeating this sample montage twice, the main groove of the song kicks in with the drum kick sampled from the first couple seconds of Little Feat’s “Fool Yourself,” but the producers have sped up the tempo and considerably cleaned up the sound of the drums for extra punch. Similarly, they speed up the funky guitar/keyboard sample taken from the first couple seconds of “Daylight” by R.A.M.P, and laid it over the top of the drums to make the song glide.
The sitar sample from “Memory Band” is also interspersed at several intervals throughout the song, providing natural segueways from the verses to the chorus. Finally, at the end of the song there is a gritty spoken-word segment that has been lifted from the thirty-six second mark of Cannonball Adderly’s “Soul Virgo”. Other versions of “Bonita Applebaum” utilize various samples that range from Grace Jones to Carly Simon, but for this segment I wanted to keep the focus on the samples from the original album version of “Bonita Applebaum”.
I leave you with this final thought to ponder:
Where were you when you first heard “Bonita Applebaum,” and how did it change the way you felt about the direction hip-hop was headed into the early 90’s? I hope you enjoyed this episode of Anatomy of a Sample. See you next time…
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Another truly great 'Anatomy of a Sample' post!
I was pleasantly surprised by that Daylight song.
I never heard the ATCQ song before (for some reason, ATCQ largely passed me by when I was younger). I tend to make up for that now
Anyway, that Daylight song was also sampled by Roni Size/DJ Krust on their single "A Touch of Daylight" (1995 Full Cycle Records).
In my younger days, I used to watch a lot of skate videos and in the video 'Rodney Mullen vs. Daewon Song" (1997), apparently 'Daylight' by Roni Size is being played in the final credits. I've never been able to put my hands on a copy of that song (the right mix, that is), but I absolutely love(d) it!
(interestingly, the credits of the skate video are wrong. The song that is played is actually 'Touch' by DJ Krust (from the very same single), yet it samples 'Daylight' by R.A.M.P, generating the confusion I think.)
Thanks for the infos, i linked to this <a target="_blank" href="http://pizzaeveleno.splinder.com/post/20089089/Bonita%27s+Samplebaum">here</a>.
tK
Oh the memories…
The "people's …" was the second LP I ever bought. I was 13 years old. The first LP of mine was De La's 3 feet high and rising. I had only heard "I left my wallet in El Segundo" on yo! MTV Raps Europe with a VJ named Sophie (can't remember surname). However, on the strength of "q-tip from a tribe called quest" appearing on "buddy", I bought the record, no questions asked. I remember putting the (vinyl) LP with my mother present, mistakenly hearing the second side first. Imagine her (rather awkard) reaction when she heard the Cannonball Adderly "sex sex freaks freaks" rant!
As I was young at that age, I wouldn't know how stark was the contrast between the De la or ATCQ music and gangsta rap. But after hearing ATCQ it was over for my music taste: "this ain't rock-n-roll cause the rap is in control!" (q-tip on "footprints").
Of course by now I hear other staff too. However Tribe taught me not to feel awed by anyone (remember the ill "I don't think that is vital/ for me to be your idol" line)at the tender age of 13, so I feel indebted to their music. Thanks for bringing the memories back!
WOW! GREAT BREAKDOWN!
What an inspired post. Truly insightful, Thankyou
This post is amazing! I’ve been looking for months for information about the samples used in this song for a research paper I’m writing. All the info is here! Thank you.