When I first started getting into Sade (see these posts for some of that history), one of the most common comments I’ve gotten from people about her is “Oh yeah, my mom really likes her.” It’s funny that she’s such a big hit with the white moms around me, but also with some of my favorite rappers too. I heard this new track from a Bay Area cat named Droop-E that makes a pretty obvious Sade reference, and it reminded me of this older Z-Ro song that I think does an even better job of reinterpreting it.
The other day I posted this Sade song in relation to an MF Doom song, and as kind of an afterthought pointed out this one instrumental break in the Sade song that I felt like could make a cool beat maybe, and then the craziest thing happened.
My old, old buddy Zach, who was (no pun intended) instrumental in getting me into rap in the first place, and getting me into music in general actually now that I think about it, posted a comment on that post that was like “yeah that part got me goin too” with this link, and I was like “hmm” so I clicked it, and he’d somehow acquired that Sade track, sampled it, and worked it out into a full four-minute beat in the span of like 36 hours from me posting that original song. I mean by now I should be used to being amazed by the musicality of that dude, it’s happened since I first knew him when we were in fuckin middle school, but that shit just blew me away, so I figured the least I could do was shed a little more light on it since I know not everybody digs into the comments section of every single post. But maybe now you will since you see what kind of wonderful gems can turn up!
Zach Miller – Fresh Victim
Fuckin’ A dude. Thanks for your continued inspiration.
I’d heard her name for years, and I’d been meaning to listen to her music for so long, but I kept putting it off. Then, after reading the interview I wrote about in this post, I finally decided to make it a priority, and I picked up her album Promise at Guestroom Records a week or two ago. I quickly discovered I’d been putting her off for WAY too long, and I’m excited about exploring the rest of her treasures.
Aside from her music just being cool as hell though, there was a little bonus on the first track that made me smile real big.
Sade – Is It A Crime
Now maybe you smiled for a different reason, that’d be very understandable, there’s a lot to smile about in that song. But this is what got me.
MF Doom – Kon Karne
I love how he adapts that “wider than Victoria Lake / taller than the Empire State” line from the Sade song into a few different variants at the beginning of each verse. I also feel like the little break that happens at 4:43 in that Sade song would make a pretty cool beat – I’m lookin at you Metal Face, I know you’re reading this right now.
I really like it when a magazine or something sets up an interview, but instead of sending out an interviewer, they just get some other person involved in the stuff the person being interviewed is to interview them. Did that make sense?
Example: I just read this interview where Tyler, the Creator interviews Nas for XXL, and it’s really awesome. I feel like I learn way more about the people in interviews like that, they just kinda get comfortable with each other and talk about normal shit and it gives a much more intimate picture of who that person really is. I guess the formal kind of interview is good too for like factual shit, like telling complete stories and stuff. But for getting a little portrait of the person just as a person, I think this format is perfect.
I mean when else are you gonna hear Tyler, the Creator say some shit like this:
Being low-key is awesome…
That doesn’t come out when they’re bein put on the spot by some journalist to defend their whole ideology and aesthetic, you know? I love it.
