I remember playing the hell out of the
A. Skillz vs. Beat Vandals mashup a couple of years ago, and only being vaguely conscious of the sample. Didn't give it much thought. It took the fine aural instincts of my friend Mauricio to tie it back to
Lucy Pearl at first, and
Roy Ayers later. As you can see, the song's been many things to many people in the 30 plus years since it was first released: popping up to nod heads with
Brand Nubian; providing credentials for
Mary J. Blige's snoozeworthy
My Life, with production reminscient of Gospel-pop; with the creases ironed out in
Naughty by Nature's libidinal labial lyric, and done the best way, I believe, by
Lucy Pearl, that oft-missed super-group comprised of
the ever-dapper Raphael Saadiq*, Dawn Robinson of
En Vogue, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad of
A Tribe Called Quest.
First, here's the classic title track from the debut album by Oakland's Souls of Mischief, which includes a sample from the song Stratus from fusion drummer Billy Cobham, who kept musical company with Mr. Ayers.
Who knew the
Friday soundtrack would be so popular and strike such a chord well into the 21st century?
Ice Cube? I still get at least a couple of search referrals every day from people looking for an mp3 of
2 Live Crew's
Hoochie Mama that
I posted years ago, so I figured I'd satisfy at least 100 of them until the Yousendit link runs out. Probably familiar with the song, but if not, listen & sing along "Hood Rat, Hood Rat, Hoochie Mama!"
*
He just released a fun video for "Let's Take A Walk" last month.
