Welcome to Monday Morning Mixtape, a PoYB Contributor-curated playlist of songs, made just for you on the first Monday of each month.
A mixtape, not a playlist. Don't call it a playlist. Even though I do all the time. Accidentally.
"'What Did You Do to Beyoncé?' 'What did Beyoncé do to the Chi-Lites?!'"
Songs that heavily sample other songs, AND the sampled song itself
chosen by Gloria
"Crazy in Love" by Beyoncé ft. Jay-Z
from Dangerously in Love, 2003
"Are You My Woman? (Tell Me So)" by the Chi-Lites
"Are You My Woman? (Tell Me So)" by the Chi-Lites
from I Like Your Lovin' (Do You Like Mine?), 1970
The name of this mixtape is an inside joke for two people who have never read, and probably never will read, this blog. The week before my wedding, I realized the band we hired wouldn't have enough playing time for the entire event. So I made a playlist, and it was all like Motown/R&B. Then I gave my cousin access, who's very much a sorority-girl personality, and she added American pop. Then I gave access to my spouse's cousin, and she added Punjabi pop. It was a great playlist. I honestly don't think that a wedding DJ would have done a better job, because we had people dancing the whole night. Both of these songs made it on the playlist, and neither of the other two playlist contributors had any idea who the Chi-Lites were, but they both loved Beyoncé. —Gloria
"Let Me Clear My Throat" by DJ Kool
from Let Me Clear My Throat, 1996
"Hollywood Swinging" by Kool & the Gang
from Wild and Peaceful, 1973
"The 900 Number" by the 45 King
from The 900 Number EP, 1992
"Unwind Yourself" by Marva Whitney
from It's My Thing, 1969
I used to think that sampling was lesser art, but in my adult life, I've been fully converted. I love it. I love the way that sampling can tell its own story, and that you can trace a sound's history through the various ways it was used. There was a soul singer in the '60s, and she hired someone to play saxophone on one of her songs, and a dude in the '90s took that sax part and made a whole hip hop instrumental, and then later on that decade a dude in Philly took that sax sample, combined it with the intro to a song from a funk band in the '70s, and used them to rap over and hype up a crowd in Philly, in a warehouse club that I used to bike past the remains of in the 2010s, and that song in that warehouse was recorded, and played, over and over, in so many firehalls and block parties. You listen to "Let Me Clear My Throat" and you hear the ghost of Marva Whitney and the 45 King and Kool & the Gang and DJ Kool and the Delaware Ave. of classic Philly and the Shelbourne Street summers of my youth, all at the same time, thanks to those samples. —Joe
I used to think that sampling was lesser art, but in my adult life, I've been fully converted. I love it. I love the way that sampling can tell its own story, and that you can trace a sound's history through the various ways it was used. There was a soul singer in the '60s, and she hired someone to play saxophone on one of her songs, and a dude in the '90s took that sax part and made a whole hip hop instrumental, and then later on that decade a dude in Philly took that sax sample, combined it with the intro to a song from a funk band in the '70s, and used them to rap over and hype up a crowd in Philly, in a warehouse club that I used to bike past the remains of in the 2010s, and that song in that warehouse was recorded, and played, over and over, in so many firehalls and block parties. You listen to "Let Me Clear My Throat" and you hear the ghost of Marva Whitney and the 45 King and Kool & the Gang and DJ Kool and the Delaware Ave. of classic Philly and the Shelbourne Street summers of my youth, all at the same time, thanks to those samples. —Joe
"Bad Things" by mgk and Camila Cabello
from Bloom, 2016
"Out of My Head" by Fastball
from All the Pain Money Can Buy, 1998
I first heard this song (both of them) on the radio. A few years ago, senior PoYB writer Sam pointed out that songs today were sampling songs that were big during our adolescence, referring to the Cabello section in particular. That insight has stuck with me. mgk is an artist that's, like, okay the first time you hear any particular single of his, but then each listen thereafter has rapid, rapid deteriorating value. Even though this isn't a sample or a cover exactly, all you're thinking about is fastball. —Sunny
"Rill Rill" by Sleigh Bells
from Treats, 2010
"Can You Get to That" by Funkadelic
from Maggot Brain, 1971
This is the song pairing from my submission where I like each song and artist featured equally. Treats came out when I was in undergrad. Still, the album cover, with its cheerleader pyramid, makes me feel nostalgic for the start of the year in high school and being at every single football game because of marching band (and also not watching a single one of those games). I don't remember this at all, it wasn't an outstanding memory to me, but my sister says that when I came home from the first football game, I told her and my mom, "It was great! But I must not have been paying attention because I looked up and the scoreboard said that we had six points. I missed them getting the first five." And like, I 100% believe this story because I just had to Google how many points a touchdown was worth—I couldn't remember if it was four or six. So clearly the next four years of school did nothing to increase my knowledge of the most boring game in existence. —Gloria
"Fantasy" by Mariah Carey
from Daydream, 1995
"Big Energy" by Latto
from 777, 2022
"Genius of Love" by Tom Tom Club
from Tom Tom Club, 1981
"What are you going to do when you get out of jail? I'm gonna have some fun!" I'm watching Orange Is the New Black for the first time. Does Piper get better? Does she get any redeeming character development? She's easily the most dislikable character. Everyone else seems to have saving traits but her. I don't know. I just started Season 4, if that helps give context. I also know that I'm like thirteen years too late to be starting this series. —Gloria
ADDENDUM RE: "BIG ENERGY" — I'm at the gym and the guy next to me is playing this on his phone's speaker, which is kind of annoying, but it seems like kismet for this mxitape, so I guess I need to add it now. —Gloria
"Maple Leaves" by Jens Lekman
from Oh You're So Silent Jens, 2005
"Do You Wanna Dance" by the Mamas and the Papas
from If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, 1966
If you're listening on Spotify, you're gonna get the newer version of this Lekman jam, which includes the violin part lifted from the Mamas/Papas song, but not a direct sample. If you're on YouTube, you'll hear the sample. There are multiple versions of this song. The version that I know and love is from the compilation album Oh You're So Silent Jens, which I received for Christmas one year in high school, and remains one of my favorites ("Black Cab" can be found there as well). But there were "too many clearance issues" by the time we as a society moved to streaming services, and that album and the next one lingered in limbo for a long time, to the point that Jens would be playing something like "Maple Leaves" in concert and younger fans would be like "oh shit, I liked that new song you played!" So what he did was rerecord those two albums, fixing any of those pesky legalities, and so now they exist in altered form on Spotify et al. But I have an iPod, and I still have the old versions, and YouTube occasionally lets fan uploads slip through the cracks, and so here we are. Switch over to YouTube if you wanna hear a vastly superior version of this great Jens Lekman song. —Joe
If you're listening on Spotify, you're gonna get the newer version of this Lekman jam, which includes the violin part lifted from the Mamas/Papas song, but not a direct sample. If you're on YouTube, you'll hear the sample. There are multiple versions of this song. The version that I know and love is from the compilation album Oh You're So Silent Jens, which I received for Christmas one year in high school, and remains one of my favorites ("Black Cab" can be found there as well). But there were "too many clearance issues" by the time we as a society moved to streaming services, and that album and the next one lingered in limbo for a long time, to the point that Jens would be playing something like "Maple Leaves" in concert and younger fans would be like "oh shit, I liked that new song you played!" So what he did was rerecord those two albums, fixing any of those pesky legalities, and so now they exist in altered form on Spotify et al. But I have an iPod, and I still have the old versions, and YouTube occasionally lets fan uploads slip through the cracks, and so here we are. Switch over to YouTube if you wanna hear a vastly superior version of this great Jens Lekman song. —Joe
"Lady (Hear Me Tonight)" by Modjo
from Modjo, 2001
"Soup for One" by Chic
from Soup for One (soundtrack), 1982
I sing this song every time I make soup. Even if I am making soup for more than one person. I am making šaltibarščiai today, which I feel like I talked about on the blog before, but it is like a cold borscht. It's made with beets, sour cream, cucumbers, and dill. You can even have it with a hard-boiled egg or a potato if you want something more special. It's great, and was a summer favorite when I was growing up. —Gloria
"My Name Is" by Eminem
from The Slim Shady LP, 1999
"I Got The..." by Labi Siffre
from Remember My Song, 1975
Kelsey and I were driving somewhere the other week and her phone had control over the Spotify (i.e. we weren't listening to whatever RC was for the week). This came on, and she said "Do you recognize this song?", and I said "no," and then around two minutes I say, "oh, they're sampling rapper songwriter Eminem?" to which she replies "this song is from 1975." That really shook the snowglobe of my brain. —Sunny
"Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" by Daft Punk
from Discovery, 2001
"Cola Bottle Baby" by Edwin Birdsong
from Edwin Birdsong, 1979
Apparently, Daft Punk found "Cola Bottle Baby" while digging through bins of vinyl records, and it just popped out. There's something more romantic about that than stumbling across a sample in some kind of digital archive. I think vinyl sampling is such a cool, hands-on creative process, one that really lets you rework and physically reshape sound. But maybe that's just me; I tend to gravitate toward analog over digital in general. —Gloria
"Big Poppa" by the Notorious B.I.G.
from Ready to Die, 1994
"Between the Sheets" by the Isley Brothers
from Between the Sheets, 1983
Man, I thought that I was done writing things for this mixtape, but I went to two very different bars on two different days this weekend, and this Biggie song played both times. That seems like too much of a coincidence not to include it on this mixtape. —Gloria
"Niños de Infiernos (Hell Boys)" by Charles Hamilton
from It's Charles Hamilton, 2008
"Straight to Hell" by the Clash
from Combat Rock, 1982
A Year of Blind Spots will be covering Combat Rock in a couple days, but in the meantime, you get to hear "Straight to Hell," a pretty decent song from that album, and before it, the ONLY song that has ever sampled "Straight to Hell." I don't know Charles Hamilton all that well. He's a favorite on RYM, that's where I recognize him from, and I've heard some of his stuff based on recommendations from that site. The song is fine too, probably just fine and okay in the same way "Straight to Hell" is just fine and okay. Charles Hamilton, as far as I know, is not a wacko antivaxxer or pals with Alex Jones, so I'm cool with saying that "Niños de Infiernos (Hell Boys)" is the only song that I know of that samples "Straight to Hell" by the Clash. —Joe
A Year of Blind Spots will be covering Combat Rock in a couple days, but in the meantime, you get to hear "Straight to Hell," a pretty decent song from that album, and before it, the ONLY song that has ever sampled "Straight to Hell." I don't know Charles Hamilton all that well. He's a favorite on RYM, that's where I recognize him from, and I've heard some of his stuff based on recommendations from that site. The song is fine too, probably just fine and okay in the same way "Straight to Hell" is just fine and okay. Charles Hamilton, as far as I know, is not a wacko antivaxxer or pals with Alex Jones, so I'm cool with saying that "Niños de Infiernos (Hell Boys)" is the only song that I know of that samples "Straight to Hell" by the Clash. —Joe
"Change in Speak" by De La Soul
from 3 Feet High and Rising, 1989
"Bra" by Cymande
from Cymande, 1972
There are multiple stages with a lot of overlapping sets at Newport Jazz Fest. Last year, I left Cymande's set when they were playing "Bra" toward the end to catch De La Soul, and when I got to the other stage, they were playing this song that sampled it! It was surreal. And I think a big part of this mixtape, for me, is how fun it is to explore the different influences and inspiration artists take from each other and build on one another. Inspiration is everywhere. —Gloria
NEXT MONTH: TBA for the next MMM on Monday, October 5th!
3 comments:
Real fun shit. Happy labor day yall
Yeah, that was an interesting one! Just finishing up now. I wonder if it would've been better or worse to have the sampled song lead. It was funny sometimes because it felt like a song was repeating and then it became a completely different song. I liked it.
This is a fun playlist!! Thanks for humoring me, lol. Really cool to see the different influences— especially the 4 song one
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