The Jacksons, minus Jermaine, who was the first to go solo.  The sound effects are overdone, but it’s a great song and great video.

Ahh, the 80’s. Synth-pop. I miss it.

Real Life – “Send Me An Angel”

Okay, I’m getting a little behind on my schedule. It probably has something to do with the fact that I’ve taken a break from DJ’ing for the moment.
I haven’t given a shoutout to the Beastie Boys yet. Masters of sampling (not Diddy-style looping) and crazy doo-doo rhymes, i.e.:

Long distance from my girl and I’m talking on the cellular
She said that she was sorry and I said yeah the hell you were

Here’s one of their more entertaining songs, possibly one of the best videos in history (besides Sabotage).

I don’t know how I feel about the juxtaposition of MC Hammer and Eazy-E towards the end, but this was an impressive effort at the time of its release. Getting all of those artists together on one track to speak out against the Bloods/Crips violence was just short of being another USA for Africa.

The West Coast All Stars – “We’re All In The Same Gang”

Listen for Ice T’s verse. Digital Underground’s verse is pretty amazing as well.

As a bonus, here they are on the Arsenio Hall Show, which in retrospect was a more interesting and courageous show than any late-night talk shows that I can recall. Arsenio made his guests squirm with some tough questions and didn’t shy away from controversy.

And by the way, that’s Tupac standing in for Shock G as Humpty.

From the excellent Sex Packets LP, Digital Underground. Doowutchyalike.

Not much to say about this one. I like the beat and the bass. And I got sidetracked and didn’t do a post last week, so this is kinda rushed.

Masta Ace – Born to Roll

This song just makes me want to dance. The last time I played it, the people on the dance floor just looked around at each other, a little bewildered. It’s multi-layered, with horns and a good beat, so you can dance to either, which means that all you have to do is move your body and no one will no what you’re actually following.

James Brown. Without him, there would be no Michael Jackson, no Prince. That means that maybe The Beatles would be the biggest influence on modern music and I don’t think that would be as much fun.

Get Up Offa That Thing

The creative art of sampling pieces of music and beats from older songs eventually turned into looping and then what can best be referred to as simply karaoke – rapping over someone else’s music. Puffy was one of the worst perpetrators of this new type of music, but he did manage to do a couple of creative things.

“Cold Rock A Party” brought MC Lyte together with MIssy Elliott – two of the ladies of hip-hop that weren’t about gimmicks or looks, just real music. Diana Ross’ “Upside Down” is a classic from the disco era, so it’s a great background for these two to show their skills.

Dennis Edwards was not in the original lineup of The Temptations, but joined after David Ruffin left the group and started a solo career. (This was after their major Motown years and before they began to retool in the 70’s. Otis Williams was the only original member that continued with the group through the 80’s and until the present day.) Dennis Edwards, like Ruffin, was the lead singer and decided to go on with a solo career of his own. I include him in my study because of his song “Don’t Look Any Further,” an R&B hit from 1984 with Siedah Garrett, who has worked with the King of Pop and Madonna.

The bassline from this song, along with the drums and horns from “Ashley’s Roachclip,” by Chuck Brown and The Soul Searchers, have been a wellspring of hip-hop samples over the last two decades. It stands on its own as a sexy R&B classic, but, along with the Shadows’ “Apache,” it has to be respected for its history as a sampling source. It’s important to know where it all comes from.

Delerium creates some of the most complex, yet harmonious, music that I’ve ever heard. They combine world music, female vocals, chanting, great beats, and electronica in a way that makes you forget that someone actually spent the time to combine it all together because it sounds so natural and fluid.

Euphoria (Firefly) is from their album Karma and features Jacqui Hunt, former lead singer of Single Gun Theory who now has a solo album out.