Ode To The Big Sea

 

Inverse Feat. Substantial - Spark My Soul

Spark My Soul is on the Cunninlynguists recently released album 'Strange Journey Volume One'.

Proper soulful, musical hip hop...

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Goapele - Change It All

More smooth neo soul, this time from Goapele. Her album "Change It All" was released back in 2005 and stands the test of time.

There's a nice collaboration with Dwele on there but my favourite track has to be "Good Love"...

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Kindred Soul - Where would I be

From the album In This Life Together released back in 2005.

This is some really smooth neo soul.

Checkout the track 'Where would I be'...

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Johnnie Taylor - What about my love

Is this the smoothest record ever?

You'll probably recognise the intro as it was sampled by the Shapeshifters for "Lola's Theme" - that makes me cringe I have to say, but you gotta listen to it all the way through to hear a real soul master at work.

Johnnie Taylor was one of the leading artists on the infamous soul label Stax records. He worked with the likes of Booker T & the MG's & Isaac Hayes.

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Dee Edwards - ( I Can ) Deal With That

An amazing rare soul record released back in the 70's. I discovered this via Ubiquity records side shoot 'Luv N' Haight' that released an album called 'Searching for Soul' and let me tell you there are some gems on that album!

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Lack of Afro - Press On

Quite simply 'Press On' is bad man funk.

This track 'Roderigo' will let you know what you're in for on this highly recommended album...

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Erykah Badu - Didn't Cha Know

R.I.P. J Dilla, today is the 3'rd anniversary of his passing.

I had to choose this track for today as I absolutely loved this record and then I discovered that it was J Dilla that produced it.

It's from the Platinum selling album 'Mama's Gun' released back in 2000. It came out as the second single in 2001.

The album was produced by the 'Soulquarians' that comprised of:
Talib Kweli, Common, Mos Def, James Poyser, ?uestlove, D'Angelo, Q-Tip, Bilal, Erykah Badu & a certain J Dilla.

The story of how Dilla & Erykah Badu came to make this track is incredible, I'll quote Erykah:

"I went to Detroit to work with this cat that I heard a few tracks from that drove me crazy. Common took me over there, we went down to the basement, Common left and Dilla and I sat and talked.

He had records wall to wall like it was a public library and he goes, “OK, I want you to look for a record.” I’m looking through these organized, tightly packed crates, and I just pulled out one record and the artist was Tarika Blue. I liked that name. I put on the first track [“Dreamflower”] and I fell in love with the song and I kept playing it over and over again and I said, “I want this.”

He showed me how to loop a small part of the bassline, he was very generous in teaching you and letting you be hands on. Then I left the room and when I came back he had looped some drums to a small sample of the song and I started to write to it. I came up with the "Ooooh, heeeey" melody. I wrote for a few days and then the song came to be. I’d hike down to his house in mittens and a scarf. I just kind of stayed down there and worked until we got the things the way that I liked."

Amazing!

This is the sampled track 'Dreamflower' by Tarika Blue

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A Tribe Called Quest - Find A Way

'Find A Way' was produced by J Dilla and released back in 1998, it's one of my favourite hip hop tunes of all time.

As part of The Ummah collective, comprising of Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, they produced the 4th & 5th albums by A Tribe A Called Quest.

It samples Towa Tei 'Technova'...

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Slum Village - The Look of Love

From the 'Fan-tas-tic Vol.1' album which was recorded in around '97, but not officially released until 8 years later.

The first 40 secs of 'live' recording aren't my favourite but after that it really starts...

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J Dilla - 'Baby' Featuring Madlib & Guilty Simpson

Madlib is one of my favourite artists and I love how they combined for the track 'Baby' from the album 'The Shining'...

Samples The Stylistics 'Maybe It's Love This Time'

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