This song represents a lot of firsts for Michael Jackson. It was the first single from Off The Wall, and the first recording MJ made that he had complete creative control over. Many of his hits were written by Quincy Jones or Rod Temperton or the guys from Toto, but Michael wrote this one himself. [...]
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Also tagged beyonce, dance, disco, drumming, harmony, hip-hop, jay-z, mase, math, michael jackson, mixolydian, music theory, pop, public enemy, sampling, slick rick, tritones
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I’ve been hearing this line in a lot of hip-hop songs: “One for the treble, two for the time” or “One for the treble, two for the bass” or some variation. I wanted to find out what everybody’s quoting. After some internet detective work, here’s what I’ve got. The phrase is a play on the [...]
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Also tagged aceyalone, brand nubian, common, davy dmx, dj khaled, eighties, elvis presley, grandmaster flash, hip-hop, kurtis blow, memes, mos def, sergio mendes, snoop dogg, spoonie g
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One of the funkiest albums ever recorded is The Clones Of Dr Funkenstein by Parliament. Even if you never listen to it, you’ll get funkier just by looking at the cover. There’s much to love about this album beyond its joyously ridiculous science fiction theme. There are the deft, bebop-flavored horn charts by James Brown’s [...]
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Also tagged bernie worrell, book, eighties, funk, hip-hop, keybs, moog, nice and smooth, parliament, royksopp, sampling, synths, talking heads
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DJ Kool Herc likes to say that The Incredible Bongo Band’s version of “Apache” is the national anthem of hip-hop. Its famous drum and percussion break reliably put bodies on the dance floor through hip-hop’s prehistory and has been sampled untold numbers of times. Here’s the break: [Audio clip: view full post to listen] On [...]
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Also tagged apache, book, breakdancing, copyright, dance, dna, double dee and steinski, drum n bass, drumming, evolution, funk, goldie, grandmaster flash, hip-hop, history, kool herc, mashups, memes, missy elliot, nas, pop, questlove, roots, sampling
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Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Today the Michael Jackson fan art I have on my mind (and on the ipod) is “Please Don’t Stop The Music,” sung by Rihanna and produced by a couple of Norwegian guys. It includes a sample of MJ singing “Wanna Be Startin’ Something.” The sample includes both his quasi-Swahili chant and his unearthly woo-hoo. It [...]
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Also tagged beatboxing, book, dance, eighties, fan art, funk, improvisation, manu dibango, memes, michael jackson, pop, recursion, remixes, rihanna, sampling, songwriting, soul, soul makossa
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The most-sampled album in history is probably James Brown’s compilation In The Jungle Groove. It includes the original “Funky Drummer Parts One And Two” along with a sampling-friendly remix. It also includes some other much-loved funk tracks. None of them have been sampled as heavily as “Funky Drummer” but there are some contenders. The compilation [...]
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Also tagged book, drumming, evolution, funk, funky drummer, james brown, lil mama, michael jackson, music, percussion, primates, queen, remixes, rhythm, rnb, sampling, sixties, soul, steven mithen, stone age
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My friend Leo told me that he always faces a conflict when shopping for jazz records. He wants to show love for working musicians by buying their newer recordings, but then, he could always just pick up another Miles Davis album and know it’s going to be ridiculously good. Probably my favorite Miles album out [...]
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Also tagged audio editing, book, funk, improvisation, jazz, miles davis, music, music theory, recording, recursion, remixes, sixties, tape editing
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Say “oooh” as in “noodle.” Then say “aaah” as in “park.” When you say “oooh” your mouth is more closed, with less resonating space and a smaller opening. This configuration blocks the higher overtones of your voice. When you say “aaah” your jaw and lips open, creating more resonating space and letting more high overtones [...]
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Also tagged book, electronica, envelope filter, funk, guitar, harmonics, jimi hendrix, keybs, metal, overtones, physics, physiology, pop, resonance, rock, sixties, soul, speech, wah pedal
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