Just Be

Well goddamn. I ran into some great music last night that I'm enjoying this morning/afternoon. Thanks to Kevin Nottingham, who does a tremendous amount of work to gather these songs, I am enjoying another complete collection of samples used for a Hip Hop album. This one is Common's Be. Tons of great music on this one - The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, The Chi-Lites, Sam Cooke, Ahmad Jamal...and, of course, I'm getting put on to some new ones too. And as always, I end up appreciating Hip Hop even more when I hear where such an important part of their final production comes from. The artistry that comes out of sampling is just amazing to me.

So, after this, I'm going to have to break out the Be album again for examination. Despite the complaints I have with Common as of late, no one can deny his past classic material (including Electric Circus, in my opinion, so fuck you), and the brilliant, possibly career-defining opus that Be is.

So be like me and head over to KevinNottingham.com to grab the collection of samples for Be. And, before or after, listen to Be itself again and see what you think.