MARLEY MARL/CRAIG G VS. ATCQ: WHO FLIPPED IT BETTER


Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band: What Can You Bring Me?
From You’re So Beautiful (Warner Brothers, 1971)

Craig G: Take the Bait
From Now, That’s More Like It (Atlantic, 1991)

A Tribe Called Quest: Rock Rock Ya’ll
From The Love Movement (Jive, 1998)

(Dec. 2011: This is another repost/resurrection. First posted in 2007 but original comments were lost. Since I just wrote about this Wright/Watts 103rd song for the Oxford American, it also seemed totally apropos to bring it back. –O.W.)

Original post from ’07: The original song [...]

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KMD vs. Eric. B and Rakim: Who Flipped It Better?


Bobbi Humphrey: Blacks and Blues
From Blacks and Blues (Blue Note, 1974)

KMD: Plumskinzz
From 12″ (B-side of “Nitty Gritty”) (Elektra, 1991)1

Eric B. and Rakim: Keep the Beat
From Don’t Sweat the Technique (MCA, 1992)

(This was originally posted four years ago but because of how my commenting system has changed since then, I lost all the original comments about it and that seemed like a shame. As it was, I was listening to “Plumskinz” again – I never can get enough of this song – and I figured, “hell, why [...]

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PING PONGING


I finally got around to catching up on my blog reading and noticed that Super Sonido recently wrote up Mon Rivera’s “Lluvia Con Nieve.” This salsa classic was introduced to me by Murphy’s Law and I consider it one of my Top 3 go-to, never-fail salsa cuts to get an audience moving (Willie Colon holds down the other two with his “La Murga De Panama” and “Che Che Cole”). “Lluvia Con Nieve” fits right between those two – more aggressive and forceful than “Che Che Cole” though, for my money, nothing can ace the horn opening to [...]

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RZA VS. BINK: WHO FLIPPED IT BETTER?


Gladys Knight: Try to Remember/The Way We Were
From I Feel a Song (Buddah, 1974). Also on The Essential Collection.

Wu-Tang Clan: Can It Be It Was All So Simple?
From Enter the Wu-Tang (Loud, 1993)

Freeway: When We Remember
From Free At Last (Roc-A-Fella, 2007)

Yeah, I know it’s been a minute since the last “Who Flipped It” segment. This one came to mind the other week when I was chatting about this Gladys Knight song with my wife and I thought about both the Wu and Freeway songs that use Knight’s vocals so effectively. But [...]

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CUT CHEMIST VS. CUT CHEMIST: WHICH FLIP IS BETTER?

Pleasure Web: Music Man Pts. 1 and 2
From 7″ (Eastbound, 1973). Also on Super Breaks 3

Jurassic 5: Jayou
From Jurassic 5 EP (Interscope, 1997)

Jurassic 5: Concrete and Clay
From Quality Control (Interscope, 2000)

Similar to the last “Which flip is better?” post, this one features a single producer who has used the same sample source twice for two different songs.

The source here is one of the more obscure 45s on Eastbound: “Music Man Pt. 1 and 2″ by Pleasure Web. Personally, [...]

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Taking On Nautilus: Who Flipped It Best?


Bob James: Nautilus
From One (CTI, 1974)

Lord Shafiyq: My Mic Is On Fire
From 12″ (NUWR, 1987)

Main Source: Live At the BBQ
From Breaking Atoms (Wild Pitch, 1991)

Ghostface Killah: Daytona 500
From Ironman (Epic, 1996)

I had the idea for this post for quite a bit, ever since I remembered reading an interview with Bob James where he was asked what he thought about different samplings of his music. RZA’s flip on “Nautlius” for “Daytona 500″ drew high praise, especially because RZA transposed the sample into a different key, giving it a more sinister [...]

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Ski vs. Dr. Dre: Who Flipped It Better?


Labi Siffre: I Got The (Blues)
From Remember My Song (EMI, 1975)

Jay-Z: Streets Is Watching
From In My Lifetime (Roc-a-Fella, 1997)

Eminem: My Name Is…
From The Slim Shady LP (Interscope, 1999)

About time we got these two producers in the mix…and with an intriguing contrast of a shared sample. The Labi Siffre track has been used multiple times but most tend to flip the front part of the song – that dramatic portion that Ski uses for Jay-Z’s beat. It’s easy to see what the attraction to that would be. But it was Dr. Dre, [...]

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Pete Rock vs. Kanye West: Who Flipped It Better


Don Covay and the Jefferson Lemon Blues Band: If There’s a Will, There’s a Way
From Different Strokes for Different Folks (Janus, 1970). Also on Funky Yo Yo.

Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth: Lots of Lovin’ (remix)
From 12″ (Elektra, 1993)

Common: Southside
From Finding Forever (Geffen, 2007)

When I first heard the “Southside” during a listening session, my automatic thought was, “ah, ‘Ye is flipping that old Pete Rock beat.” Well…not exactly – there are some similarities, especially in how both songs use the same guitar/piano loop but while Pete Rock sticks with that sample, West [...]

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