Just in case anyone forgot, the 90s were an incredible decade for hiphop. Over the next while we’re going to dissect 10 hiphop albums released during that period and wax a little about the original tunes that were sampled so beautifully for these seminal classics.  So read on for Part 1 of our ‘Each One Teach One’ series of articles…

Black Sheep debuted in 1991 and was composed of Andres “Dres” Titus and William “Mista Lawnge” McLean. The pair are native New Yorkers but met as teenagers in North Carolina, where both of their families relocated. The group was an affiliate of the Native Tongues, which included the Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. “Flavor of the Month” was their first single and shortly after the group released their first album “A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” which we have tried to deconstruct as best we can here.

Black Sheep gained popularity very quickly, most notably because of their fresh approach to production; the duo were always digging deeper than most to find original sample material and layering great flows (and at times remarkebly lucid lyrics) over the beats they produced.  As with most hiphop groups (and their debut releases) of the time, there’s a curious contradiction throughout this album.  On the one hand you have clever piss-takes of gangsta rap (which was a relatively new form of hiphop at the time), righteous afrocentric viewpoints and a very broad and mature appreciation of music displayed in the sample fodder used to construct the album.  On the other hand you have dick jokes, fuck-you anthems and some of the most overt (and quite frankly hilarious) misogyny ever put down on record.  As Hip-Hop albums go, this one’s perfect.

As the first album to get broken down in our Each One Teach One series what we’re aiming for here is  to turn you on to this great album if you happened to miss it first time round, never heard of it or just plain forgot about it and of course turn you on to the amazing records sampled by Black Sheep when they were making A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing.

The podcast of all the tunes is below so you can download that and listen at your leisure or just hit play on the individual tracks to hear what we’re talking about.

Download the Mix

Black Sheep – Each One Teach One Part 1 by ChoiceCuts

Each One Teach One Playlist

Butt In The Mean Time

Original recording artist: Paul Butterfield
Sample taken from: ‘I Don’t Want To Go’
Appears on: Put It In Your Ear LP
Released by: Bearsville 1975

Paul Butterfield was a Chicago-born blues musician. As a teenager Butterfield started hanging around black blues musicians such as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter and Otis Rush. Butterfield and his college buddy Elvin Bishop soon formed a band with Jerome Arnold and Sam Lay (both members of Howlin’ Wolf’s band). In 1963 the racially-mixed ensemble was a unqiue fixture at the famous venue “Big John’s”, a folk music club in the Old Town district on Chicago’s north side.  Having established himself as a top class harmonica player and blues guitarist he went on to play with various blues groups of the time, most notably The Band (whom he performed with at thir farewall show The Last Waltz).  This album is Paul Butterfield at his best.  The hook sampled on this track is instantly recognisable and indeed the album itself contains plenty of licks and breaks that we’re surprised weren’t pillaged for other cuts on the Black Sheep album.

Strobelite Honey

Original recording artist: Young and Company
Sample taken from: ‘I Like (What You’re Doing To Me)’
Appears on: Single 12″
Released by: Brunswick 1980

Young & Company consisted of three brother and three friends who formed the group in 1979.  The band’s biggest hit was this track “I Like (What You’re Doing To Me)” and again it’s the first 10 seconds of this track that punctuates “Strobelite Honey” with it’s unique sound.  The placement of the sample throughout the song and in key with the various other hooks and drums resulted in Strobelite Honey becoming a favourite cut from the album.  Keep an ear out for the other main sample in this tune taken from S.O.S Band’s hit single “Take Your Time, Do It Right”.  Strobelite Honey is probably the best example of how Black Sheep were able to take two straight up 4 bar loops and stick them together with very little chopping to the original sample to create something new.  Sometimes straight to the point is best.

To Whom It May Concern

Original recording artist: Gary Bartz
Sample taken from: ‘Celestial Blues’
Appears on: Harlem Bush Music LP
Released by: Milestone 1970

Gary Bartz is an incredible musican having played with Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Max Roach and Jackie McLean.  He now teaches at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music when not on the road and is still an active Saxophinist.  With Ron Carter on bass and an infectious Alto Sax playing throughout this song in unison with the vocal this was bound to be sampled at some stage and indeed it’s found it’s way onto many HipHop album’s since A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing.  As far as we know, Black Sheep were the first to sample Celestial Blues on a  major label release.  The sample itself is the perfect backdrop for Black Sheep’s style of rhyming, most notably Mistah Lawnge’s laconic and drawn out style.

Similak Child (Intro sample)

Original recording artist: Jefferson Airplane
Sample taken from: ‘Today’
Appears on: Surrealistic Pillow LP
Released by: RCA 1966

In the context of Similak Child people always seem to mix up  this version of ‘Today’ (the original version) with the classic Tom Scott version off  The Honeysuckle Breeze LP.  Most of you will know Tom Scott’s version as it’s got that insanely good sax break that Pete Rock sampled for They Reminisce Over You off the Mecca and the Soul Brother LP (also released in 1991).  But Black Sheep went to source for the sample for our favourite track off the Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing LP.  Similak Child is the only track where we have mentioned two songs used to construct the track. The juxtoposition of a white 1960s psychrock band with one of America’s most popular black jazz pianists is just too beautiful to ignore.  Jefferson Airplane sets the mood but Ramsey brings the tone. As for the barking dogs at the beggining of Similak Child?  Well, that’s hiphop production at it’s finest…

Similak Child (Main hook)

Original recording artist: Ramsey Lewis
Sample taken from: ‘Les Fleur’
Appears on: Maiden Voyage LP
Released by: Cadet 1968

This track is powerful.  Ramsey’s incredible piano speaks for itself; the strings are ever present but coupled with the soulful-by-the-bowlful vocals you would think there’s very little room to build upon a sample taken from the introduction of the song.  What’s amazing is Jefferson Airplane fits perfectly (see above) – yet another happy co-incidence in the world of sample-based production.   The sequencing of these two tracks together is one of those things you would expect was an accident in the studio, a record played while digging through loops on vinyl while one or the other of the samples we’re discussing here was on loop.  However it happened it works beautifully and both of these songs are just as infectious on their own as when they’re together.

Try Counting Sheep

Original recording artist: Jimi Hendrix
Sample taken from: ‘Got To Have It’
Appears on: Second Time Around LP
Released by: Astan 1979 (German Pressing)

Nothing more needs to be said about Jimi here.  A true master and nobody doubts it.  This is an interesting track though.  Around the time we got our hands on A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing we also got hold of Beastie Boy’s Check Your Head. This was very many years pre-ChoiceCuts and we were  just freshly into our teen years if memory serves.  The first track off Check Your Head and Try Counting Sheep sampled ‘Got To Have It’.  It was hearing two hiphop groups coming out with songs very different to each other but yet built on something entirely the same that began the fascination with sampling and more importantly with what was being sampled.   The realisation that HipHop music was borne of something else and that a legacy and heritage of soul and funk was awaiting discovery just below the surface was the seed that kept us out of pocket and in records.  The story continues…

Flavour Of The Month

Original recording artist: Bubble Gum Machine
Sample taken from: ‘I Wonder’
Appears on: The Bubble Gum Machine LP
Released by: Senate 1967

Psycherock doesn’t come more upfront than this.  This seems to have been a studio project for producer/writer Wes Farrell (credited as such on the back of the record). Released by the Senate label this self-titled 1967 album featured a decent mix of originals along with a rake of popular covers (Beatles, Buffalo Springfield, The Bee Gees etc).  ‘I Wonder’ is definitly the stand-out track on this record and it’s very cleverly sampled for ‘Flavor Of The Month’ which was Black Sheep’s first single.  One of the best cuts off the album, the chorus really comes alive with a very tight sample of horns taken from Herb Alpert’s ‘In a Little Spanish Town’.  Snappy drums, what sounds like a deep low-pass filter on the bassline from ‘I Wonder’ and one of HipHop’s catchiest chorus lines makes Flavor of the Month the perfect debut 12” for Black Sheep.

Le Menage

Original recording artist: Mouth & MacNeal
Sample taken from: ‘A.B.C’
Appears on: Mouth & MacNeal LP
Released by: Decca 1971

Mouth & MacNeal were a pop-duo from the Netherlands.  They enjoyed huge success in the 70s with various hit pop tunes and in 1974 represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest (that right there was the first and last time that competition will be mentioned on this website).  This track was chopped up by Black Sheep to construct the main hook of their La Menage track.  Relying on MacNeal’s sultry vocals pitched up just a notch to emphasise Mistah Lawnge and Dres’ vocals (and perhaps to match guest emcee Q-Tip’s nasal rhyme stlye) along with the orginal sample’s drums brought out by using the intro drum break from Funk Inc.’s ‘God Only Knows’ meant the track had that slow, lazy sound that the lyrical content of the tune demanded.  Listen to the lyrics to get what we mean.  When Slick Rick said on La Di Da Di ‘and on and on and on she kept [on]‘ he didn’t mean it this way…

Black with N.V (No Vision)

Original recording artist: Freddie Hubbard
Sample taken from: ‘Povo’
Appears on: Sky Dive LP
Released by: CTI 1972

Creed Taylor produced some of the best jazz records of the late 60s and 70s under the CTI Records label.  Always emphasising quality of recording and cover art over massaging artist egos some of the cleanest breaks and basslines can be found on CTI records.  Hubbard had a very varied career leading up to his time on CTI but enjoyed his best successes there.  One of our favourite CTI records is Hubbard’s SkyDive and it’s this album that has the incredible Povo track featuring Ron Carter and Billy Cobham.  The bassline of this standout track is the main hook for Black With N.V (No Vision).  Certainly the most thoughtful track on Black Sheep’s debut album it’s also the the most minimalist, consisting mainly of the Povo bassline, the drum break from New Birth’s ‘I Wash My Hands of the Whole Damn Deal’ and not much else.  This minimalism lends itself well to the song though, as a subtle phase in the drums is the only thing that might distract you from what Dres is trying to say.

Pass The 40

Original recording artist: Jimmy McGriff
Sample taken from: ‘Blue Juice’
Appears on: The Worm
Released by: Solid State 1968

Posse cuts.  Nothing beats a good posse cut.  This one is particularly strong featuring Mista Lawnge, Chris Lighty, Dave Gossett (yes, he rocks it), Dres, Moc-Fu and of course Chi-Ali who was about 12 when this track was recorded.  All that’s in this tune is the bassline from Jimmy McGriff’s ‘Blue Juice’ and a subtle guitar lick from Ike Quebec (“Shu Shu”). Most likely this simplicity is deliberate to allow the MC’s their space.  This is a great track on the album, one that showcases the talent of the extended Black Sheep family.  It’s a shame Chi Ali’s path in life led him to violence; he was sent to prison for murder in 2001.  Chi Ali and Shyheim always seemed to be the strongest of the spate of child rappers that appeared during the 90s.

Compiled by Loughlin. Most of these records were found in bargain bins, tacked on record shop walls with $40.00 stickers on the sleeve or on eBay where the post and packaging cost more than the damn record.