It’s a weird feeling when someone samples a band you really love.
Sometimes you want to applaud the fact they’ve given an old classic a new twist and new lease of life. Sometimes you feel ambivalent – it’s a lazy treatment or otherwise underwhelming.
And sometimes you hate how sloppily they’ve treated it, feel massively protective of the original, and want to singlehandedly alter history so the criminals involved never had the opportunity to get that freakin’ CD into their sweaty hands in the first freakin’ place.
Just me?
I’ve been through this mix of emotions a few times with Steely Dan samples. Like De La Soul’s Eye Know (sampled Peg; not too shabby, never one of my favourite Dan songs anyway), All Saints’ I Know Where It’s At (sampled The Fez; controversally still my favourite All Saints record), and Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz’ Deja Vu (Uptown Baby) (sampled Black Cow; very lazy steal but I still love it to bits).
All of which is a very long-winded way of getting to this point: I just discovered that J Dilla once made a track sampling 10CC.
J Dilla. 10CC.
That – speaking personally – is like finding out that one of your favourite chefs once made your favourite dish with some of your favourite ingredients… and, to your surprise, it’s suddenly right in front of you, steaming hot and ready to eat.
If you’ve never experienced Dilla‘s work (and I’d hardly claim to be an expert myself) he was – before his tragic death at 32 – one producer whose work had a unique ability to straddle the often incompatible worlds of credible hip-hop and artsiness.
I can think of others who’ve occupied similar positions over the years (Coldcut, Dangermouse, DJ Shadow) but none who reached the level of respect within hip-hop that Dilla commanded.
Here’s his 10CC source material: 1974′s The Worst Band In The World.
And this is Dilla’s rendition, Workinonit, with visuals by Cassette King.
I love. I love very much.
