ID: Rob Swift of the X-Men
WHERE: Jackson Heights, Queens
COLLECTING SINCE:
Since 12 years old
FAVORITE DIGGIN CITY: San Francisco / Germany
FAVORITE SCORE: Heath Brothers
DOLLAR BIN MIRACLE: I don't have luck like that.

COLLECTION SIZE: a closet +
FAVORITE LABELS:
Impulse, Blue Note, ECM
MAG OF CHOICE: Rap Pages, On the Go
TRACK TO MAKE LOVE TO: Anything by Barry White


TITLE: Wild Style Soundtrack
ARTIST:
V/A
LABEL: Animal 1983

" What can you say man? That was the essence of hip hop. That album is the essence of hip hop. You know? With dj's cutting up beats live and having people rhyme over them. You can listen to that album and imagine people break dancing and things like that. That album basically defines hip hop. "

Very rare in the original.



TITLE: Talk to the People
ARTIST: Les McCann
LABEL: Atlantic 1972


" Les McCann is another great artist. Q-Tip used something on here for the remix of "One Love" and Large Professor used some drums for a song off Akinyele's first album called "Checkmate". There's some really good stuff on that album for sampling: drums, hors and sounds and things. "

The track "North Carolina" is sampled in ATCQ's Date Rape + After Hours, Souls of Mischief "What a Way to Go Out"




TITLE: S/T
ARTIST: Brethren
LABEL: Tiffany Records 1972?

" A whole bunch of people have used this album for it's drums. Some people probably would never know that it's this album. Everybody from Large Professor to Tribe to Lord Finesse. It has these real clean drum breaks, dope snares on there which are very popular among producers. Other than that it's a pretty much straight up country album.
"




TITLE: Just-Ice
ARTIST: Back to the old School
LABEL: Fresh 1986

" That was just a dope album which was produced by Mantronix. He was another dope producer, and I really wonder whatever happened to him. I don't know if he's even doing anything that has to do with hip hop anymore, he's probably doing some other stuff now. His beats were real energetic and creative. "




TITLE: Girl From Martinique
ARTIST: Robin Kenyatta
LABEL:
ECM/Polydor 1973

" This record has some great flutes and basslines that if you had a sampler you could just fuck up. Lots of great things on there for sampling. You could make some crazy beats. I actually used a portion of that on my Ablist album for the song "Nighttime". "




TITLE: Awakening
ARTIST: Ahmad Jamal
LABEL: Impulse 1970

" Pete Rock uses that song for Nas' "The World is Yours". And Ahmad Jamal is just a real dope artist. You could just throw the needle on the album and just listen to the whole thing, it's good all the way through. And as far as sampling, the piano on there is just real clean and creative.
"

Large Professor also got Common Sense's Resurrection piano lick from here.




TITLE: Pretty Things
ARTIST: Lou Donalson
LABEL: Blue Note 1970

The line up is pretty much an all star funk group that includes Leon Spencer, Melvin Sparks, Lonnie Smith, Idris Muhammed, and Blue Mitchell. However, this album is not Lou's best, but it is known primarily for the famous drum sample from the track "Pot Belly." This mellow jazzy drum break was most notably used on ATCQ's "When the Papes Come Remix" and Main Source's "Friendly Game of Baseball."




TITLE: Why Can't We Be Friends
ARTIST: War
LABEL: United Artists


" I got a routine off one of the songs on there called "Heartbeat" (I'm gonna make it real finky for you). The first time I heard that record was on this station called WBAU that was a show that Chuck D from Public Enemy used to have. He and Flavor Flav had a show on there and every Saturday they would cut breaks. That was one of the breaks they used to cut really often and I remember hearing that and thinking "Damn, I wanna cut that record."
"




TITLE: Breaking Atoms
ARTIST: Main Source
LABEL: Wild Pitch


" Classic Hip Hop album. And it was revolutionary because Large Professor really changed the way people were making beats. He was the first producer I know that started filtering basslines, sampling a portion of a record that had vocals and filtering out the bassline and then adding drums to it and making it sound crazy. To a large degree, he influenced me to want to produce. Whenever I think back to that record, I remember wanting to learn how to produce.
"





Mom, I swear I won't look at porn if you get me a computer!
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