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Help a hip hop junkie find other music (funk, classic disco, jazz, soul mainly)


The Villi Phanatic

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As I've listened to hip hop over the years, I've realized that I like a lot of the original songs used as samples for various rap songs. Some artists and songs to name a few that I've stumbled upon recently include Melvin Bliss - Synthetic Substitution, Syl Johnson - Different Strokes and I Hate I Walked Away, and Dynamic Corvettes - Funky Music Is The Thing.

I'd appreciate any recommendations along the lines of the above artists and these genres of music in general. Just to name a few more artists that I've liked some stuff from that are more well-known, I'll mention james brown of course, roy ayers, and al green.

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As I've listened to hip hop over the years, I've realized that I like a lot of the original songs used as samples for various rap songs. Some artists and songs to name a few that I've stumbled upon recently include Melvin Bliss - Synthetic Substitution, Syl Johnson - Different Strokes and I Hate I Walked Away, and Dynamic Corvettes - Funky Music Is The Thing.

I'd appreciate any recommendations along the lines of the above artists and these genres of music in general. Just to name a few more artists that I've liked some stuff from that are more well-known, I'll mention james brown of course, roy ayers, and al green.

I am mostly familiar with funk, but, off the top of my head, I would recommend Parliament-Funkadelic, "P-Funk" and "Give Up The Funk," as example songs, Jamiroquai (a modern band) has great groves in "Space Cowboy" or "Travelling Without Moving," and maybe an album like Herbie Han****'s "HeadHunter," which is jazz-funk.

If you want to hear some rocking funk with a bad ass slapping bass, check out Fishbone's "Truth and Soul." Fishbone is very ska-influenced, but this album from the 80s has some great drum-bass rhythm and horn sections. (Not all the songs are funky; some are just crazy and heavy.)

I am sure other folks will offer some more "hard core" funk suggestions.

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If you don't want to stray too far from the sound, try some 60's and early 70's B&B, soul and psychedelic funk.

The Soul Children, produced by Isaac Hayes

WAR

Kalyan, the #1 band in Trinidad for 10 years

The Lafayette Afro Rock Band, (considered to be the forrunners of the break beats used in a lot of hip hop etc

Osibisa

The Bill Black Combo, Elvis' bass player

Chi Coltrane

Sly and the Family Stone

Mike Quatro, did some interesting stuff

There was a band called CHASE, named after the main guy, a 4 trumpet main section with a 9 member band. 4 albums and some kick-A progressive jazz.

Then two of my favorites are Magma, a very progressive French band( they will blow your mind) and Van der Graaf Generator. A progressive English band.

Exuma

Barry Goldberg, 2 Jews Blues..top notch stuff there

And if you want to throw in some blues Ladies, Koko Taylor can't be beat

Gospel, Mahalia Jackson...she WILL make you weep.

Les McCann

Taj Mahal

Professor Longhair..aka Henry Rowland

Lightnin' Hopkins

Mississippi Fred McDowell

OK OK That ought to keep you busy for a while. It's all older music and some is hard to find. But this is my hobby. You can pick up Hendrix, The Doors, Beatles, Pink Floyd etc etc anywhere. But what I listen to, you really gotta dig. But the rewards are many.

If you want to go into the Psychedelic sound I can give you more to look for, that is my favorite. If none of this interests you, well now you've heard of bands you might not have ever heard of before.

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This is outside of the sounds you've mentioned, but you may want to check out Soul Coughing. It's very jazzy (been called "slacker-jazz") with some damn good sampling and beats mixed in, along with some standard rock and hip-hop fare. They're not around anymore, but their 3 albums are phenomenal.

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Wysknz and others, thanks for the suggestions.

I am mostly familiar with funk, but, off the top of my head, I would recommend Parliament-Funkadelic, "P-Funk" and "Give Up The Funk," as example songs, Jamiroquai (a modern band) has great groves in "Space Cowboy" or "Travelling Without Moving," and maybe an album like Herbie Han****'s "HeadHunter," which is jazz-funk.

I know P-Funk and Herbie Han**** and have heard of Jamiroquai. Fishbone I'm not familiar with, I'll have to check them out.

Are you at all familiar with trip-hop? That genre primarily blends hip-hop and jazz/lounge. A few records of note:

Massive Attack - Mezzanine

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing

Tricky - Maxinquaye

Portishead - Dummy

Yeah, I know trip-hop and all the artists you mentioned except for massive attack. Trip hop is hit or miss to me but I do like some of it, probably Portishead moreso than the others.

Edit: I'm digging a couple songs off Entroducing that I'm checking out now. I heard about the album years ago but I guess it fell through the cracks so to speak and I forgot about it.

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Pick up stuff with Ron Carter in it. Amazing jazz bassist. One of the best ever.

Ah, I know Ron Carter. "My man Ron Carter is on the bass" - from Tribe on low end theory.

Generally speaking, I like jazz influences in music more than straight jazz itself. I used to listen to some regular jazz like Sonny Rollins but often find it too boring.

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I'm still checking out the suggestions in this thread but I figured I'd bump to see if anyone else has recommendations.

And here are a few songs people might like that I came across while checking out artists mentioned in this thread:

Osibisa -

The Lafayette Afro Rock Band - The darkest light

DJ Shadow - Midnight in a perfect world

Willie Hutch -

Willie Hutch - Vampin

Janice Mari Johnson -

Jazzanova - I can see

Shock - Let's get crackin

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Some I'd suggest you check out:

The Pockets

Cannonball Adderly

Charles Mingus

Oddisee

Panacea (Hip-Hop group, but not too many know of them)

Jamie Cullum

Regina Spektor (sorta folk rockish, but she's an awesome pianist, with a very haunting voice, and a quirky singing style that works together great)

Feist (everyone knows her from the iPod commercial with that 1234 song. But I picked up her 2 albums, and while she falls into a folk/pop categorization she's got really diverse and good music)

Nelly Furtado's first album. Before Timberland and Justin Timberlake got to her, she had a very diverse range as well. Her first album has a good mixture of hip-hop, spoken word, and indie rockish tunes.

Daft Punk

Badly Drawn Boy

Eric Dolphy

Nine Inch Nails

The Mars Volta (one of my favorite bands. they have a very wild sound, and you may not be able to get into them, but it's a fusion of latin, suite form jazz, progressive rock and funk sounds)

I know you specified the genres, but a lot of the artists I mention while not all are directly listed in the genres mentioned, they have certain quilities that are influenced by those music-types.

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