Music
Lonnie Liston Smith: A history in 5 hip-hop samples
A look at a jazz legend's far-reaching legacy.
While disco and funk provided the main source for samples throughout hip-hop's formative years, the mid-'90s facilitated an embrace of jazz-based instrumentals – foremost of which were the recordings of Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes.
Related
Jay-Z – Dead Presidents
Samples: A Garden Of Peace
Closing out the 1974 album Dreams Of Tomorrow, Lonnie Liston Smith’s A Garden Of Peace is a delicate aperitif featuring a stripped-back, emotive piano melody. It’s that which builds the foundation for one of the most significant tracks in hip-hop history: Jay-Z’s breakthrough single Dead Presidents.
Jay-Z’s standalone single heralded the makings of a hip-hop legend, the Ski Beatz-produced instrumental cemented Lonnie Liston Smith’s back catalogue, A Garden Of Peace especially, as a staple for samples in the decades to come. The instrumental was retained for the sequel track Dead Presidents II on the certified classic Reasonable Doubt. A third iteration of the beat was recorded for Dead Presidents 3 during the American Gangster sessions, but was withheld from the final tracklist. The track surfaced with Jay-Z’s approval after a fan enquired on Twitter in 2013.
Joey Bada$$ - Summer Knights
Samples: Summer Nights
Debut records require strong intros, and Joey Bada$$ hits the mark for the opening cut on his mixtape 1999. Producer Chuck Strangers leans heavily into Lonnie Liston Smith’s tranquil composition Summer Nights, giving Joey’s track its slightly altered title (which was later reused for the full-length follow-up mixtape a year later).
Summer Nights provides a mellow close to the 1975 album Visions Of A New World, released as Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes
Chance The Rapper – Windows
Samples: Bridge Through Time
Before his current standing as a bona fide mainstream rap star, Chicago’s Chance The Rapper was releasing tracks on SoundCloud. Well, he’s still doing that despite his presence on Bieber-featuring radio mega-hits .
Chance’s debut mixtape 10 Day originally featured Windows as track four, sampling Lonnie Liston Smith’s version of Bridge Through Time. Though free mixtapes usually do not requiring sample clearance, Windows attracted litigation last year, possibly due to 10 Days being “fraudulently” placed on online marketplaces. As such, the track was removed from the official SoundCloud version of 10 Days and no sanctioned version exists online.
Joey Fatts feat. Vince Staples – Cutthroat
Samples: Mystical Dreamer
As its title indicates, there’s a certain mystique to Lonnie Liston Smith’s Mystical Dreamer, released on the 1979 album Exotic Mysteries. That element is parlayed into the menace of Cutthroat, the closing track on Joey Fatts’ 2012 release Chipper Jones EP Vol. 1.
The recurring chimes are reminiscent of how Warren G’s Regulate re-contextualises the smooth rock of Michael McDonald’s I Keep Forgetting into a cold street narrative. Cutthroat serves as an early showcase for Vince Staples’ talent as a rapper years before his worldwide ascendency.
Big K.R.I.T feat Big Sant – Return Of 4eva
Samples: Space Lady
From 1977’s Renaissance, Space Lady is typical of Lonnie Liston Smith’s definitive cool. The laidback composition is a first class cruise through celestial bodies. The essence is bottled on the instrumental to Big K.R.I.T.’s mixtape cut Return Of 4eva.
The original’s intoxicating flute line serves the bedrock for Big K.R.I.T.’s powerful chorus, garnished by a fair serving of turntablism as bars are traded with fellow Mississippi rapper Big Sant.
