Moody Man My House Radio Red Bull

Moody Man

By Kish Lal
There’s a profound difference between the music of hip-house pioneers and the modern-day hip-hop crossovers of Drake and Moodymann.
It began back in the late ’80s with Tyree Cooper claiming Turn Up The Bass to be the “first hip-house record on vinyl.” It was a vainglorious declaration opposed by English electronic trio The Beatmasters. Not only did they insist they were first, with 1986 release, Rok Da House but followed it up with a diss. On Who’s In the House? featuring British MC Merlin, they quipped, “Watch out Tyree, we come faster” followed by MC Merlin affirming, “Beatmasters stand to attention, hip-house is your invention.”
The blending of hip-hop and house trickled into Chicago and Detroit house with DJs like Todd Terry, Derrick May and Armand Van Helden creating sets that ebbed and flowed between Italo disco, hip-hop and UK garage. Production was all about dulcet synth piano lines combined with gritty funk and soul samples with the addition of MCs rapping over the energized beats.
Modern interpretations of sampling, Jersey club, Baltimore club, and Philly club music take a maximal approach. New York club DJs, Venus X, and Asmara along with New Jersey’s Uniiqu3 masterfully combine boisterous percussion, anthemic melodies, and exaggerated sampling. Unlike hip-house, which delicately borrows from hip-hop, Jersey club is a melting pot of excess.
Ghetto house producers Kolombo, Adana Twins, Doctor Dru, Dusky, and Finnebassen tamely pair vocals over a 4-4 kick. Despite rarely veering from the production style of house, this style of music became an overture to the future of mainstream hip-hop.
While hip-hop and house are both rooted in black American culture, their expression couldn’t be any more different. House music, borne out of a need for a safe space in the black LGBT community became a signal for hedonism and sexual freedom. The hyper-machismo, braggadocio, and gangster reportage of hip-hop forced an invisible wedge between the two.
In the past four years, Kanye West, Drake, Travis Scott, Nicki Minaj, and Danny Brown have encouraged a developing acceptance of house music in hip-hop.
The current iteration of this combination has roots in 2000, with Lil’ Kim’s Custom Made (Give It To You). She gave the world diaristic hypersexuality over the modulating moans of Lil Louis’ French Kiss. Far from being a deep house production, Custom Made encompassed all the grit of hip-hop with the sound of 80s house. The mutual flirtation between Kim’s lustful lyricism and Lil Louis played out effortlessly. Rah Digga followed in 2003 with Party And Bullshit sampling Percolator by Cajmere (Green Velvet). Female rappers were taking the lead, merging two genres that spent decades apart.
Artists like Jeremih began to use this formula as a template. On his 2012 mixtape Late Nights With Jeremih, Rose Acosta sampled Cajmere’s Brighter Days (Underground Goodie Mix) and his follow up third studio album, Late Nights, Don’t Tell ‘Em borrowed heavily from Snap!’s Rhythm Is A Dancer.
Drake and OVO Sound producer, Nineteen85 fancies breaking these boundaries. Coming across Maya Jane Coles’ ‘What They Say’ on Youtube by chance, his inspiration led to sampling it in 2014, on Nicki Minaj’s ‘Truffle Butter’. “The great thing about house is that when you slow it down, it still makes people want to dance,” he told Billboard.
Remixing, reworking and flipping samples is what house music was built on, and hip-hop’s appropriation of the concept has led to a mutual respect between genres, cultures, and people.

Hip-hop’s burgeoning house evolution has an interesting history, as we take a look back at some pivotal moments.

2000

Custom Made (Give It to You) by Lil’ Kim 
Note: This track contains explicit audio.
Samples French Kiss by Lil’ Louis (1989)
Lil Kim seamlessly melds the licentious moaning of French ‘Kiss with lyrics like “To all my bitches in the strip club/ shakin they ass (I ain’t mad, do your thing mami!) / Get that cash”

2003

Party And Bullshit by Rah Digga 
Samples Percolator by Cajmere (1992)
Percolater is a sampler favourite. New Jersey MC, Rah Digga takes the beat from the ’90s classic and fuses it with a homage to Biggie Smalls.

2008

Feel It by DJ Felli Fel and T-Pain feat. Sean Paul, Flo Rida and Pitbull 
Samples Lick It by 20 Fingers feat. Roula (1995)
The modulating synth of Lick It is looped and turned into the hook for autotune pioneer, T-Pain and LA radio DJ DJ Felli Fel’s ‘Feel It’. The camp charm of 20 Fingers is unrecognisable on the club banger, making it a surreal coupling with Pitbull, Flo Rida, and Sean Paul.

2009

Bubble Pop by Rihanna 
Samples Good Life by Inner City (1988)
Detroit House DJ, Kevin Saunderson produced Inner City’s most recognisable hits. Conversely, Rihanna’s Bubble Pop is the surreptitious unreleased demo that in some parts of the internet features a verse from Will.I.Am.

2010

Illygirl by M.I.A. 
Samples Searchin’ by 33 1/3 Queen (1990)

2012

Rosa Acosta by Jeremih 
Samples Brighter Days (Underground Goodie Mix) by Cajmere feat. Dajaé (1992)

2013

Show Me by Kid Ink feat. Chris Brown 
Samples Show Me Love (Stonebridge Mix) by Robin S. (1993)
My Different by Rascals and Big Narstie 
Samples We Don’t Care by Audio Bullys (2002)

2014

Sex on the Beach by PARTYNEXTDOOR 
Samples Latch by Disclosure feat. Sam Smith (2012)
Truffle Butter by Nicki Minaj feat. Drake and Lil Wayne 
Samples What They Say by Maya Jane Coles (2010)

2015

Don’t Tell ‘Em. by Jeremih featuring YG 
Samples Rhythm Is A Dancer by Snap! (1992)

2016

Fade by Kanye West feat. Post Malone and Ty Dolla $ign 
Samples Mystery of Love by Mr. Fingers (1985)
Whole Lotta Lovin’ by DJ Mustard feat. Travis Scott 
Samples Finally by CeCe Peniston (1991)
When It Rain by Danny Brown
Samples Percolator by Cajmere (1992)

2017

Passionfruit by Drake 
Samples Live @ Cutloose 2nd Birthday Party by Moodymann (2010)

2018

Lift Yourself by Kanye West 
Samples Boom-Boom by Dancer (1987)
WTP by Teyana Taylor 
Samples Work This Pussy by Ellis D Presents Boom Boom (1989)