- 01ShacklesR. J.’s Latest ArrivalNearly everyone who came up in Detroit in James’s generation had danced to “Shackles,” by R.
- 02Ain’t No Future in Yo’ Frontin’MC BreedMTV Raps; and MC Breed, a rapper from Flint, seventy miles to the north, who scored a national radio hit with “Ain’t No Future in Yo’ Frontin’.”
- 03Front Street1st DownBy the time James made a song with Phat Kat called “Front Street” in early 1994, recorded in part at Amp’s place, his personal style had coalesced: a melodic jazz sample, the top frequencies filtered out to make the music more amorphous and gloomy, over hard drums, in the vein of A Tribe Called Quest or Pete Rock.in the selected discography
- 04Hard to EarnGang StarrOne day in early 1994, Phat Kat drove to Shantinique, a local record store, to pick up Hard to Earn, the new album by New York rap act Gang Starr.
- 05FingertipsPoeFor $1,800, he paid James for a couple of beats, one of which would end up on Poe’s debut album the following year as the song “Fingertips.”in the selected discography
- 06Angry JohnnyPoePoe’s single “Angry Johnny” became a top ten hit on alternative rock radio, brought R.
- 07DaydreamerMark ColbyJames flipped a bass line from saxophonist Mark Colby’s 1978 song “Daydreamer” onto a thumping track with a curious name, “Homosexual.”
- 08Dance with MeSlum VillageIn the song “Dance with Me,” James displayed all the beat-chopping mastery that had long awed Amp Fiddler, slicing and dicing bits of Kool & the Gang’s “Summer Madness” to create a completely different harmonic progression from the song it sampled.
- 09Summer MadnessKool & the GangIn the song “Dance with Me,” James displayed all the beat-chopping mastery that had long awed Amp Fiddler, slicing and dicing bits of Kool & the Gang’s “Summer Madness” to create a completely different harmonic progression from the song it sampled.
- 10RoxanneSlum VillageIn other tracks—“Roxanne,” “I Got Ta”—James put complex jazz harmonies over pounding rhythms that mirrored Q-Tip’s own method.
- 11I Got TaSlum VillageIn other tracks—“Roxanne,” “I Got Ta”—James put complex jazz harmonies over pounding rhythms that mirrored Q-Tip’s own method.
- 12Bizarre Ride II the PharcydeThe PharcydeTheir producer, J-Swift, had split from the group after their gold-certified debut album Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde.
- 13One LoveNasAnd despite Q-Tip’s noble principle of crediting his production work to the collective, he had emerged in conventional hip-hop wisdom as the locus of the group’s musical genius—especially after his rare, solo-credited outside production of the rapper Nas’s song “One Love.”
- 14Saudade Vem CorrendoStan GetzTre was taken with one in particular, based around a Brazilian samba guitar phrase sampled from a Stan Getz and Luiz Bonfá song, “Saudade Vem Correndo,” and began to write to it.
- 15Runnin’The PharcydeThe day that they mixed the Brazilian track they’d worked on in New York, the song they called “Runnin’,” Tre, James, Imani, and Romye went to grab some food, leaving Fatlip and the engineer Rick Clifford in the control room.in the selected discography
- 16LabcabincaliforniaThe PharcydeJames would end up producing six tracks for the Pharcyde’s 1995 album Labcabincalifornia.
- 17DropThe PharcydeSome were beats he created for them on the spot, and others went as far back as the beat battles from DJ Head’s basement—like the song “Drop,” based on a few seconds of harp from a 1962 Dorothy Ashby record that James had sampled and Proof had programmed to play backward.in the selected discography
- 18She SaidThe PharcydeIn the track for “She Said,” James sampled a jaunty piano and shaker phrase from a Gato Barbieri record and then, in a technique he would employ regularly thereafter, slowed it down to a crawl, evoking a sense of gloom.
- 19Still ShiningBusta RhymesBusta called the song “Still Shining.” Tip introduced James to his friends in De La Soul, who feigned disinterest in a Jay Dee beat they loved because they feared that Q-Tip might snatch it for himself; they ended up calling the song—featuring a grand horn fanfare from Ahmad Jamal’s “Swahililand”—“Stakes Is High.”in the selected discography
- 20SwahililandAhmad JamalTip introduced James to his friends in De La Soul, who feigned disinterest in a Jay Dee beat they loved because they feared that Q-Tip might snatch it for himself; they ended up calling the song—featuring a grand horn fanfare from Ahmad Jamal’s “Swahililand”—“Stakes Is High.”
- 21Stakes Is HighDe La SoulTip introduced James to his friends in De La Soul, who feigned disinterest in a Jay Dee beat they loved because they feared that Q-Tip might snatch it for himself; they ended up calling the song—featuring a grand horn fanfare from Ahmad Jamal’s “Swahililand”—“Stakes Is High.”in the selected discography
- 221nce AgainA Tribe Called QuestOne of his tracks, selected by Q-Tip as he paced around his basement, had become the song “1nce Again,” and was a good candidate to become their first single.in the selected discography
- 23Brown SugarD’AngeloHe’d just been signed to EMI Records, and Ali had been enlisted alongside Bob Power to help Archer craft tracks for his debut, Brown Sugar, which would in 1995 launch Archer as D’Angelo.
- 245 ElaSlum VillageWhile T3 and Baatin waited, Proof had convinced his Funky Cowboys partner James to do an album’s worth of songs for his group, 5 Elementz, and the guys in “5 Ela” were rubbing T3 and Baatin’s noses in it.
- 25Fan-Tas-TicSlum VillageIn early 1997, under the aegis of Waajeed’s “El-Azim Waajeed Recordings” and T3’s “Donut Boy Recordings”—likely a nod to the donuts from the Dutch Girl bakery on the corner of 7 Mile and Woodward that fueled their sessions—Slum Village released their first album. They called it Fan-Tas-Tic.in the selected discography
- 26Hoc N PuckySlum VillageSome were snippets, fading up and down to capture pieces of verses that James found interesting, like “Hoc N Pucky.”
- 27I Don’t KnowSlum VillageIn “I Don’t Know,” T3 came up with the idea of interspersing their rhymes with little vocal samples of James Brown, a throwback to a 1988 song by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince called “Brand New Funk.”
- 28Brand New FunkDJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh PrinceIn “I Don’t Know,” T3 came up with the idea of interspersing their rhymes with little vocal samples of James Brown, a throwback to a 1988 song by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince called “Brand New Funk.”
- 29É Isso AíBaden PowellJames set these rhymes over a sample from the Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell’s “É Isso Aí.”
- 30ClairSingers UnlimitedHe took a song from 1975 called “Clair” by Singers Unlimited—featuring the tight a cappella “vocalese” harmonies that the Yancey family practiced in his youth—and slowed it down so that the word “Clair” sounded uncannily like “Player.”
- 31Rapper’s DelightThe Sugarhill GangBeneath chopped, decelerated bits of scatting—dooooo, dooooo, dooooo, dooooo—foreboding where they had been gleeful at normal speed, James created a rhythm track lifted from the first seconds of one of the most recognizable songs in all of hip-hop, the very first one: “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang.
- 32Rock Music (Remix)Slum Village“Rock Music (Remix)” evoked James’s emotional sense of harmony: two chords—the first dissonant, the second bright—cycling forth and back between melancholy and hope.
- 33Things U DoSlum VillageAnd in “Things U Do,” beneath another bright-to-brooding duality of sampled vibraphone chords, James layered live handclaps that were so disjointed you could hear them “flamming”—different hands coming together, one after another, like a family making a joyful noise, father and daughter, mother and son.in the selected discography
- 34Illadelph HalflifeThe RootsOn the Roots’ second album, Illadelph Halflife, the band ditched much of its improvisation, uncut edges, and imperfections for unvarying hip-hop heat.
- 35Sometimes (Remix)The Brand New HeaviesThe story began in early 1997, when Mike Ross at Delicious Vinyl sought an Ummah remix for a Brand New Heavies single, “Sometimes,” hoping to get a great Jay Dee beat and a verse from Q-Tip as well.
- 36Got ’Til It’s GoneJanet JacksonThe song that resulted, “Got ’Til It’s Gone,” built around a vocal sample of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi,” was a conscious re-creation of Jay Dee’s groove, particularly the lagging bass line.
- 37Big Yellow TaxiJoni MitchellThe song that resulted, “Got ’Til It’s Gone,” built around a vocal sample of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi,” was a conscious re-creation of Jay Dee’s groove, particularly the lagging bass line.
- 38Y?The PharcydeJames seethed at how brazen other producers could be in lifting his material, like when the Danish producers Soulshock and Karlin resampled the elements from “Y?”—one of his Pharcyde album cuts—and recombined them into a posthumous gold hit single for 2Pac, “Do for Love.”in the selected discography
- 39Do for Love2PacJames seethed at how brazen other producers could be in lifting his material, like when the Danish producers Soulshock and Karlin resampled the elements from “Y?”—one of his Pharcyde album cuts—and recombined them into a posthumous gold hit single for 2Pac, “Do for Love.”
- 40The Love MovementA Tribe Called QuestIt also erased some of the progress Tribe and James had made on their new album, The Love Movement, which Q-Tip declared would be their last.
- 41Fantastic, Vol. 2Slum VillageBy late 1998, A&M Records printed advance cassettes of the album Slum Village was calling Fantastic, Vol.in the selected discography