- 01Bonita ApplebumA Tribe Called QuestD’Angelo’s partner Q-Tip had embarked on this quest with Tribe back in 1990, when they created “Bonita Applebum,” sampling pieces of a Fender Rhodes keyboard lifted from the RAMP song “Daylight.”
- 02DaylightRampD’Angelo’s partner Q-Tip had embarked on this quest with Tribe back in 1990, when they created “Bonita Applebum,” sampling pieces of a Fender Rhodes keyboard lifted from the RAMP song “Daylight.”
- 03Brown SugarD’AngeloEven so, he wasn’t satisfied with the sound of his first album.
- 04Music of My MindStevie WonderBrown Sugar felt thin compared to, say, Stevie Wonder’s Music of My Mind.
- 05Dreamin’ Eyes of MineD’AngeloWhile the drummer had been disciplining his playing into a metronomic, machinelike pulse, D’Angelo was relaxing his rhythms; songs like “Dreamin’ Eyes of Mine” evoked the same feeling Questlove got when he listened to Jay Dee’s beats.
- 06FourMadhouseSo the drummer sent the singer a smoke signal, launching into the drum riff of an obscure song called “Four”—penned and recorded by Prince under his jazz alias, Madhouse—elongating time, hitting the skins with a contained sloppiness.
- 07Otherside of the GameErykah BaduWithin an hour they had written a ballad, “Otherside of the Game.”
- 08BaduizmErykah BaduPoyser and Erykah’s chemistry, backed by Questlove’s rhythmic physics, fleshed out Erykah Badu’s debut album in 1997, Baduizm, which in turn set a sonic goalpost for D’Angelo as he recorded his second album at Electric Lady.
- 09Dreamin’ Eyes of Mine (Jay Dee Remix)D’AngeloD’Angelo was an early fan, and he’d tapped James to do a remix of his single “Dreaming Eyes of Mine,” one that EMI never released.
- 10Fan-Tas-TicSlum VillageBut when Q-Tip played him Fan-Tas-Tic, D’Angelo lost his mind: Jay Dee’s “pocket” was so reminiscent of his own, and he had done it all on a machine.in the selected discography
- 11Fantastic, Vol 2Slum VillageThen he began listening to the tracks that would end up on Fantastic, Vol 2.in the selected discography
- 12Under the Cherry MoonPrinceTo re-create the exaggerated “flamming” of Jay Dee’s production in Fan-Tas-Tic, he borrowed a technique used by Prince in his song “Under the Cherry Moon” and by drummer Quinton Joseph, most prominently on Curtis Mayfield’s 1974 song “Mother’s Son.”
- 13Mother’s SonCurtis MayfieldTo re-create the exaggerated “flamming” of Jay Dee’s production in Fan-Tas-Tic, he borrowed a technique used by Prince in his song “Under the Cherry Moon” and by drummer Quinton Joseph, most prominently on Curtis Mayfield’s 1974 song “Mother’s Son.”
- 14Greatdayndamornin’/BootyD’AngeloQuestlove: “Greatdayndamornin’/Booty” by D’Angelo
- 15Go LadiesSlum VillageThe Model: “Go Ladies” by Slum Village
- 16The RootD’AngeloQuestlove: “The Root” by D’Angelo
- 17One Day It’ll All Make SenseCommonIn 1997 he released an album that he believed would be his breakthrough.
- 18Dynamite!The RootsThe Roots nabbed their first Jay Dee–produced track, “Dynamite!,” for their next album.in the selected discography
- 19Ashley’s RoachclipThe Soul SearchersQuestlove chose “Ashley’s Roachclip” by the Soul Searchers—overused to the point of cliché in pop songs throughout the nineties by groups like Milli Vanilli—and paired it with a record by the easy-listening crooner Johnny Mathis.
- 20Street SongsRick JamesQuestlove grabbed a record that he was sure had nothing worth sampling on it: Rick James’s Street Songs, the album that featured “Super Freak,” which had yielded the corniest rap song of all time, MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This.”
- 21Super FreakRick JamesQuestlove grabbed a record that he was sure had nothing worth sampling on it: Rick James’s Street Songs, the album that featured “Super Freak,” which had yielded the corniest rap song of all time, MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This.”
- 22U Can’t Touch ThisMC HammerQuestlove grabbed a record that he was sure had nothing worth sampling on it: Rick James’s Street Songs, the album that featured “Super Freak,” which had yielded the corniest rap song of all time, MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This.”
- 23Give It to Me BabyRick JamesJames searched the record, sampling a piece of the song “Give It to Me Baby.”
- 24DooinitCommonAnd what that composition would become, once Common heard it and wrote his lyrics, was the song “Dooinit.”in the selected discography
- 25Things Fall ApartThe RootsEven with the nod from established groups like A Tribe Called Quest, and even with Questlove touting them in the liner notes of the Roots’ just-released album Things Fall Apart, Slum weren’t a sure thing, stylistically different from the more popular acts of the day—Jay-Z, DMX, and the white rapper out of Detroit whom Iovine had recently signed to Interscope and paired with the producer Dr.
- 26Get Dis MoneySlum VillageRachtman’s assistant had found the Slum Village album in Iovine’s pile of A&M CDs, and Rachtman seized on “Get Dis Money” as a perfect match for the movie’s theme.
- 27Two Rainbows DailyHugh Hopper, Alan GowenOne day James threw an old album called Two Rainbows Daily onto the turntable.
- 28Morning OrderHugh Hopper, Alan GowenRoused by the wobbly synthesizers and Fender Rhodes chords in the song “Morning Order,” James fragmented the sounds and rearranged them rhythmically, against some offset drums and off-the-grid bass.
- 29Sometimes (Remix)The Brand New HeaviesPoyser became a convert to Jay Dee’s music when he first heard the “Sometimes” remix, rewinding it in his Walkman on a long bus ride between London and Glasgow while visiting family in the U.K.
- 30FantasticSlum VillageThe life-sized producer welcomed Poyser, showing him little things that blew his mind; for example, how he composed the song “Fantastic” not as chords but as a fugue of individual melodies.
- 31Funky for YouCommonCommon wanted to do a song with all of Slum Village, and asked the three MCs to trade rhymes with him on the song James composed with Poyser, “Funky for You.”in the selected discography
- 32TheloniusCommonThis was why he didn’t try to convince James to do things he didn’t want to do, because when James really wanted to do it, he’d bring you something like “Thelonius”: a perfect song, made with you and only you in mind.in the selected discography
- 33Runnin’The PharcydeGilles Peterson, a DJ who had been a fan of Jay Dee’s work since “Runnin’,” invited Slum onto his BBC show, where they freestyled over unreleased tracks from Fantastic, Vol.in the selected discography
- 34Really LoveD’AngeloD got off the phone, charged anew, and wrote a song called “Really Love.”
- 35Chicken GreaseD’AngeloThe Common track became a D’Angelo song called “Chicken Grease,” and D’Angelo gave up a song that became Common’s “Geto Heaven, Part Two,” for which D’Angelo had already sung the hook.
- 36Geto Heaven, Part TwoCommonThe Common track became a D’Angelo song called “Chicken Grease,” and D’Angelo gave up a song that became Common’s “Geto Heaven, Part Two,” for which D’Angelo had already sung the hook.
- 37Time Travelin’CommonCommon’s song “Time Travelin’” began as a bass line that James played on a Rhodes keyboard—the Rhodes keyboard.
- 38Vivrant ThingQ-TipFans got a peek when Q-Tip released a single, “Vivrant Thing,” built around a simple loop of a Love Unlimited Orchestra disco song.in the selected discography
- 39AmplifiedQ-TipJames began sending Q-Tip discs in the mail, and he would end up making at least nine of the dozen blistering tracks for Q-Tip’s first solo album, Amplified, each of them credited to “Jay Dee & Q-Tip for the Ummah”—more a lingering, contractual relic than reality.
- 40Jon DoeNineShe set eyes on the person she had known as the shy producer “Jon Doe” for the first time since her going-away party in 1995, his short frame now swimming in a glorious, full-length black mink coat.
- 41Parents Just Don’t UnderstandD.J. Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince“DJ Jazzy Jeff” Townes reached the pinnacle of mainstream fame a decade earlier with his partner Will “The Fresh Prince” Smith, their video for “Parents Just Don’t Understand” inaugurating MTV’s commitment to hip-hop in the form of Yo!
- 42I Don’t KnowSlum VillageIt was on one of his excursions to L.A. in 1997 that he heard Slum Village’s “I Don’t Know” on the radio for the first time—played by a DJ from an L.A. crew called the Beat Junkies, who had bought dozens of Ramos’s bootlegs in Japan.
- 43Brand New FunkDJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh PrinceJeff lost his mind, so much that he didn’t realize the track was, in fact, an homage to his song “Brand New Funk.”
- 44You Got MeThe Roots, Jill ScottJill Scott had penned a hit song for the Roots, “You Got Me,” but her vocals were replaced by those of Erykah Badu at the urging of MCA CEO Jay Boberg.
- 45Like Water for ChocolateCommonAs 1999 drew to a close, Common began mixing the album he was now calling Like Water for Chocolate.
- 46The LightCommonAmong those songs, the one that raised the eyebrows of manager Derek Dudley and MCA executive Wendy Goldstein as a potential single was a track called “The Light.”in the selected discography
- 47Funky WormOhio PlayersJames took a piece of choppy piano from a ballad performed by the blue-eyed soul crooner Bobby Caldwell and set it underneath drums sliced out of an Ohio Players single, “Funky Worm.”
- 48The Sixth SenseDUST, CommonQuestlove didn’t succeed in jettisoning the song from the album, but the consensus for the first single shifted to “The Sixth Sense,” featuring a sung chorus from Bilal Oliver and a track produced by DJ Premier, whose songs tended to be sure-shots among the hip-hop core audience.
- 49CB4Slum Villagethe lopsided “CB4”; the techno-inspired “Raise It Up,” for which James recorded the vocals fresh out of bed to make his voice as raspy as possible
- 50Raise It UpSlum Villagethe techno-inspired “Raise It Up,” for which James recorded the vocals fresh out of bed to make his voice as raspy as possible
- 51Flyin’ HighMarvin GayeBut when D’Angelo began riffing on the bass line from Marvin Gaye’s “Flyin’ High,” the groove clicked.
- 52Untitled (How Does It Feel)D’AngeloThankfully, the artist prevailed: the song they tracked—“Untitled (How Does It Feel)”—became the breakout single from the project.
- 53VoodooD’AngeloA few months before the release of the album, dubbed Voodoo, Questlove wrote a track-by-track breakdown and posted it on Okayplayer.
- 54Stakes Is HighDe La SoulThe ensuing media coverage of the assault demoted Q-Tip and his album to a mere footnote in a different, sensational story about hip-hop and violence, a metaphor for how mainstream hip-hop had sidelined Native Tongues groups like A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, the very phenomenon they lamented in “Stakes Is High.”in the selected discography
- 55Breathe and StopQ-Tip“Breathe and Stop” had been produced by Jay Dee as a kind of amplified “Vivrant Thing.”in the selected discography
- 56Beats, Rhymes and LifeA Tribe Called QuestOkayplayer hosted this vigorous debate about Q-Tip’s new direction; and also about Jay Dee, with some pegging the decline of Tribe and Tip to Jay Dee’s involvement on Beats, Rhymes and Life in 1996, a charge that others called unfair.
- 57Still ShiningBusta RhymesBilal knew that Glasper, a piano prodigy, had been a fan of Jay Dee’s since high school in Houston when he first heard Busta Rhymes’s “Still Shining”: The spastic kick drum, the patterns of clustered chords that never quite repeated themselves as they would have in most hip-hop songs.in the selected discography
- 58ReminisceBilalThen Glasper watched, slack-jawed, as Jay Dee—in seemingly no time at all—created a composition out of sounds from three different records that became a basis for a Bilal song, “Reminisce.”in the selected discography
- 59Dedication to the SuckersPhat KatWith James’s blessing, DJ House Shoes pressed up three Phat Kat songs into an EP, Dedication to the Suckers.in the selected discography
- 60Young BuckFrank-n-DankBut T3 had become a fan of Dank’s constricted, high-pitched voice, and was the first to make the suggestion that he and Frank rhyme as a duo, producing their first demo, “Young Buck.”
- 61Quite DeliciousQue.DThe resulting project, a six-song EP called Quite Delicious, was first printed on a short run of cassette tapes, with artwork created by Waajeed.
- 62DreamflowerTarika BlueShe came back with an album, The Very Best of Tarika Blue, found a track she liked, “Dreamflower,” and James showed her how to sample it into the MPC and loop it.
- 63Didn’t Cha KnowErykah BaduErykah began writing the lyrics to the song that, in short order, became “Didn’t Cha Know,” which would itself be nominated for a Grammy the following year.in the selected discography
- 64Mama’s GunErykah BaduThe sessions, which yielded two tracks for Erykah’s album Mama’s Gun, were short and successful.
- 65ClimaxSlum VillageMatt Kahane decided to film two clips, for “Climax” and “Raise It Up,” booking the Universal lot because it had a decent outdoor “city” set.
- 66The LightCommonAs “The Light” shined, Vibe magazine’s September 2000 issue hit newsstands, with Eminem and Dr.in the selected discography