24 years after the Alone Again court case, Gilbert O'Sullivan's Pagan ass suing Biz Markie for copyright infrigement is still the single worst thing to happen to rap music. Here's a generic list of joints that either didn't end up on the albums they were intended to end up on due to sample clearance-related fuckery or did end up on the albums they were intended to end up on before sample clearance-related fuckery forced them to be recalled and removed from all subsequent pressings. Ayo Gilbert - your mum copped a Wax Poetics subscription after Zach G started writing for them, mate.
De La Soul - De La Slow (1991)
Eric B. & Rakim - Everything's Cool (1992)
UGK - Cocaine In The Back Of The Ride (O.G version) (1992)
Grand Puba - Time To Put It On (1992)
The Click - Daily Routine (1993)
Snoop - Gz Up, Hoes Down (1993)
Gang Starr - Doe In Advance (O.G version) (1994)
Big L - How Will I Make It? (1995)
TRU - Smokin' Green (1995)
AZ - Your World Don't Stop (O.G version) (1995)
Mobb Deep - Everyday Gunplay (1995)
Smif-N-Wessun - Nuthin' Move But Da Money (1995)
Brand Nubian - Brand Nu Hustle (1998)
Ghostface & Raekwon ft. Slick Rick & RZA - The Sun (2001)
KanYe West - My Way (2004)
Cam'Ron - Shut The Fuck Up (2004)
Trae ft. HAWK & Fat Pat - Swang (O.G version) (2005)
A.B.N - Rain (O.G version) (2008)
Roc Marciano - My Persona (2011)
Kept the songs by Queens rappers to a bare minimum here because I've already spread enough love in their direction recently, Please believe ya boy is still waitin' on that CDQ version of the O.G Thugs R Us by DJ Clue & Noreaga with the Under The Influence Of Love sample, though.
"College Dropout" leak >>> retail version.
ReplyDeleteNever forget KanYe scrapped The Good, The Bad, The Ugly + Home and replaced them with all those godamn MIDDER WEST skits on the retail version.
ReplyDeleteI can forgive him for omitting My Way from the retail, though, because he'd have probably had to shell out clearance loot to both Irene Reid AND Frank Sinatra.
presume you're aware already but I only discovered this week that there's a video for The Good The Bad The Ugly . Bit weird given it didn't get a proper release at the time.
ReplyDeleteYeah he gave it to Consequence as the lead single for his album in 2007. That video used to get a decent amount of play on MTV Base back then.
ReplyDeleteI know Pharoahe Monch is from Queens but still, no "Simon Says?" Didn't that song basically hobble Rawkus and fuck up Monch's solo career?
ReplyDeleteAlso, where's the Steve Miller Band sampling "Gangster of Love" by those Geto Boys?
The first volume of Rza presents the Killa Beez had to be reissued because they didn't clear use of clips from that shitty Michael Caine movie.
Disqualified Simon Says because it was a big single and didn't get shut down until 2001, whereas the Snoop and TRU songs got sabotaged within 6 months of their respective releases.
ReplyDeleteGreat call on the O.G Gangster Of Love though. Glaring omission, tbh.
Them crackers wasn't playin' fair at Jive
ReplyDeleteHow have I not heard the Slick Rick song? That would have fit perfectly on side A of The Ruler's Back [highly underrated album imo]
ReplyDeleteIce Cube's o.g. "A Gangsta's Fairytale" had a Mr Rodgers sample on the intro for the first 200 000 copies pressed. The 2nd version just starts out with "and now in the black part of the city". Sir Jinx said in the Check The technique 2 book that they had to pay mr rodgers 5 cents a record and after 200K thy removed it. That version isn't on youtube and it's not on my tape which i'm pretty sure I bought within the first week or so it was released so I'm not sure
I'm very sceptical about that version ever having been released because I know a bunch of people who also bought import copies of AmeriKKKa's back in 1990 and it wasn't on any of our copies either.
ReplyDeleteHere's one to bring this whole discussion full circle. When Buck 65 signed to WEA, he had to rerecord loads of his tracks, replacing all the Led Zep and Metallica breaks. Furthermore, on the OG, ltd run of his "Synesthesia" album, the OG version of "65 Buick" is built on a loop of beatboxing by none other than Biz Markie. It had to be changed for the WEA release.
ReplyDelete"Nuthin' Move But The Money" is godly.
ReplyDeleteGreat list.
ReplyDeleteMaybe room for Mobb Deep feat Big Noyd '3 From NYC'?
I got my copy of Cube's album the day the import copy arrived too, no dice on that intro either.
ReplyDeleteThere's room for a myriad of Mobb Depp's unreleased songs that got sabotaged by sample clearance, Daps.
ReplyDeleteGot a zip file?
ReplyDelete*Bat Signal for French lads*
ReplyDeleteHow come Ghostface had to recall/reissue "Supreme Clientelle" because of "Ghostdini" but then the same beat appeared on "The Swarm 1" as "Ruthless Bastards?"How did they clear it for one and not the other?
ReplyDeleteProbably because indie labels are far more lax with sample clearance and seem to operate under the modus operandi of "don't bother to clear it and hope nobody notices."
ReplyDelete