When it comes to samples used in Hip-Hop, we always have the same names coming back to us : Stevie Wonder, Georges Clinton, James Brown, Galt Mc Dermot, Isley Brothers and other legends like them...
It is not a critic at all, I just state the situation. People keep 10 names in their mind, and that's that. And as you might have noticed, all the names I just gave.. Are men ones! So please, let's focus on one of the greatest artist we had in Soul Music, because she deserves as many props as the other ones... Minnie Riperton! Have you ever heard her on a live TV show? If not, you have to watch that one, and realise how great and exceptional her voice was... close your eyes, and let the music
play...
Impressive, don't you think? The things she was able to do with her voice have not be reached yet according to me... Actually, she was famous for that reason : being able to sing on four and a half octaves, which explains her amazing live shows. Not many people know, but she started music when she was a teenager, and signer her fisrt contract at the age of 15; At the time, she was in a band composed of four people; the band was named "The gems" and here is a sample of what they were doing:
We coulnd say Lauryn Hill had a incredible voice, and Aretha Franklin too, but the Minnie Riperton's style was very unique... Going so up and down with her voice on such melodies and love (or naughty, depends) songs... That girls blown me away actually. Minnie Riperton was an incredible artist, as incredible as being part of a psychedelic band! Yep, she's been part of "The rotary connection", the group dropped their first album in 1967 and it's called.. 'Rotary connection"! To be honnest, even if I'm a fan of Minnie's work, the style of this album is so... high, if I can say, that it's not the tracks I would play all day long, unless i'm getting very very high... Here's a live:
In 1970; Minnie's first album is released under the name of "Come to my garden". It did not sale that much, but it is considered as a classic album tho. But the world will really be aware of Minnie Riperton's talent when she dropped her second album "Perfect angle" which is a perfect album. Why this album was that good? Apart from the fact that Minnie is an extraordinary singer, the album was produced by... None else than Stevie Wonder (she met him as she was one of her vocalist) ! The track "Lovin you" is one of the biggest soul classic ever... And it's on this album, out in 1972. In 1975, she released the timeless song : "Inside my love", sampled many many times in hiphop as we will see. The first tme I realised she has been sampled in Hip-Hop was when I wan listenning to Fabe, one of the best french rapper ever, and I realised how great a track using a Minnie riperton's sample could be.
I think it is a dope ass beat... When I started to be into US Hiphop, I realised Tribe Called used the same sample of Inside my Love for the classic track "Lyrics to go". Of course, we have to mention 2Pac's Me agasint the world... Yep, classic shit! You want more examples? Check it : Pete rock, black star, AZ, Lord finesse, Notorious Big, Jaÿ-Z, Smif N Wessun, even Rick Ross! all those legendary rappers (right.. Rick Ross did a few bangers, but I'm not sure we can classify him as legendary rapper, my bad) used a Minnie riperton's track to do a classic track... Let's hear a few, it's always ood to listen to our good old records during this hard times.
I stop here, but all these three bangerz have been made with the classic "Inside my love", from that point of view, we can clearly say to people always saying ''mheu hiphop producers just steal music off the real musicians, they are not real producers" bla bla bla... Well, we clearly can tell them to fuck off, as we have an proper example of the creation's ability of Hiphop... Minnie Riperton died in 1979 at the age of 31, due to a breast cancer. I will now finish with another classic from Minnie riperton, a classic everyone knows and full of positive energy! I just did this TBT because I think Minnie rpierton deserves more respect and props than what it is currently... In these days where music is like a the new burger in Macdonald (very month a new stuff comes out and supposed to be THE shit, but we forget it two weeks later...) it is important to know the roots of our passion, and how good the roots are... Peace out to my real music lovers out there!
- BECRI
