The Breaks: Myra Barnes 'Message from the Soul Sisters'

For our last post during James Brown Week, I thought we'd take a look at one of the many hits produced by James Brown for other artists. Today's post will cover Myra Barnes' hit single 'Message from the Soul Sisters' from 1970. Myra Barnes, who also performed under the name Vicki Anderson, joined the James Brown Revue in 1965 and would later be replaced by another legendary James Brown produced female singer: Marva Whitney. 'Message from the Soul Sisters' is among one of her best known tracks and is a go-to sample source for some of hip hop's finest producers.

DJ Premier and Guru sampled Barnes for the title track to their 1989 debut album 'No More Mr. Nice Guy'. A year later, Dr. Dre and Lay Law sampled the song for Above the Law's 'Freedom of Speech' and the Geto Boys sampled the song for their track 'City Under Seige'. Perhaps the track most known for sampling 'Message from the Soul Sisters' is the album cut 'Vamos a Rapair' produced by Large Professor and Pete Rock for Main Source's modern day classic debut album 'Breaking Atoms'. Rashad Smith used the sample again in 1995 for LL Cool J's track 'God Bless' from the album 'Mr. Smith.

In addition to being a part of the James Brown Revue, Myra Barnes was quite literally family: she married Bobby Byrd, a long time Brown collaborator. Music was also apparently apart of Byrd and Barnes' DNA as their daughter Jhelisa scored a few 90s hits in the UK.

The Lowdown:
Myra Barnes 'Message from the Soul Sisters'
from 'Message from the Soul Sisters' 7" (1970) (MP3 not available/CD not available)
Gang Starr 'No More Mr. Nice Guy'
from 'No More Mr. Nice Guy' (1989) (MP3/CD)
Above the Law 'Freedom of Speech'
from 'Livin' Like Hustlers' (1990) (MP3/CD)
Geto Boys 'City Under Siege'
from 'The Geto Boys' (1990) (MP3/CD)
Main Source 'Vamos a Rapair'
from 'Breaking Atoms' (1991) (MP3/CD)
LL Cool J 'God Bless'
from 'Mr. Smith' (1995) (MP3/CD)

Related Posts:
Rewind: Above the Law 'Livin' Like Hustlers' (Part 1)
Rewind: Above the Law 'Livin' Like Hustlers' (Part 2)
Rewind: Main Source 'Breaking Atoms' (Part 1)
Rewind: Main Source 'Breaking Atoms' (Part 2)

Five On It: April 2009's Essentials

Welcome to the latest installment of Five On It, where we look at the best breaks of the month. There was a lot to choose from since April was full of great albums, so these five are all sureshots.

Unbelievably, this track has not gained Five On It status, but Isaac Hayes' 'The Look of Love' is both a soul classic and a hip-hop necessity. It was one of the sources from our review of Mary J. Blige's 'My Life', but it is also the basis for many other notable hip-hop tracks. This blog's review of Massive Attack's 'Blue Lines' yielded three of our breaks of the month: 'Sneakin' in the Back' by Tom Scott and the L.A. Express, the Donald Byrd produced 'Rock Creek Park' by the Blackbyrds, and the opening break of 'I'm Glad You're Mine' by Al Green. On our review of DOOM's 'Born Like This', MF Doom sampled Galt MacDermot's 'Princess Gika'. Look below for some more on MacDermot and the artists that have sampled him.

The Lowdown:
Isaac Hayes 'The Look of Love' (Radio Edit)
from '...To Be Continued' (1969) (MP3/CD)
Tom Scott and the L.A. Express 'Sneakin' in the Back'
from 'Tom Scott and the L.A. Express' (1973) (MP3/CD not available)
The Blackbyrds 'Rock Creek Park'
from 'City Life' (1975) (MP3/CD)
Al Green 'I'm Glad You're Mine'
from 'I'm Still in Love with You' (1972) (MP3/CD)
Galt MacDermot 'Princess Gika'
from 'Woman is Sweeter' (1969) (MP3/CD not available)

Bonus Cuts:
Galt MacDermot's 'Woman is Sweeter' is a highly sought after crate digger pick (and available from Amazon in MP3 format - score) and the source for some of hip-hop's finest. Rashad Smith sampled MacDermot's 'Space' for Busta Rhymes' breakout single 'Woo-Hah! Got You All in Check' from 1996. MF Doom also sampled 'Space' for his Metal Fingers track 'Cinquefoil'.

Rewind: Notorious B.I.G. 'Ready to Die' (Part 3)

This is part three and the final installment of our look at 'Ready to Die'.

To me, one of the best non-single tracks on 'Ready to Die' is the Easy Mo Bee produced 'Friend of Mine'. It contains samples from Sly and the Family Stone expatriate Larry Graham's Graham Central Station ('The Jam') and Kool and the Gang ('Spirit of the Boogie'). 'Unbelievable' lives up to its name; the unbelievable beat from DJ Premier stitches together samples from Patrice Rushen's 'Remind Me' and R. Kelly's top 20 single 'Your Body's Callin''. The uneasy album closer 'Suicidal Thoughts' features a sample of Mile Davis' 'Lonely Fire' from 'Big Fun'. The beat itself was produced by the Funky Technician himself Lord Finesse.

A Bonus track on the remastered extended version of 'Ready to Die' is the B-side track 'Just Playing (Dreams)' which, despite never being on an album, has been referenced again and again in other hip-hop tracks. The Rashad Smith produced beat contains a sample of James Brown's 'Blues and Pants' from the 1971 album 'Hot Pants'.

'Ready to Die' is one of hip-hop's masterpieces and would be the only album released by B.I.G. during his lifetime. The Notorious B.I.G.'s second and final album, 'Life After Death', was released only 15 days after his murder in Los Angeles. 'Life After Death' will be covered in depth in a future post on this blog.

The Lowdown:
The Notorious B.I.G. 'Friend of Mine', 'Unbelievable', 'Suicidal Thoughts', and 'Just Playing (Dreams)'
from 'Ready to Die' (1994) (MP3/CD)
Clean Edits: 'Friend of Mine', 'Unbelievable', 'Suicidal Thoughts', and 'Just Playing (Dreams)'
Graham Central Station 'The Jam'
from 'Ain't No 'Bout-A-Doubt It' (1974) (MP3/CD)
Kool and the Gang 'Spirit of the Boogie'
from 'Spirit of the Boogie' (1975) (MP3 not available/CD not available)
Patrice Rushen 'Remind Me'
from 'Straight from the Heart'(1981) (MP3/CD)
R. Kelly 'Your Body's Callin''
from '12 Play' (1993) (MP3/CD)
Miles Davis 'Lonely Fire'
from 'Big Fun' (1969) (MP3/CD)
James Brown 'Blues and Pants'
from 'Hot Pants' (1971) (MP3/CD not available)