Five On It: May 2009's Essentials

Here it is, this month's Five On It: the most necessary breaks of the past month distilled for maximum usability / listenability. This month had some burning hot cuts and also had some big tracks from our James Brown week. Check out what we've got for you.

UGK's 'Hard to Swallow' review was full of classic breaks, two of which we'll highlight this month. Bill Withers' 'Still Bill' is a classic album and no cut is more useful for slo-mo tracks than the hit 'Use Me'. Also, other 'Superfly album cuts have been previously featured as Five On It picks, but this month highlights the single 'Freddie's Dead' for its usefulness to producers. James Brown week featured a look at James Brown's 1974 album 'Hell' and featured the big cut 'My Thang', which may not be the first break one would pick from J.B.'s archive, but is a heavy one. Also featured during our look at James Brown was Myra Barnes' 'Message from the Soul Sisters' when we looked at the numerous songs that sampled that break. Finally, during our look at Ice Cube's 'AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted', we mentioned Funkadelic's heavy 'Standing on the Verge of Getting It On' from the album of the same title. It's no secret that P-Funk samples make up a large part of West Coast hip-hop history, and this song is no exception.

The Lowdown:
Bill Withers 'Use Me'
from 'Still Bill' (1972)(MP3/Import CD)
Curtis Mayfield 'Freddie's Dead'
from 'Superfly' (1972) (MP3/CD)
James Brown 'My Thang'
from 'Hell' (1974) (MP3/CD)
Myra Barnes 'Message from the Soul Sisters'
from 'Message from the Soul Sisters' 7" (1970) (MP3 not available/CD not available)
Funkadelic 'Standing on the Verge of Getting It On'
from 'Standing on the Verge of Getting It On' (1974) (MP3/CD)

Bonus Cuts:
Bill Withers' 'Use Me' intro drums have always been a popular sampling source, but that shouldn't take away from the impact of the song itself, which was covered many times by great artists. Esther Phillips delivered a version of 'Use Me' as did Isaac Hayes who played a live version of 'Use Me' at the Sahara Tahoe. In 1981, Grace Jones had a spooky version of 'Use Me' as only Grace Jones could. The original was recently sampled by Kanye West for Nas' track 'Still Dreaming'.