Five On It: August 2009's Essentials

This month was brimming with excellent breaks, so it was difficult to pick just five for this month's edition of Five On It, but we have five sureshot house burners for your listening pleasure.

On the first part of our look at N.W.A.'s 'Straight Outta Compton', we mentioned the Ohio Players' essential 'Funky Worm' from their 1972 album 'Pleasure'. Early Ohio Players material has been rather hard to come by in the past few years, so it's great to see their early work, like this track, is now readily available. The 'Funky Worm' synthesizer sound, along with Parliament, is the foundation of G-Funk; don't miss out. In our second look at 'Straight Outta Compton', we covered Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band's 'Express Yourself' from their 1969 album 'Express Yourself'. On our final look at 'Compton', Dre and Yella sampled Herman Kelly and Life's foundational b-boy break 'Dance to the Drummer's Beat', which still lights b-boy competition dancefloors on fire today. On our second look at Cypress Hill's debut album from this past month, we covered two huge beats: All the People's 'Cramp Your Style' (more info about this one below) and Rufus Thomas' 'The Breakdown', another essential Stax open break from Thomas that needs to be in every producer's sample bank.

The Lowdown:
The Ohio Players 'Funky Worm'
from 'Pleasure' (1972) (MP3/CD)
Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band 'Express Yourself'
from 'Express Yourself' (1969) (MP3/CD)
Herman Kelly and Life 'Dance to the Drummer's Beat'
from 'Percussion Explosion' (1978) (MP3 not available/CD not available)
All the People 'Cramp Your Style'
from 'Cramp Your Style' (1972) (MP3 not available/CD not available)
Rufus Thomas 'The Breakdown'
from 'Did You Heard Me?' (1972) (MP3 not available/CD not available)

Bonus Cuts:
'Cramp Your Style' by All the People is a huge b-boy break, but it's also a popular sample for early hip-hop producers and beyond. One of the first notable uses of 'Cramp Your Style' is by KRS-One on Boogie Down Production's single 'Still #1'. Two years later, Marley Marl used the sample on LL Cool J's 'Mr. Good Bar' while Teddy Riley sampled it for Guy's sophomore album R&B track 'D-O-G Me Out'. In 1991, DJ Slip and the Unknown DJ sampled 'Cramp Your Style' on Compton Most Wanted's 'Growin' up in the Hood' while Howie Tee used the sample for Chubb Rock's 'Keep it Street'.

Related Posts:
Five On It: January 2009's Essentials (Rufus Thomas appearance)