Scribbler's Throwback of the Week: The Nutty Professor Quartet Grand Finale

 

If you've been following this portion of my "Throwback of the Week" series, then you already know what time it is: "Lillo, Peabo, Lou Rawls, Teddy Pendergrass...TEDDY P!"  The late, great Philly soul singer rounds out my aptly-named quartet, but I'm throwing y'all a curve ball: I'm not featuring "Close the Door"...kinda.  I know, don't be so disappointed, but what person that calls themselves an R&B fan doesn't know that song?  Besides, we do things a little different 'round here, slim.  So I started thinking about Teddy P songs sampled in hip-hop songs, and I had quite a few choices.  "Love TKO" is too easy and so is "Come Go With Me".  Almost rolled with "Can't We Try", which was sampled in Ghostface Killah's "Camay".  However, I dug a little more for a record that not everybody knows about but is still one of his better songs: "Easy, Easy, Got To Take It Easy".

Scribbler's Native Tongue Mixtape Pick: Big K.R.I.T., "King Remembered In Time"

In becoming the new face of Mississippi hip-hop, it is extremely difficult to argue that Big K.R.I.T. hasn't been able to live up to the lofty expectations behind his acronym.  Outside of Kanye West, very few hip-hop artists have received more critical acclaim as a rapper and producer from various hip-hop "crowds" than Big K.R.I.T.  With a slew of successful mixtapes and a Def Jam album under his belt thus far, his impressive catalog can match, if not altogether surpass, that of any celebrated rapper that has come out in the past 5-10 years.  However, none of that matters to Krizzle.  He makes it abundantly clear that he wants more and shows an adamant refusal to slack off with his latest mixtape, King Remembered In Time.

Scribbler's Throwback of the Week: Billy Paul, "Let the Dollar Circulate"

You all will see many posts in the future featuring Mr. Billy Paul, the Philly soul singer known for his classic smash and creeping anthem, "Me & Mrs. Jones".  Taken from his 1975 album, When Love Is New, the late great J Dilla sampled it for Spacek's "Dollar" and so did 9th Wonder in "Dollar Circulate".  However, I first recalled hearing the sample in "Circulate" by Young Jeezy at a local community day celebration where I stopped everything I was doing--and I mean literally stopped putting ketchup and mustard on one of those good ol' burnt cookout hot dogs--to listen attentively.  Being an unofficial Philly soul aficionado, my ears perked up and recognized it as a definite brainchild of one of my biggest musical influences, Gamble & Huff.  After a while, I was less interested in what Jeezy had to say and more interested in finding the original and somehow the instrumental as well.  (I was far less successful in finding the latter...didn't quite have that inside track to Don Cannon to see if he could float me a copy.  Ah well...)