It's No Secret...

... That I love "gangsta rap". I think it has to do with being raise, primarily, by the hard streets of Kirkland. Bridle Trails, more specifically. When someone says they had a good day, it takes everything I have not to ask them if that's because they didn't have to use their AK, and/or no one they know got killed in South Central L.A. Rachel "The Awkward New Yorker" Sacco has some grainy footage of me singing a Snoop Dogg classic, and as soon as I have a job, I'll make this blog private and post it right here!

Anyway, it's something I love, and if that's wrong I don't want to be right. But something I like almost as much is when songs are sampled unexpectedly (the best thing, ever, might be if a hard-core gangsta rapper unexpectedly samples a song, sung by a children's choir). Not completely unlike Vanilla Ice with that Queen-David Bowie riff. However, it’s entirely too soon to bring up that fiasco, if you ask me. Recently J. Cole took a little Paula Abdul beat to create the infectious tune “Work it Out”, and I just can’t get enough of it. Here is a list of some other songs that I like only because of the sample(s) they use. Enjoy.

• Remember when Akon used a bit of the Bobby Vinton classic “Mr. Lonely” in his song “Lonely”? I really liked that one, because he made Bobby Vinton sound like a mouse, and I like to close my eyes and picture the mice from Babe singing it.
• And if you needed it hyphy, I take it to the Bay, Frisco to Sac-town, They do it everyday- Lyrics by Mims. Describes what I’m thinking when I listen to this Federation “smash hit”.
• This is just a song about a boy, who never had the luxury of being a Disney Channel star (not said directly, but HEAVILY implied) trying to make it in the crazy music biz. “Blow Up” by Sammy Adams
• Finally is a song, that I want to hate more than anything. It’s a ditty by the Canadian band Down With Webster. This 6-7 member band (most of whom can only/accurately be described as hype men… of which, one may or may not be Neville Longbottom) takes the name and chorus from my favorite song, and rips it limb from limb. But here we are shown the saving power of Hall and Oates, because although DWW clearly attempts to murder (not in a good Jay-Z type way) this song, everything touched by Daryl and John turns to pure gold. So, ladies and gentlemen, here we have “Rich Girl$”.

Anyone have any other good sample-laden songs I should listen to?