Splinter In My Mind: Reakwon’s “Lizz” Sample

So I was at the listening for Raekwon’s mixtape Cocainism 2 with some of my brothers in arms, Chuck Creekmur (@chuckcreekmur,) Mr. Mecca(@MrMecc,) Datwon Thomas (@daydog) and The Blackspot (@TheBlackspot). The mixtape is full of dope cuts, Rae even took the beat from the Wu-Tang Shoalin style video game and rhymed over it (“Just For Laughs”). But we experienced a collective “What the fuck is that sample?” moment when he dropped the DJ Scratch produced “Lizz.”

It was one of those splinter in your mind, tip-of-your-tongue-you-know-you’ve-heard-it-before-but -can’t -quite -place it right away moments. After some fumblings we all agreed that Lizz shared some musical DNA with Slick Rick’s “Behind Bars.”

From that point it was only a point of checking out the resource of all resources, the-breaks.com, to figure out what wonderful melody (that I’m assuming was produced by Warren G) was responsible for all of us making “the face.” And there it was, Les McCann’s “Somtimes I Cry.”

Diggers know Les McCann’s music is responsible for some of the hottest beats  out so this didn’t come as a surprise. What threw me off personally was the woman singing on Raekwon’s version, had me thinking it was a Minnie Ripperton joint but that was not the case.

Anyway, head on over to XXLmag.com or Nahright and download a copy of Cocainism. It’s worth the bandwidth.

Also peep Rae reuniting with his brethren Matty C and Scott Free from Loud Records: