As a southern-bred child, I was raised on the sounds of cliques such as Master P and No Limit Records; and I am always intrigued by just how much influence southern rap (circa 1997-2003) had on the culture of music. In fact, so much influence that as I tested my first listen to Kanye West's newest album, Yeezus, a very familiar hard-hitting bass at the intro of his track titled Blood on the Leaves hit my headphones. If you haven't heard BOTL and/or you aren't familiar with the sample that I'm referencing, then please click here. It's records like BOTL that reintroduce Kanye as one of the world's top creative geniuses as he consistently enhances his repertoire with every new album release. Here, he connects the samples of C-Murder's Down for My Niggas and Nina Simone’s performance of Strange Fruit (Written by Abel Meeropol), and creates a colossal trunk banger. If you research the original versions of each record then you will understand the musical marriage that BOTL represents…and only Yeezy could reverend such a union to occur.
Buy Yeezus here.
Note: I'm not doing a direct post of Blood on the Leaves but listen here.