This is from the archived Oh Word. Visit the relaunched Oh Word for the new style.

|

Rather see the above links in your inbox or feed reader?
Subscribe to our Links for hand-picked items from around the web

Oh Word Email Updates

Your email address:



Nov 13, 2007

A-Plus (Hieroglpyhics) As Producer · by Roy Johnson

When you think of classic soulful hip hop production from the 90s, names like Pete Rock, Jay Dee, DJ Hi-Tek, and Madlib should come to mind, but people often sleep on the production discography of A-Plus. Damn near everyone in the Hieroglyphics crew had talent behind the boards, and Domino was often recognized as their best producer, but A-Plus was easily the most gifted when it came to flipping soulful jazz samples. Now, you wouldn’t be able to make this argument unless you were aware of all of the classic A-Plus tracks on the Hiero Oldies series, in addition to all of the remixes and b-sides released on 12” format. Songs like “Cab Fare”, “Step To My Girl”, “Good Feeling”, the original version of “Batting Practice”, “Every Day Of The Week”, “Let It Ride”, and remixes for “93 Til Infinity”, “Never No More”, and “The Who” were never available at your local Sam Goody.

Now, let’s review some of his best works, along with the tracks that he sampled to create them.

Everyone should be familiar with the classic Bob James theme for the popular 70s show “Taxi”, but check out how A-Plus incorporated the sample into “Cab Fare”. Sadly, this track would get shelved, as they could never get the sample cleared:

Souls Of Mischief – Cab Fare

Bob James – Angela

Another classic soulful jazz track that A-Plus sampled was Grover Washington’s “Aubrey”. Check out how he flipped it on “Step To My Girl”. I’m assuming that they couldn’t get the sample cleared for this one as well:

Souls Of Mischief – Step To My Girl

Grover Washington – Aubrey

And now for everyone’s favorite Souls Of Mischief track: “93 Til Infinity”. Thank god that they were able to clear the Billy Cobham sample. “Heather” is an amazing soul-jazz track, and if you haven’t heard it before, you’re in for a real treat:

Souls Of Mischief – 93 Til Infinity

Billy Cobham – Heather

Both A-Plus and Q-Tip sampled Patrice Rushen’s “Where There Is Love” (the latter for Mobb Deep’s “Temperature Rising”). Who flipped it better? I honestly prefer Q-Tip’s version, but this is yet another example of how dope A-Plus was:

Pep Love & Jay Biz – Every Day Of The Week

Patrice Rushen – Where There Is Love

Del’s “No Need For Alarm” is considered to be the best album to come out of the Hieroglyphics camp, but unfortunately, for our purposes, it only contains one song produced by A-Plus. You have to listen to the Crusaders track very closely to catch the sample.

Del – Thank Youse

Crusaders – Hallucinate

Ahmad Jamal’s “Ghetto Child” is one of my all-time favorite soul jazz tracks. Words can’t describe how beautiful it is. Check out how A-Plus incorporated the “Ghetto Child” intro on “The Who” remix:

Hieroglyphics – The Who Remix

Ahmad Jamal – Ghetto Child

And now for everyone’s favorite Hiero posse cut: “You Never Knew”. Whether you’re feeling the George Duke track or not, you can’t front, the sample that A-Plus utilized is amazing:

Hieroglyphics – You Never Knew

George Duke – Seeing You

The best of the rest:

Souls Of Mischief – Good Feeling

Souls Of Mischief – Batting Practice (Original)

Souls Of Mischief – 93 Til Infinity Remix

Souls Of Mischief – Never No More

Souls Of Mischief – Never No More Remix

Tajai & Extra Prolific – Let It Ride

Del – Catch A Bad One Remix

Hieroglyphics – Mics Of The Roundtable

For more info, check out discogs:

A-Plus Production Discography

Comments for "A-Plus (Hieroglpyhics) As Producer"

  1. Definitely underrated.

    Speaking of flipping Patrice Rushen, don’t forget that her vocals are sprinkled all over “You Never Knew”.

    Thought it was Goapele for a long time until I bought the Patrice record.


    — Danny!    Nov 13, 06:19 PM   

  2. great post. had to grab that crusaders track, thx


    — zk    Nov 13, 09:17 PM   

  3. really good post,
    can you re up the george duke seeing you host?


    — Andrew    Nov 13, 09:21 PM   

  4. great post. why does it look like he is crying in that photo though?


    — asdasdasd    Nov 14, 12:12 PM   

  5. Andy – the George Duke link has been redirected to a working upload.


    — R.H.S.    Nov 14, 03:45 PM   

  6. Thanks family.
    Filled up my cart with some things either I only had on old Maxells or inferior Y2K Napster files. Plus a couple of extra treats.


    — Jay B    Nov 14, 07:41 PM