This morning, I discovered that Mountain’s ‘Long Red’, whose intro is one of the most sampled beats in all of rap, was recorded at the Woodstock Festival in 1969. It was apparently Mountain’s third concert ever. The heavily-accented ‘Loudah!’ and “Claap yuh haands to whut he’s dewin’” sound bytes shouted by Leslie West can be immediately echolocated to the coordinates of Mountain’s point of origin, Long Island, NY.
Lodged among other less memorable tracks, the track ‘Verbal Clap’ on De La Soul’s seventh album ‘The Grind Date’ (2004) features a really excellent flip of ‘Long Red’, from none other than J Dilla. Incidentally, De La Soul, like Mountain, also hail from Long Island NY.
Though I’d undoubtedly heard this Mountain beat flip before, De La’s ‘Verbal Clap’ hit 2004-me in such a way that I was eager to learn more. I’d also heard Dilla’s productions before: he’d been around since the mid-90’s, working with Pharcyde and Tribe Called Quest (e.g. the continually underrated ‘The Love Movement’). ‘Verbal Clap’ was the first time with Dilla that I pulled the liner notes wondering: “Who produced this track?”
At this point in 2024, Jay Dee / J Dilla / James DeWitt Yancey needs little more introduction. Books have been written about his production tactics, and Dilla occupies an exalted place in the ‘Producer’s Hall of Fame’. He passed away in 2006, at the age of 32, three days after the release of ‘Donuts’, a mixtape which remains perhaps his most influential statement of purpose.
Sure enough, Track 14 on ‘Donuts’ features a revisited, even more stripped down flip of the ‘Long Red’ beat, called ‘Stepson of the Clapper’
All that said, my favorite Dilla flip of all involves Stereolab, and their absolutely sublime track from 1999, ‘Come and Play in the Milky Night’, heard here:
Dilla’s beat was given to Busta Rhymes, who proceeded to (imo) squander a nearly-perfect opportunity. ‘Show Me What You Got’ was released in 2000, and thank goddess there exists, on a German Promo 12”, an instrumental version… feel free to listen to the lyrical version as well, and agree or disagree:
Last but not least, it’s hard to leave a blurb about flips without a tip of the hat to the flip I would shove at anyone questioning the art of the sample. It’s hard to say which to listen to first, but I am still known go back and forth. This was my favorite rap song when I was a teenager, and honestly it might still be. Venturing northwest from Long Island, to the Bronx NY, circa 1992. The first time I heard the saxophone line occur in the 1967 origin song, I may have shed tears. I 100% shed tears.