Why does hip-hop love Primus?

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1. Cee-Lo Green sampling the drums off "Nature Boy" on the first song on Cee-Lo Green And His Perfect Imperfections
2. Roosevelt Franklin interpolating the chorus to "Jerry Was A Racecar Driver" on "Timmy"
3. The opening salvo of the clean/MTV version of Eminem's "My Name Is"... "Hi, kids, do you like Primus?"

I wouldn't think this was notable, or especially interesting, but I can only think of a very small number of hip-hop appropriations of far more popular funk-metal staple bands...

-Living Colour ("Open Letter To A Landlord" used on same Roosevelt Franklin album)
-Jane's Addiction (Clipse's "Been Caught Dealing")
-Faith No More (I got nothing outside of their Boo-Yaa Tribe collabo)

Dog will hunt.
What gives?

Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Friday, 10 June 2005 12:25 (eighteen years ago) link

Blax love the bass, duh.

geyser muffler and a quarter (Dave225), Friday, 10 June 2005 12:29 (eighteen years ago) link

Not to mention the crazy syncopated rhythms! I would think this wouldn't be that difficult to figure out: madd bass + freaked-out rhythms = "obscure" sample hunter's paradise.

The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 10 June 2005 12:40 (eighteen years ago) link

and who says black people does not want to rock?

Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Friday, 10 June 2005 12:47 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah, the original version of the Eminem line is "hi kids, do you like violence", although the Primus reference fits in better with the Nine Inch Nails reference in the next line.

Al (sitcom), Friday, 10 June 2005 12:56 (eighteen years ago) link

As with almost all Eminem lyrics, the "clean" versions are infinitly more clever, witty and sureal.

Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:02 (eighteen years ago) link

See, I told you guys Primus was funky, but you didn't believe me!

nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:20 (eighteen years ago) link

Just because someone is sampled into a funky hiphop song does not mean that source is funky. See: Edie Brickell.

Austin Still (Austin, Still), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:24 (eighteen years ago) link

That doesn't mean that Primus is not funky.

The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:28 (eighteen years ago) link

Hey, I like (older) Primus. But it doesn't really do funky for me like say - JB, Pfunk, Stevie Wonder, Fishbone, even RHCP (when they were very briefly good.)

Austin Still (Austin, Still), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:29 (eighteen years ago) link

Funkiest Primus album = the Brown album

Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:30 (eighteen years ago) link

YES! My favorite Primus album, no diggity.

nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:30 (eighteen years ago) link

It's because of BRAIN.

nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:30 (eighteen years ago) link

I think it comes to too much emphasis on forward movement, and not enough love for a cofy place to sit back and dig in.

Austin Still (Austin, Still), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:31 (eighteen years ago) link

Brown Album, huh? I'd stopped listening by then. Maybe I should check it out.

Austin Still (Austin, Still), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:31 (eighteen years ago) link

Just because someone is sampled into a funky hiphop song does not mean that source is funky.

Phil Collins, I know you're lurking! This means YOU.

nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:32 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, Brain is ridiculous. Too bad he's being wasted on this motherfucker: http://www.crafts-unlimited.co.uk/axlrose.jpg

Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:34 (eighteen years ago) link

I mean only ONE of those examples is a sample...

I would actually be happy with more.

Maybe I'll do a whole record out of Primus samples... Anyone know any rappers from rural california who won't talk about anything but the weird minutae of their high school friends?

(Actually I did once sample the drum intro from "Spagetti [sic] Western" off Frizzle Fry. Sounded dope).

Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:34 (eighteen years ago) link

I was really disappointed when I found out Primus was only referenced in Eminem's clean edit. I thought it was hysterical he was introducing himself to the world with a sardonic reference to Les Claypool.

miccio (miccio), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:34 (eighteen years ago) link

who the hell is roosevelt franklin?

[that bastard] jaxon (jaxon), Friday, 10 June 2005 16:19 (eighteen years ago) link

He must be the other realest nigga alive after Harrison, William Henry.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 10 June 2005 16:22 (eighteen years ago) link

xpost. ned i remember that shit. funny funny

in one of the cloudead songs, they list a bunch of old/dead presidents and say "so and so is underground". and they say Zachary Taylor is underground. anyways, i used to have this friend in elementary school named zach taylor. anyways, many years later i went to an underground (read project blowed) type hip hop show and he was in the corner freestyling and he knew all the other rappers. i'm wondering if the anticon kids know him and that was a really an inside joke

[that bastard] jaxon (jaxon), Friday, 10 June 2005 16:27 (eighteen years ago) link

Man, I am *pissed* I didn't immediately remember the Sesame Street dude. My youth really is long gone.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 10 June 2005 16:28 (eighteen years ago) link

The hip hop love is because they were on Interscope.

Vic Funk, Friday, 10 June 2005 16:30 (eighteen years ago) link

how long has interscope been doing hip hop (i honestly don't know). because in college, my friends did promotion for them and it was all NIN & alternative type stuff

[that bastard] jaxon (jaxon), Friday, 10 June 2005 16:31 (eighteen years ago) link

Dr. Dre and Snoop were on Interscope!

nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 10 June 2005 16:38 (eighteen years ago) link

I think.

nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 10 June 2005 16:39 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, the early history of Death Row to thread. They could probably afford all the alternative type stuff precisely *because* they were raking in more Dre/Snoop cash than could be counted in 1992/93/94.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 10 June 2005 16:41 (eighteen years ago) link

roosevelt franklin is a group made up of mr. len from company flow and kimani rogers from the masterminds (also used to run third earth music). kimani is a pisces who is a huge rock fan but the rf album isn't very good. it's really funny though. at one point, kimani has a story about getting robbed at the ATM by kurt loder, where he screams 'motherfuckin' kurt loder tried to rob me at a citibank atm' over a loop of 'scentless apprentice'

Rollie Pemberton (Rollie Pemberton), Saturday, 11 June 2005 01:05 (eighteen years ago) link

brown album is great but c'mon its all about frizzle fry. that album is perfect. its due for an "in praise of..." thread.

charleston charge (chaki), Saturday, 11 June 2005 01:11 (eighteen years ago) link

Roosevelt Franklin is also a song on Organized Konfusion's first album.

Austin Still (Austin, Still), Saturday, 11 June 2005 01:39 (eighteen years ago) link

Massive OTM to chaki on frizzle fry. I stopped buying Primus after "The Brown Album", because it just didn't do it for me. I'm about to listen to it again and see if I was wrong.

John Justen (johnjusten), Saturday, 11 June 2005 01:43 (eighteen years ago) link

Nevermind. I was wrong, it's good. Still, Frizzle Fry is better, and fulfills my need for Primus spasticity to a greater extent.

John Justen (johnjusten), Saturday, 11 June 2005 01:56 (eighteen years ago) link

See, I told you guys Primus was funky I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME?!

Ian Riese-Moraine. Exposing ambitious careerists as charlatans since 1986. (East, Saturday, 11 June 2005 02:00 (eighteen years ago) link

eight years pass...

Been waiting 8 years to update this thread

imago-er not a show-er (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 25 November 2013 18:41 (ten years ago) link

nine months pass...

Incredible

FKATlovestofu better (Spottie), Wednesday, 27 August 2014 04:58 (nine years ago) link


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