Gangster Trippin

I recently wrote about Zoom of Soda Stereo (sorry guys, is only in spanish) and the origins of the samples that they used for that song, and as a comment in my post, @ylich posed a challenge to me, talking about Fatboy Slim, since he is a famous musician and DJ known for his work with samples. Well, accepting that challenge, which was not such but I assume as one, I'm here now to talk about Gangster Trippin.

Gangster Trippin Single - Source

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About The Artist

Fatboy Slim is the solo project of Normal Cook, a british musician, multi-instrumentist, DJ and music producer, whom, beggining the 90's, brokes the Big Beat scene, consolidating as one of its greatest exponents and making an important name in the music scene worldwide.

In my case, I started to listen this style with Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy, since they were a little bit hard and I was not so fan of electronic music. But once I was accepting the style, I beggan to open my ears (and my mind) to more "commercial" artists, as is the case of Fatboy Slim, but just when he was releasing his second album "You've Come to Long Way, Baby".

From this album I fell in love with "Praise You" (maybe sometime I could write about it), but a particular song caught my attention for the amount of sounds that I managed to understand as samples, and a few years later, whan internet were everywhere, I could made a deep research of the different songs that Fatboy Slim used to create this new single called "Gangster Tripping".

Gangster Trippin (Music Video Version)

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Let's start now with its deconstruction:

The song begins with a lyric remixed and edited that says "We gotta kick that gangster shit", which obviously was censored for the radio and music video versions (that's why you could not listen that phrase it in the previous link, but I leave here the "uncensored" version)

Gangster Trippin (LP Version)

This line "We gotta kick that gangster shit" was taken from an EP of DJ Shadow (I should write about him soon) called Entropy.

DJ Shadow - Entropy (minute 4:27)

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As this verse is repeated throughout the first part of the song, the rhythmic base begins to enter. First we hear a loop of DJ QBert from an album called "Toasted Marshmallow Breaks". DJ Bert is an Filipino-American DJ, who started as turntablism at age of 15, and today is recognized as a legend of DMC.

DJ Bert - Toasted Marshmallow Breaks (minute 5:54)

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The brasses arrangements that we found around the 20th second are an excerpt from "You Did It" by Ann Robinson. There is almost no information about her. If someone knows more about her please tell me more.

Ann Robinson - You Did It (second 4)

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Then starts a sample of "Barking 'up the Wrong Tree" by James Young and The House Wreckers, another of those jewels with very little information.

James Young and The House Wreckers - Barking’ up the Wrong Tree

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Another part of the lyrics, which appears with the song more advanced, says "What we're doin' when a fatboy's slippin’". This strange phrase comes from "Beatbox Wash" by Dust Junkies, a British Rock and Rap band. The leader of this band, Nick Lockett, better known as MC Tunes, sued Fatboy Slim for the royalties of the song, since half of the lyrics are taken from "Beatbox Wash". This was a three years demand, but was finally won by MC Tunes, who since then has the25% of the credits of this song.

Dust Junkies - Beatbox Wash (minute 0:39)

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Other sounds used for Fatboy Slim to be sampled in Gangster Trippin, were founded in X-Ecutioners, an important newyorker DJ group. From them he used two excerpts of two songs, "The Turnablist Anthem" and "World Play", both from the LP X-Pressions, their first album, released in 1997 and considered today as a classic, although they never went listed on any chart.

X-Ecutioners - The Turnablist Anthem (minute 3:32)

X-Ecutioners - Beatbox Wash (minute 0:41)

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There is a very particular scream that is heard at various moments of the song (try to fin it in near the second 15) that is in "Your Love" by Michael Prophet & Ricky Tuffy.

Michael Prophet & Ricky Tuffy - Your Love

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Another incredible song that we can find in this "salad" of samples is "Reggae Meringue" by Tommy McCook & The Supersonics. Tommy McCook was a Jamaican saxophonist of Cuban origin. His name still resonates today as a founding member of the emblematic band The Skatalites. This band separated for first time in 1965, after the trombonist, Don Drummond murdered his girlfriend. From this separation arise two wonderful bands: Rolando Alphonso and The Soul Vendors and this one used by Fatboy Slim, Tommy McCook and The Supersonics (in Gangster Trippin you will find this sample in the second 59).

Tommy McCook & The Supersonics - Reggae Meringue

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And as the cherry on the top Fatboy Slim dresses all this with "Big Daddy's Theme" by Big Daddy Kane, a well-known American actor and rapper. In Gangster Trippin begins to appear (quite hidden among the amount of sounds) in the minute 1: 17.

Big Daddy Kane - Big Daddy’s Theme (second 4)

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If you got to this point I invite you to go back up to the top of the post, and to listen again how Fatboy Slim managed to mix all these strange ingredients to give origin to this great song: Gangster Trippin.

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Thanks for stopping by here.

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@vadimlasca
http://www.vadimlasca.com