Nerdboy Goes Wow

One of the reasons I like good hip-hop is the digging. DJ Shadow digs deep into music history to find good stuff, and sometimes I catch up to him. I was just listening to my vast cache of 70’s jazz fusion, Stanley Clarke’s “Concerto for Jazz/Rock Orchestra” in particular, when I heard the familiar strains of Shadow’s “Best Foot Forward” (the first music sample on the record, right after the spoken intro). Moments like that are magical, and I’m reminded of the times when I’ve caught up to De La Soul and 3rd Bass when they sampled Blood, Sweat and Tears, Steely Dan, and Syl Johnson. Even better was the time I bought Hooverphonic’s A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular and on the same day bought Isaac Hayes’s Hot Buttered Soul from which they borrowed heavily.