Getting Paid is Glorious.

GLORIOUS:

Will.I.Am. 

Will.I.Am?  The producer for the infamous and highly dubious Black Eyed Peas?  "My lovely lady lumps"?  "Let's get retarded in here"?  Fergie?  The very same.  While I may still have the cassette dub of the first Black Eyed Peas CD sitting around somewhere(a CD that I copied from Herschel back in 1998, back when he was still schooling me about rap music) , I haven't had much use for that specific cassette, or the Black Eyed Peas generally for at least five years.  (I don't mind their cover/re-do of "where is the love" but that is more of a credit to the original than it is to the BEP.) 

So if I don't have much use for the Black Eyed Peas, why is Will.I.Am glorious? Well, it has nothing to do with his six grammy nominations (nominations that he probably deserves to win).  Instead, it has to do with Justin Timberlake (the former mouseketeer that, among other accomplishments, ripped half of Janet Jackson's bra off at the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show).

And rap producer, sample-based musician, and vinyl legend DJ Shadow. 

And soul recordings that were made at 780 Oakland Park Avenue in Columbus, Ohio by the long-overlooked saxophonist J.C. Davis in May 1969. 

Let me explain.

In 2005, DJ Shadow, a.k.a. Josh Davis (no known relation to J.C.), re-issued the complete recordings that J.C. Davis made at Mus-I-Col records in Columbus, Ohio in May 1969 on Cali-Tex Records, his personal reissue label (with great sleeve design by very talented graphic designer, musician, and breakdancer David Castillo - hi Dave).

Being a fan of soul music and DJ Shadow, this record hit my radar screen like a rocket.  Great funky soul music that I would have next to no chance of hearing absent this reissue.  I was just listening to the record again the other night, and like a lazy so-and-so, I left it sitting on the turntable instead of returning it to its home between The Daktaris - Soul Explosion (Desco 1999) and Debarges - Debarges (Gordy 1980) on the soul shelf. 

When I got home from work today, Side A of the J.C. Davis record was unexpectedly playing in my record room.  I theorized that my daughter probably crawled into the record room (which to her is semi-offlimits, especially in its current state of chaos) and asked to hear some "Moo-nee" (music), so the missus pressed play on the turntable, starting the J.C. Davis that had been sitting there on the platter.  But when the missus asked about the record, I knew something was up.  "It's J.C. Davis, why?" 

"The first song on there is sampled on the Justin Timberlake record." 

What?  "Yeah, it's blatantly sampled on 'Damn Girl.'"  I whisked myself off to wikipedia, which dutifully reports that J.C. Davis' "A New Day (is here at last)" is sampled on the Justin Timberlake song "Damn Girl."  (Further proof that the missus is not to be trifled with when it comes to all things Timberlake - "Damn Girl!".)  The authors of "Damn Girl" are listed as J. Timberlake (who I expect wrote the deep lyrics), W. Adams (a.k.a. Will.I.Am) and J.C. Davis. 

Now Will.I.Am is a very serious record collector.  He's got dozens of records that you've never heard that have been haunting you in your dreams.  So the sources available to him for sampling are second-to-none.

Will.I.Am is also a really good producer.  He is the reason that every Black Eyed Peas record has at least three songs that get played to death on the radio, songs that you wish were not stuck in your head.  The man has talent with beats...and hooks.  This has put him in a position to make tracks for artists who will sell millions of records.  Artists like Justin Timberlake.  This makes him powerful. 

In the case of "Damn Girl," I bet that Will.I.Am deliberately chose the J.C. Davis song precisely so that J.C. Davis, who until the Cali-Tex reissue was a largely talented but forgotten soul musician, would make some money.  I have it on good authority that Will.I.Am. deliberately included a sample from the infamous Stark Reality Discovers Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop record so that Monty Stark, a hell of a cool dude, could make some royalty cheddar.  However dubious you find the Black Eyed Peas to be, making money for well-deserving and overlooked musicians through careful sample selection is glorious.  Good for you, Will.I.Am.  Win that grammy!  (God knows J.C. Davis isn't gonna win one.)

Compare:

Damn Girl (9.8 MB) with A New Day (3.2 MB)

Dubious:

BLACK EYED PEAS. 

No matter how dope Will.I.Am is, the Black Eyed Peas remain dubious.  Let's get retarded in here.

-ALEXANDER

Comments

[Jefferson]

Interesting, informative stuff, as usual. Regarding Mr.Timberlake, I guess I'm still on the fence. Clearly he willing and able to surround himself with talented people with good taste, which is more than can be said of many people in his position. This shows a certain humility in the face of his musical forebearers, which is both appropriate and smart. People like Will.I.Am. then come in and very successfully transform JT into a product that not only moves tons of units, but also has cred with a crowd that normally wouldn't be bothered with this kind of teeny bopper stuff. Unfortunately, I'm just not sure that if you strip away all of the layers of super shiny production sheen, that there's really much underneath. Let's not forget the dude's a former Mouseketeer.

[StarChild]

Watch "D*ck in a box" and ask yourself what the big difference is between that and JT's actual music... other than the expert production of the likes of Will.I.Am and Timbaland.

Actual line from Damn Girl:

"If I'm a Casanova, then you're a Supernova"

[He who knows.]

That bit about Will sampling the Stark Reality to "try to get Monty paid" or whatever is just absolute bullshit. Come on.

[Alexander]

Interesting that this comment, from someone whose (alleged) email address starts with dontbigupphonies, would come more than two years after the post, but less than one week after Monty Starks untimely death from cancer on Thanksgiving night.

Intentions dont count for much, and I dont know any of the folks involved personally. What matters is that the original artist, in this case Monty Stark, received remuneration from the sampling artist, in this case Black Eyed Peas. J.C. Davis must have gotten paid as well, because he was given songwriting credit on the Timberlake song that Will.I.Am produced. Since the version of events included here came from Monty himself, Im going to leave it as is.

I hope that Monty Stark is smiling down on us all from behind the keys in the sweet hereafter.

-Alexander