CLICK HERE FOR THOUSANDS OF FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES »

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Sampletastic: CRS/Thom Yorke

In 2006, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke put out a pseudo-solo release of the electro-rock persuasion called "The Eraser." The title track features a haunting series of looped piano chords that lay the groundwork for punchy drums and Yorke's signature eerie vocal stylings:

Thom Yorke - The Eraser.mp3

In 2007, Plain Pat put together a formidable Kanye West mixtape called "Can't Tell Me Nothing" which preempted in an attempt to get folks riled up about "Graduation" I suppose. The mixtape featured a collabo between Kanye, Pharrell and Lupe Fiasco, collectively known as CRS. The song "Us Placers" sampled "The Eraser" and all of them spit some of their best verses over that loop:

It was pretty brilliant even though really, it sounds more or less just rapped over the instrumental and kept Yorke's vocals intact for the chorus. But the fact that anyone would think "Hey, I should rap over a Thom Yorke song" is pretty remarkable in itself. In any event, you can definitely tell they were feeding off the mojo that was injected by Thom Yorke into the original. That same mojo made its way into the video as well - Va$htie did her damn thing and the end result was a video that pissed excellence and shat upon 96% of all rap videos ever made: