Steel Drums on 50 Cents P.I.M.P. Remix--First such usage in hiphop?

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Is the usage of Tridinadian steel drums on 50 Cents "P.I.M.P. remix" a first for hiphop or have such drums been used on rap cuts before? I've heard Caribbean rapso cuts but this is different...

― Steve Kiviat (Steve K), Thursday, 14 August 2003 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

That's Trinidadian...

― Steve Kiviat (Steve K), Thursday, 14 August 2003 17:05 (twenty-one years ago)

It sounds like a shrill arcade game, demanding another quarter.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 14 August 2003 17:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Clipse - 'I'm Not You' has them, I think.

― d k (d k), Thursday, 14 August 2003 17:25 (twenty-one years ago)

i was gonna say "i'm not you", yeah

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Thursday, 14 August 2003 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

The original, nonremixed "PIMP" also had them. You know, before the remix.

I didn't realize it until Alex said it, but part of what makes 50 so great is that a lot of his beats sound like arcade machines. Especially "Wanksta."

― Tom Breihan (Tom Breihan), Thursday, 14 August 2003 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

there's a 'steel drum' sort sound on Xhibit's 'Multiply' but more tinny, electronic and most likely a GM preset

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 14 August 2003 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Did "Drums of Steel" by the 7A3 have them? I'm gonna have to dig out my lp...

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Thursday, 14 August 2003 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

If you count it, "Body Movin'" by the Beastie Boys.

― Nick H, Thursday, 14 August 2003 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

'Body Movin' is totally hip hop and anyone who says it ain't is a foo

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 14 August 2003 18:11 (twenty-one years ago)

In the 50 Cent video you see someone in the background actually playing the steel drums although most of the attention is on the guys in front(Snoop's there with his wig and fake buck teeth !).

Can calypso, soca, and konpa soon join dancehall and bhangra as a hiphop element?

― Steve Kiviat (Steve K), Thursday, 14 August 2003 18:14 (twenty-one years ago)

i despise this track

i invariably picture fifty at a swim-up bar

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 14 August 2003 18:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Ok, "Drums of Steel" did not feature steel drums, but timbales!

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Thursday, 14 August 2003 18:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Lord save us from steel drums, the rap producer’s most desperate scrape-the-barrel-of-inspiration ploy.

― d k (d k), Thursday, 14 August 2003 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm beginning to wonder if sr could even order a cheeseburger without sounding like a whiny old git

― nnnh oh oh nnnh nnnh oh (James Blount), Thursday, 14 August 2003 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

man, steel drums are fuckin great. he must be smoking the same crack cocaine he got from the vice guys.

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 14 August 2003 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

SR is waaay too self-conscious a writer for me to buy the "old guy" pose he's striking.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Thursday, 14 August 2003 18:41 (twenty-one years ago)

what about the video remix of Snoop's "Beautiful"? or the Jackson 5 "It's Great to Be Here" break

― M Matos (M Matos), Thursday, 14 August 2003 18:45 (twenty-one years ago)

(not to mention that whole entry reads like a response to ILM)

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Thursday, 14 August 2003 18:45 (twenty-one years ago)

or the Jackson 5 "It's Great to Be Here" break

D'oh!

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Thursday, 14 August 2003 18:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Were those steel drums on P-Diddy's "All about the Benjamins"? The riff was even similar to "PIMP".

― dleone (dleone), Thursday, 14 August 2003 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Dk,

So instead of "scrape the barrel" steel drum banging, rap producers should only use uh, James Brown samples or turntable scratched bits of "Apache"????

Matos, not that I know the ethnomusicological difference but Snoop's "Beautiful" video is shot in Brazil and uses Bahian style steel drums(which sound awesome as well btw)

― Steve Kiviat (Steve K), Thursday, 14 August 2003 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

heh, mr. nnnh oh oh nnnh nnnh oh said last night that SR still posts to ilm...you just have to read his blog to find it.

steve, that quote was from simon reynolds blog.

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 14 August 2003 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

That quote was nothing. The one about the "crusty archaic horns [in Crazy in Love] are an instant delibidiniser" was the really clueless bit.

― gossip, Thursday, 14 August 2003 18:53 (twenty-one years ago)

the drum break in "crazy in love" = sex, the horns = climax

repeat as necessary

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 14 August 2003 18:58 (twenty-one years ago)

jay's verse = the kleenex

― sean g, Thursday, 14 August 2003 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I only care about the drums and "uh oh uh oh" -- does that mean I'm Sting?

― dleone (dleone), Thursday, 14 August 2003 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

only if you loop them for hours.

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 14 August 2003 19:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I do

― dleone (dleone), Thursday, 14 August 2003 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

do you sing "fields of gold" over top?

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 14 August 2003 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

No, not over top.

― dleone (dleone), Thursday, 14 August 2003 19:07 (twenty-one years ago)

you know what I just listened to the Jackson 5 break and actually I think that's a guitar! I've always assumed it was steel drums too but on closer inspection I think it's a guitar. The crappy sonics on the Bambaataa stuff must be what obscured that to me in the past...

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Thursday, 14 August 2003 19:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Oops, I'm a little behind in reading Reynolds' complaints on his blog.
That horn sample in "Crazy in Love" is so damn simple but so great...

I do have another question for you folks, when Chuck Eddy noted on a thread that he had gotten bored with indie-rock in the late '80s I believe, no one criticized that point-of-view the way some criticize Reynolds and others for saying hiphop in 2003 "blows"(there aren't bad years in music someone asserted,)...Is it just a matter of degree--saying hiphop "blows" or is "dead" you consider wrong and crotchety, but if someone says they lost interest in something(ala Chuck Eddy and indie-rock in the late 80s I think) and then come back to it later when they assert that it is better that's ok? Also what do you folks think of Reynolds assertion that if certain years can be hailed as great and important(1977 for punk) other years can be condemmed?

Saying I don't think it's been a good year for hiphop albums(which I think Xgau, Jess, and others have said) but there have been some interesting singles out there doesn't make one as extreme as Reynolds or a curmudgeonly old fart does it?

― Steve Kiviat (Steve K), Thursday, 14 August 2003 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Didn't one of Eve's early hits have steel drum?

― Kris (aqueduct), Thursday, 14 August 2003 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

what about Jeru's "Come Clean"?? i know they're all delayed and weird, but they sound kinda like steel drums

― JasonD (JasonD), Thursday, 14 August 2003 22:03 (twenty-one years ago)

it's a woodblock pattern

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 14 August 2003 22:06 (twenty-one years ago)

from a shirley manne record, i think

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 14 August 2003 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I was gonna say it did sound like steel drums, only played with superballs instead of drumsticks

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Thursday, 14 August 2003 22:08 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe SR was thinking of all those swizz beatz traxx that SOUND like steel drums but are actually just some casio preset through a filter.

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 14 August 2003 22:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I think he's right there can be good and bad years for specific styles, the more tightly defined the style the clearer the good/bad demarcation (1996 was a worse year for rockabilly than 1956) - but 'hip-hop' is a very big, loose style, bigger and looser even than 'indie rock'.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 14 August 2003 22:47 (twenty-one years ago)

jess, have you heard the shelley manne record ('mannekind') in question? AMG gave it 2stars and a really bad review. but i'm sure plently of other really sucky records have a 2second snippet people have sampled (i own too many of them)

― JasonD (JasonD), Friday, 15 August 2003 04:23 (twenty-one years ago)

i have not. i have no idea, in fact, where i picked that little factoid up, but if anyone wants to replace my half-remembered snippets of musical info with a proper trade or something useful, please get in touch.

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Friday, 15 August 2003 04:25 (twenty-one years ago)

there's steel drums in Dilated Peoples' "The platform"

and i saw a cd called Steel Funk the other day in the Carribean section of Amoeba. i didn't buy it, but i think it was cheap. here's the tracklisting if you're interested:

STEEL IMAGE-Sunshine Of Your Love
JOHN GIBBS AND THE US STEEL ORCHESTRA-Steel Funk
ORIGINAL TROPICANA STEEL BAND-Spanish Hustle
EARL RODNEY-Juck Juck
FRED BURNETT-Mas Que Nada
CARL McKNIGHT-The Special
STEEL IMAGE-Shango
ORIGINAL TROPICANA STEEL BAND-Yellow Bird
ROLFOS TABANKA RHYTHMS-Watermelon Man
WE EYE RE-Feet Mover

― JasonD (JasonD), Saturday, 23 August 2003 05:02 (twenty-one years ago)

o.c./ras kass - action guaranteed

― trife (simon_tr), Saturday, 23 August 2003 05:18 (twenty-one years ago)

made men f the lox - tommys theme

― trife (simon_tr), Sunday, 24 August 2003 05:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Nightmares on Wax's "Mega Doughnuts" had (synthesized) steel drums back in 1991. The rap on that track is pretty cheesy, however.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 25 August 2003 09:40 (twenty-one years ago)

five years pass...

gucci mane ft ak & dem franchize boyz - like da kid be

― silkk the s1ocki (and what), Tuesday, 23 December 2008 00:33 (sixteen years ago)

i liked that point a year or two back where it seemed like steel drums where everywhere, wish that caught on more:

Soulja Boy - "Crank That"
D.G. Yola - "Ain't Gon Let Up"
Gorilla Zoe - "Money Up"

― burt_stanton like my daddy (some dude), Tuesday, 23 December 2008 01:13 (sixteen years ago)

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