People talk about “Celebration” being one of the biggest wedding tunes, and it kind of is, but “Hollywood Swinging,” you hear that horn-line, and it’s, “everybody get to the dance floor right now.” It’s opened some of the biggest party records of all time as well: Mase with Puffy, “Feel So Good,” DJ Kool’s “Let Me Clear My Throat.” Even if you think about the horn lines in “Jungle Boogie”, they’re really minimal, but they do so much. Of course I would play “Hollywood Swinging” - that’s one of the greatest dance tunes of all time. When I started DJing, there’s not a Kool & the Gang record from that early era that I didn’t play at some point. And then Live at P.J.’s album with “N.T.” on it - how does anyone sound that good playing together live? They had the same musical sophistication, but with East Coast grit. They weren’t some super huge band - they didn’t have that Earth, Wind & Fire polish. That rawness came from them being on an indie. It’s some of my favorite instrumental music ever, that and the Meters. There was a dirtiness to them.Įspecially when I started DJing and then getting into breaks and sampling, and then hearing songs like A Tribe Called Quest’s “Oh My God” or the “Scenario” remix and “Pump It Up” by Joe Budden, that’s when I really started discovering Kool & the Gang. The grooves were amazing there was sophistication in the arrangement but the recordings were raw - they didn’t sound expensive in the way that even Stax or Atlantic Records might have sounded. Not to take away from the huge commercial success, because there were great arrangements then too, but that early stuff like “Chocolate Buttermilk” spoke to me so much. There’s not a song that you would hear and say, “I don’t know, skip that one.” The musicianship, the arrangements, the feel were just so strong. They truly don’t have a bad song on those first six albums.
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