#inspectah deck

Today in Hip Hop History:

┊“as long as i’ve got you” or “i’ll never grow old” was a song sang by the charmels, a female group emerging in 1966 previously known as the dixiebells and then the tonettes, the members being mary hunt, barbara mccoy, mildred pratchett, and eula jean rivers. they released 3-4 singles on the volt label (part of memphis based stax records or soulsville usa, that brought us many iconic southern soul artists like otis redding, booker t. & the m.g’s, william bell and many others.) in the late 60s. 𓂃˖ ࣪

┊the charmels recorded their singles 1966 – 1967 under the guidance of Isaac hayes, their official singles being “baby come get it” and “loving material” released in 1967, and “something sweet about my baby” released just the year before, but more of their songs can be found in compilation albums of the stax-volt. the song “as long as ive got you” was written by david porter and isaac hayes and released in 1967, the song talks about the feeling of eternal youth and freedom that comes from being in love, and how being in love makes one person feel youthful and ageless, tho the song never got any attention back in the late 60s, nobody knows why but my theory is that maybe it’s because people were busy giving attention to other artists under the same record label ??

┊anyways, fast forward to 1993, a short lived rap-rock group called smokin suckaz wit logic released a song sampling “as long as ive got you” produced by peter “ajoe” jorge called “gangsta story”. 𓂃˖ ࣪

(sample comes in 3:00).

the song talks about a gangster little boy named sunny, even though this song explains well on how somebody lives as a gangster and the sad truth of it, and how it was produced by mixing soul, hiphop, and rock into one song, it didnt gain any attention.

┊coincidentally a week after that song was released, the wu tang song “C.R.E.A.M”, sampling the same song and its produced by the RZA, releases and steals the spotlight. 𓂃˖ ࣪

the song is considered iconic due to the lyricism, production, and the concept of it, since it talks about the struggles of poverty and the hustle for survival, and the way the RZA sampled such a romantic song into making it sound hypnotic. the song was so iconic it influenced hiphop culture, ever since it came out people have been quoting the hook “cash rules everything around me”, the song “as long as ive got you” started gaining the attention it deserves and more rappers & producers sampled it — like mad flava, westside connection, snoop dogg and more.