Hottest Flips: Rare Soul, French Vocals, Electro-Funk & 70s Sounds

On “Father Time” featuring Sampha, Kendrick Lamar reflects on his childhood and his relationship with his father: “Everything he didn't want was everything I was.” Production duties for "Father Time" are credited to DJ Dahi, Beach Noise, Bekon, Duval Timothy, Sounwave, and Victor Ekpo.

By scouring the only song by Hoskins 'Ncrowd on Tracklib, the producers of "Father Time" found a rare gem. “You’re Not There” appeared on the only 45-inch release by the R&B and soul group around singer Leroy Hopkins. The song was produced by soul singer and Soft Soul Records owner Kenni Jones, who got in touch with music through his father, who sang with Sam Cooke.

“Drugstore” is the album opener of IDK’s Simple., which tells the story of a neighbourhood in his hometown of Washington, D.C.—an area dubbed “Simply City” because “you can get killed for any simple reason,” IDK explains. The release is entirely produced by Kaytranada. “Drugstore” opens with a vocal sample of American actress and comedian LaWanda Page, before the song leads into the sample-splicing skit “Southeast to Paris.”

“Simple City is also the birthplace of Marvin Gaye. I wanted to tell the story of Simple City in a way that it's never been told before. From drug abuse to crime and murder, I wanted to cover what it feels like to be from Simple City and teach the world that the fix to helping disadvantaged Black communities isn't as simple as you think. The way people view our mentalities is a straightforward thing. There's a lot of depth and it should be handled with care. I wanted to create a project where people can 'dance to real shit'."—IDK

Producers-slash-DJs Felix Jaehn (Hamburg, Germany) and Club Soda (São Paulo, Brazil) built a tech-house track around French vocals by violin player and composer Myrthe van de Weetering. Her song was inspired by a quote by French Renaissance philosopher, Michel de Montaigne: “In love, there is nothing but a frantic desire for what flees from us.”

"The skittering percussion on ‘Nowhere Good’ sounds like crickets chirping at night, while stirring vocal refrains add a dash of soul to the mix."

—Resident Advisor on “Nowhere Good”

With a chunk of music by prolific UK drum-and-bass label Hospital Records available on Tracklib, it’s nice to hear their roster of producers also utilizes Tracklib as a go-to-spot to find samples. Japanese producer Makoto Shimizu dug into our 70s soul vaults to find the right vocal to tie in with “What You Need” featuring London-based vocalist Vonné.

“I was looking for male soul vocal samples as I already had a loop that sounded like 70s soul music. I went on Traclkib and searched by vocals, then that Z.Z. Hill acapella came up. When I heard the sample, I loved a few lines and tried to put that into the loop. ‘Sweet Woman By Your Side’ was perfectly in key and exactly what I was looking for! I used a lot of plugins to process the sample and tried to make it as modern-sounding as much as I could because there were newly recorded vocal parts by Vonné as well.”—Makoto Shimizu