Sunday Night Sample - Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz - Deja Vù (Uptown Baby)
Banger alert.
People forget but when this song came out in 1997 everybody wished they were from NY.
This song was on the radio in every market every 20 minutes. It was insane. Especially because the duo behind it was previously unheard of. They came out of nowhere.
The pair recorded the track at the famous Cutting Room studio in New York City with KNS and engineers DJ Nastee and David Crafa. The song is a direct sample of Steely Dan's classic "Black Cow". So much so that Steely Dan demanded a $115,000 advance AND 100% of all publishing and royalties. Meaning your boys Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz basically lost money by making this smash hit.
Steely Dan's Donald Fagen and Walter Becker also demanded they be named the only credited songwriters on the production credits which is high comedy.
Steely Dan - Black Cow
There have been several different theories as to what "Black Cow" is about. A troubled relationship, an ode to self-doubt, a commentary on nightlife, a reference to Hindu culture (cows are sacred)? Some music historians and Steely Dan fanatics even believe it could be about Thelonious Monk, the American jazz composer who is often regarded as the father of bebop.
In the Classic Albums episode on the album Aja, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, perhaps showing their wry sense of humor, described the lyric as "self-explanatory," but did offer some insight as to what they had in mind.
"It starts out with this guy talking about this girl he used to be involved with," Fagan said. "She's sitting at a counter, and he describes her behavior and habits, and out of that you begin to see her character and their relationship."
He added that the "black cow" is a beverage - depending on where you live, it can be a milkshake or a coke float (like a root beer float, but with coke). But it's something you would get at a soda fountain, where the song takes place. In the '50s, Fagen and Becker spent a lot of time at these soda fountains.
The song's simplicity makes it so great. The super basic disco-era instrumental starts out with a bass line and drums, then incorporates complex layers with saxophone accompaniment and the electric piano solo.
"Steely Dan made a name for themselves with highly polished productions using a wide array of session musicians." Becker and Fagan would sometimes record a song with one group of musicians, decide it wasn't working, and try it again with an entirely new set of players - rinse and repeat until it was right. Aja was their sixth album; by this time Fagen and Becker had refined their system and developed an uncommon rapport where they could almost read each other's musical minds.
Aja's perfectionism was rewarded with the 1978 Grammy for "Best Engineered Non-Classical Recording". It is the best-selling Steely Dan album, with over 2 million copies sold in America.
Tom Scott, who did the horn arrangements on the Aja album, also played tenor sax on this track, and Victor Feldman did the Fender Rhodes solo.
A wild fact about this song, and the entire album Aja is that the masters have completely disappeared. Nobody knows where they went or what happened to them. Because of this, it is impossible to remaster them into surround-sound versions. The band believes a roadie, groupie, or hanger-on snatched them without anybody noticing. In the liner notes to the stereo remaster of the Aja album, the band offered a $600 reward for information leading to their return.
"Deja Vu" also opens up with the horn sample from Jerry Rivera's "Amores Como El Nuestro"
The funny thing about this is that Wyclef was featured in the music video for Deja Vu (which was recorded in the original Yankee Stadium), and he then went on to also sample this same horn intro in one of the biggest international hits of the century on Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie"
Advertisement
Three remixes were made for the song in an attempt to make some money: The Frankenstein remix produced by Frank "Frankenstein" Fallico, the Pro Black remix produced by Ayatollah, and a Bad Boy remix that was made by Ma$e, The LOX and Puff Daddy (which I can't find for the life of me. If anybody can or has it please send it my way)
Tatyana Ali's song "Daydreamin'", was released later in 1998, and featured the same "Black Cow" sample and also featured both Tariq and Gunz. Gunz even mentions hearing "Black Cow" and being inspired to rap to the beat.