Jazz fusion pioneer David Axelrod passed away today, leaving behind a legacy of incredible music and a wealth of eerie, atmospheric material for people to rap over. For the sake of keeping this to twenty tracks, I’ve only included his work with the Electric Prunes and his solo albums, rather than covering his equally extensive catalogue as a producer for the likes of Cannonball Adderley and Lou Rawls (so no ‘Next Episode’ or ‘Bonita Applebum’ on this volume). The first part of the classic Big Daddy magazine interview with the Axe has been republished over at Wax Poetics if you need some extra reading material while you bump this comp.
A Salute To David Axelrod Samples
Track listing:
01 ‘Take ‘Em to War’ – Kool G Rap feat. B-1 and MF Grimm
02 ‘The Great Diamond D’ – Sadat X feat. Heltah Skeltah
03 ‘Irene’ – Timeless Truth feat. Roc Marciano
04 ‘Rags To Riches’ – Baron Ricks feat. Cypress Hill and Self Scientific
05 ‘Check It Out’ – Show & A.G.
06 ‘Respect Mine’ – Fat Joe feat. Raekwon
07 ‘Think Twice’ – INI
08 ‘Brainstorm’ – Lord Finesse feat. KRS-One and OC
09 ‘Seeds Of Hate’ – Godfather Don
10 ‘C’Mon Wit Da Git Down’ [Remix] – Artifacts feat. Busta Rhymes
11 ‘Hit Me With That’ – The Beatnuts
12 ‘Splash’ – J-love and Masta Ace
13 ‘Soul On Ice’ [Remix] – Ras Kass
14 ‘Messin’ With My Cru’ – Akinyele
15 ‘How We Ride’ – Da Beatminerz feat. Freddie Foxxx and Heather B
16 ‘Without a Doubt’ [Original Version] – Black Sheep
17 ‘Hiatus’ [Remix] – Diamond D feat. Cru
18 ‘Ultimate’ – Large Professor
19 ‘Stay True’ – Ghostface Killah
20 ‘The Unseen’ – Quasimoto
Very nice. R.I.P. to a legend. I would comment on the absence of Missin in Action but you’ve got that covered in your post description. Well done.
Rest In Power! Great track list!
Well played. 🙏
Nice one Rob, i’ll have a listen to this tonight.
A real talent, I know it isn’t one of his deep cuts but ‘Holy Thursday’ is one of my favourite ever records.
R.I.P.
BTW Betanuts?
Were they like the Beatnuts but less Alpha?
Yeah I know i’m a pedant.
@sonny7: Betanuts were a test version not released to the public until all the bugs were ironed out and patched.
A legend indeed, rest in peace.
Lol Robbie.
I was gonna go the test version route, but you worded it better than I would have!
Good work Robbie, do you remember that ‘Strange Fruit’ track, think it was Pete Rock , Tragedy, couple of others? I have the white label at home somewhere. Think it sampled the ending of ‘Holy Are You’.I remember Axelrod blew my mind when I discovered him. So ahead if his time.
@Frank Zito: That song was meant to be on this but I accidently left it off. Looks like a volume two might be in order.
Great post. It was crazy how many joints were built off his work. Plus the music itself was so dope i would just listen to his records just to bump some good music. Personal favorite flip is the Soul on Ice remix. That joint still gives me the chills. It was so crazy he partially named a track after Diamond and he worked with Ras Kass. Dude is a legend in every sense of the word.
I flipped and instrument tribute EP to him in his memory https://tokyocigarmusic.bandcamp.com/album/david-axelrod-tribute
Rest in Peace to The Axe
Nice compilation. I would have liked to see Masta Ace – No Regrets included.
MY bad you explained that you werent including that part of his career as a producer
Cool, those Tragedy tracks at that time were sick. Definately support a vol.2