Sunday Music: No T-Swift, Just E-Swift

I have fully accepted that I’m far more interested in the critical discussion about Taylor Swift’s new record than the new record itself. I may change my mind in time. But, for the moment, thanks Popcast for scratching the itches, and let’s be clear about where my brain goes every time I hear the the name “Swift” - pretty much as far from showgirl life as you get, with a west coast party rap group I’ve been playin for decades now.

2 Ohio kids moved out West, made some friends, and in early 1990s g-funk LA, decided there was a void for straight party music that they could fill. They started a group and named it Tha Alkaholiks. Party on.

The Ohio detail’s important here. Middle America parties just aren’t NYC/LA parties. Young Eric Brooks was listening to a lot of The Ohio Players and Parliament-Funkadelic at his parties. Eric and his buddy Rico Smith would take road trips together to the east coast, started collecting tapes, and making music of their own.

Eric became E-Swift and Rico became Tash. They moved out west to make a go at music. They quickly met James Robinson, aka J-Ro, who brought them to an LA underground legend, King Tee, who loved their energy and wild partyer vibe.

E-Swift’s sound is sample heavy. He’s not a master recreator like Dr. Dre, and he’s not a master manipulator like Dilla, but he is a master vibe curator.

The first impressions of his stuff probably feel almost juvenile in approach. That ends when you realize they get stuck in your head. It evolves when you realize the layers of energy he was matching together, combined with the embedded hookiness of his choices.

Listen to “Likwit” as an example. Actually before you do let me break down what you’re going to hear when you’re listening to “Likwit.”

At the track/beat level, you get a mix of Lou Donaldson “Ode to Billie Joe” samples, with a “Zimba Ku” by Black Heat drum break, and “Drop the Bomb” by Trouble Funk. These are reasonably well known now for getting used in the early 90s, but they weren’t the most obvious choices in the early 90s.

E-Swift was gifted at tapping into a broader vein with these selections. But what I really want to pick out, and it’s probably the easiest to hear, is how he used the drums from the “Ode to Billie Joe” sample. You’ll probably immediately recognize that snare stutter from other places that it showed up - like how In 1993 alone, when 21 and Over was coming out - the same sample also shows up on A Tribe Called Quest’s “Clap Your Hands” and Cypress Hill’s “3 Lil’ Puto’s”.

I bring up these other two contemporary uses because you can see the same Lou Donaldson core from three slightly different perspectives. Swift is chopping that drum part up just a little bit more, if you listen closely, especially at the track’s beginning. He’s not strictly looping. He’s making it a bit more of a pulse and layering in more samples and triggers for that percussive element.

Get that in your head and then find it in here too:

Sure, you can pull examples from just before (Grand Puba, probably my favorite) and just after (Lauryn Hill, with the most iconic pre-Kanye version. That’s weird they’re the most iconic uses, right? Oh well. For another post maybe.)

Maybe that’s why I still go back to Tha Liks. They’re a distinct framing of a broader taste. They were tuned into a frequency at the same time as some greats, and managed to do their own distinct thing with it.

E-Swift’s production deserves more credit. He’s got a place in history, and for everybody doing something without T-Swift level recognition, you (like me) might take a lot of comfort in knowing how many more E-Swifts there are in history.

Ps. This is definitely not a pitch for E-Swift to do a bunch of T-Swift remixes, but - I’d listen to that. Especially if King Tee was involved, I mean, can you… OK I’ll stop.

Pss. Lou Donaldson was a beast.