From a compilation of 1990s Seattle hiphop music, that I almost completely missed. I knew a little Source of Labor, not much more. The creative center here is one Vitamin D, impresario over a home studio known as The Pharmacy, and a bunch of alum of Garfield High School, the collective braintrust behind Tribal Music Inc or Tribal Productions. The groups include names like B-Self, Sho Nuff, The Ghetto Children, Samson S & H-Bomb, Union of Opposites, and Phat Mob in the sample track below, and all of them play together like they like making music together. Phat Mob epitomizes the laidback and deep grooves vibe that pervades; first words: "listen to a story of a drum set,"..."tappin' and tappin', ... "first a drum set." It's the Hiphop side of '90s downtempo electronica, as if De La Soul and Native Tongues spawned urban hiphop scenes all over the country and Tribal Productions are the proud Seattle Edition. Also shares that easy going deep grooves vibe with the same late '90s vintage Soulquarians (J. Dilla, Questlove, Erykah Badu, etc) but much more rap-centric; Gang Starr, Blackalicious, and I'm sure many more I don't know. Less celebrated than another local rap comp from around the same time, 14 Fathoms Deep (1996), Do The Math goes down like "butter and chocolate." Night music. Check it out.
"Wrong Number," Phat Mob (1996):
Phat Mob are sampling The Stylistics 1972 version of "You'll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart)":
Dionne Warwick's original version, written and produced by Hal David and Burt Bacharach, and released in 1964:
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