Fugees - “Zealots” - 1996, Nate, did you really put a song from the instant classic 90s hip hop album The Score by Lauryn Hill, Pras, and Wyclef Jean? I sure did. And there is a method to my madness.

Zero 7 - “Red Dust” - 2001, Zero 7 - It’s not just for the Garden State soundtrack anymore.

Ben Pearce - “What I Might Do” - 2013, Ben is an English DJ and producer. This song was his debut release and features sample vocals from R&B artist Anthony Hamilton’s 2003 song, “Cornbread, Fish, & Collard Greens”

Esbe - “Darling” - 2015, Esbe is a producer from LA that mixes up jazz and soul samples to create atmospheric chill house music.

Lord Echo - “Thinking of You” - 2010, Was this on June’s playlist? Yeah, but it didn’t count since that was a concept playlist. Lord Echo (Mike August or Mike Fabulous) is another dub aficionado. Despite this sounding like a mix of more modern beats with a vintage recording of vocals, the vocals are a recent recording and cover of Sister Sledge’s song of the same name.

Tim Maia - “Do Leme Ao Pontal” - 1986, Tim is a Brazilian singer songwriter that covered a pretty wide range from soul, funk, and disco, and jazz, to rock R&B, and latin beats like samba, bossa nova, baiao, and brasileira. He pioneered the musical style, sambalaco, combing samba, soul, funk and rock n roll.

PawPaw Rod - “Lemonhaze” - 2021, Oklahoman rapper that combines, rap, 60s soul, and house.

Wax Tailor - “Que Sera” - 2005, French producer in the electro/trip-hop scene.

Silk Sonic - “Fly As Me” - 2021, Silk Sonic is Bruno Mars and Anderson.paak’s side project, named by the famous funk bassist, Bootsy Collins. It started off as a goof while touring together in Europe in 2017. One of the best things about the pandemic world shutdown, was musicians had nothing better to do than hole up in a studio and make amazing music. This album is one of those. It is an R&B Tenacious D, but you would never know that it is a joke until you actually pay attention to the lyrics. The music is impeccable.

People Under the Stairs - “Acid Raindrops” - 2002, In their heyday, “The P” was considered the most successful independent hip-hop group, touring 6 continents and 40 countries. They self produced 12 records and had numerous appearances on the Billboard charts.

Soul Coughing - “Blame” - 1998, Another spoken word style tune from the 90s underdogs.

Handsome Boy Modeling School - “Holy Calamity (Bear Witness II)” - 1999, HBMS was the duo Prince Paul, who made a name for himself as part of De la Soul as well as a producer, and Dan “The Automator” Nakamura. Prince Paul pretty much pioneered the comedy sketch aspect of this era of hip hop records (bring that back by the way). Nakamura later went on to produce the Gorillaz debut album, Jamie Cullum’s Catching Tales, and had scoring credits in Ocean’s 11, The Sopranos, Better Call Saul, and Scott Pilgrim vs the World. He also was a band member of the Gorillaz, and had a side project with Del the Funky Homosapien (the rapper on the iconic debut Gorillaz single, “Clint Eastwood”) and the DJ, Kid Koala, called Deltron 3030.

Cymande - “Bra” - 1972, British funk outfit that played a mix of funk, soul, reggae, rock, African music, calypso, and jazz, that they called “Nyah-Rock”. They were being regularly sampled in the late 80s by hip hop artists like Grandmaster Flash and De la Soul. The Fugees actually lost a copywrite infringement case for an unauthorized sample. This song was featured in the Spike Jones film “Crooklyn”.

Subculture Sage, Illaman - “Happy Like the Sunking” - 2017, British experimental hip hop duo also featuring London MC, Illaman.

Miami Horror - “Leila” - 2017, Australian electronic music group, originally the solo work of DJ, Benjamin Plant, but eventually expanded into a full band including guitars, keyboard, percussion, and vocals.

Amo Amo - “Closer to You” - 2019, This song has a reggae/dancehall vibe that could have been from the early 80s. The singer and band leader of Amo Amo goes by the moniker “Love Femme” and all profits of the band go to sex trade survivors.

Caribou - “Home” - 2019, Caribou is Canadian musician, Dan Snaith, and has recorded also under the names Manitoba and Daphni. He has a PhD in mathematics and comes from a family of mathematicians (father and sister)

Arthur Lyman - “Mapuana” - 1958, Lyman was a Hawaiian jazz vibraphone and marimba player. He was one of the first artists to record in a three dimensional soundstage and feature stereophonic LP albums. At an early age, his strict father would lock him in a room full of records and a toy marimba, and told him to “learn what good music is.” His first performance was at age 8 on his toy marimba on Amateur Hour on the radio station KGMB, Honolulu. He went on to join his father and brother playing USO shows on the bases at Kaneohe and Pearl Harbor. He then went fully professional at age 14. This album is maybe the most relaxing album I’ve ever heard.

The Flamingos - “I Only Have Eyes For You” - 1959, We are full circle - I told you there is a method to my madness. The first song on the playlist - Fugees, “Zealot” - uses the background vocals of this song as the main sample. This is one of the best recordings of all time in my opinion. It is damn near immaculate. The vocals arrangements are some of the best ever recorded in history. At least, that’s like my opinion, man.