Shawn Chrystopher featuring Sam Sparro “Not Really Here”
There’s not enough good things you can say about Sam Sparro‘s still-fire “Black & Gold”. The 2008 (Grammy-nominated!!) breakout single from the Australian newcomer totally delivered what anyone would want from an electro-toned, blue-eyed-soul record (erm…about searching for God). Hell, we bet even Prince had to tap a high-heeled toe once he became aware of the jam.
With that being said, it’s come as a bit of a surprise that rappers haven’t fallen over themselves trying to tap into it as a sample-base “Paper Planes”-style, especially considering they seem to “bless” damn near everything else with a major blog following. Enter Shawn Chrystopher, a Cali-born emcee/ producer currently blazing through the mixtape circuit, to finally give “Black and Gold” a lil’ hip hop touch.
Interestingly, though, it’s not Shawn’s rapping contribution that stands out here as much as his production work. Cooking up a slightly jazzy, slower tempo-ed frame that’s all echoing synthesizer and frantic drum taps, Chrystopher’s work behind the boards is sharp and so complimenting to Sparro’s vocal that we wish it could’ve supported the whole of Sam’s song instead of just keeping the singer’s “involvement” to looped sample hook duties.
DL: “Not Really Here” (alt)
I think the sample was too literal, he sampled the entire statement and it would have been better if it had cut off at “next to you.” The beauty of Swagga Like Us’ sample was that it took a memorable though not central line from another song and built an entirely new song around it as Eminem did with “Stan.”
This song has some interesting moments but Sparro’s segment seems too pasted in as compared to the aforementioned songs based on samples of previous hits.
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