1 Step from Plagiarism

Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City (1974)/Two Steps from the Blues (1961)
You've probably heard Jay's Heart of the City. Great song. However, my first inclination was to check out the liner notes. Damn. Nice samples. Actually, not samples....just one sample. According to the notes: "Heart of the City (Ain't No Love) contains samples from Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City."

So, here's the original track (below). Beautiful. However, the use of this song by Kanye "MI:3" West blurs the line between sampling and plagiarism. Kanye just reordered Bobby's song. Move the intro, loop the ...Church part, horns, everything. Hopefully, Bobby got paid. Paid in full. Kanye should've just let Jay do what Ghostface did to the Delfonics on Holla. It would have been the honest thing to do.

I've been looking for an excuse to post about Bobby "Blue" Bland. He had one instrument, his voice. You hear it in Ain't No Love, but it was in its pinnacle during the 2 Steps recording sessions. His booming voice combined sophistication, grit, and blues in a way never done before.

In many ways this album became pop music's bridge between the blues and soul. Blues + soul + No compromising either artform. Analogous to Goodie Mob's Soul Food; soul + hip-hop+ no compromise. The title track is a masterpiece. The arrangements, horns, vocals. Choice cuts: the title track, Cry cry cry, I Pity the Fool, I've been wrong so long.

Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City: http://rapidshare.de/files/18912188/bbland_aint_no_love.mp3.html
2 Steps from the Blues: http://rapidshare.de/files/18911950/bbland_two_steps_from_the_blues.rar.html