🔎🎼Rap Samples: Eddie Kendricks & AZ — "Loving You The Second Time Around" & "I'm Back"
Eddie Kendricks
The late ‘60s marked the emergence of Motown and Stax, two powerful independent record labels that specialized in soul music, a Black music form that was spawned by rhythm & blues and pioneered by Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, and James Brown.
Motown, founded by Barry Gordy, was overt in its quest for mass appeal. Read that as: They made Black music for Black people, but they made sure to make it accessible to white audiences who were, by the late ‘60s, increasingly crossing color lines to buy Black music.
Perhaps as a counterweight to the polish and sheen of the “Motown Sound,” and more probably a direct response to the rawness of Stax records, the Memphis label that featured a more raw-soul sound during the same period, Gordy often assigned the hader soul music to Tamla, one of five imprints of Motown.
With this edition of “Rap Samples,” I’m taking a look at the song “Loving You The Second Time Around,” a deep cut from Eddie Kendricks’s album Boogie Down (Tamla, 1974) .
Eddie Kendricks — “Loving You The Second Time Around”
Eddie Kendricks’s most notable touch of fame came as a member of The Impressions, one of Motown’s chief examples of the “Motown sound.” The group included members Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, and David Ruffin. (The original five members of The Impressions included Elbridge “Al” Bryant who was replaced by Ruffin. After Ruffin left the group, he was replaced by Dennis Edwards Jr.
“Loving You the Second Time Around” appears as the last song on Boogie Down, Kendricks’s fourth solo effort. Whether it was an afterthought or simply a delightful way to close out the album, it would go on to give fuel to a veteran New York rapper who stole the show in 1994.
AZ, front left, with Nas ca. 1995
Eddie Kendricks’s “Loving You The Second Time Around” was sampled sampled and repurposed for AZ’s song “I’m Back.” Produced by Buckwild (The BeatTips Manual contains the most comprehensive Buckwild interview) and released on the Motown label, ironically, “I’m Back” marked a return of sorts for AZ.
AZ crashed the rap world with his guest verse on “Life’s A Bitch,” a heat rock of song from Nas’s debut album, Illmatic, an undisputed rap classic and arguably the best rap album of all time. Grabbing the lone featured performance on Illmatic (the album contained no other guess verses) cemented AZ’s legendary rap status.
Nas - “Life’s A Bitch” feat. AZ (Prod. by L.E.S.)
While AZ was undoubtedly influenced by New York rap legends like Kool G Rap, Rakim, and Big Daddy Kane, there was no father to AZ’s style and flow when arrived on the rap scene. And by every indicator, the East New York, Brooklyn MC was destined to be a rap star. In 1995, one year after the release of Illmatic, AZ dropped his debut album, Doe or Die. Doe or Die is a rap classic whose commercial success matched its buzz and critical acclaim. It was certified gold at a time when gold actually meant physical sales of 500,000 copies sold!
Pieces of A Man (1998), AZ’s sophomore album, was good, some have described as an even better overall effort than Doe or Die. Still, it lacked the urgency of AZ’s debut. His style and sound had changed to a degree, and the album failed to capture the same level of commercial success as Doe or Die. From there, AZ settled into somewhat of a journeyman rapper’s career. He still shined in spots, often making solid projects, but he never quite recaptured that same sort of initial album magic. That is until his album Aziatic in 2002, which featured the song “I’m Back.”