Samples in Hip-hop can double as maps to wild, breathtaking places. Sometimes, it’s the sample itself that opens your eyes to a new band from the past with a wealth of releases to dig through; other times, it’s the fact that two artists from different eras of Hip-hop found the same spirit in an old record and flipped it into two completely different atmospheres. Sometimes, the sample leads to an alien place, and a band that never received its proper glory gets put on the proper pedestal.
Such is the case for The Mighty Tom Cats, the soulful afrobeat group whose name lives on through the Hip-hop history books. With only one official LP under their belt, 1974’s Soul Makossa, a stunning 8-song must listen for jazz fusion fanatics, the relatively mysterious group came and went, except for a loose single that arrived even before the group’s lone LP. In 1973, The Mighty Tom Cats released a 7” single featuring the more sultry “Finger In It,” and the infectious, drum-pounding funk of “Love Potion-Cheeba-Cheeba.” Underneath its silly name, the A-side to the 7” held a drum pattern that flicked the lights on for Company Flow and DMX, who used the nuances of The Mighty Tom Cats to express their own creativity. You can hear the original sample and how Hip-hop welcomed the song with open arms below.
Original Sample: The Mighty Tom Cats – “Love Potion-Cheeba-Cheeba”
Produced by Paul Winley & Ann Winley
Company Flow – “8 Steps to Perfection”
Produced by El-P
DMX – “N****z Done Started Something” (Feat. The LOX & Ma$e)
Produced by Dame Grease
Boogie Down Productions – “South Bronx”
Produced by Boogie Down Productions & Partner Lee Smith
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