Sam Sever
January 6th, 2006 by mattmatical
Tricky Tee - Leave It To The Drums 1986
Oran ‘Juice’ Jones - Pipe Dreams 1989
Downtown Science - This Is A Visit 1991
Sam Sever and the Raiders of the Lost Art - Words Of Wisdom (They Don’t Know) 1995
With information once again being relatively sparse, we best point you to this highly recommended interview at Baghat Vinyl. There you will learn how Sam Sever came to programm the drums of Run-DMC’s “Is It Live” from “Raising Hell,” an album this blogger holds in the utmost highest regard. We also assume that you already know Sam’s most crucial work with 3rd Bass, so we’ll try and maneouvre a bit around “The Cactus Album” and “Derelicts Of Dialect.”
So let’s start with Sam Citrin’s first official production gig, as found on the Tricky Tee 12″ “Leave It To The Drums” b/w “I’ve Got It Good” from 1986. Tricky Tee was no MC Tee and Sam was no Kurtis Mantronik (for reference, check Tricky Tee’s Mantronik-produced “Johnny The Fox” from ‘85), but “Leave It To The Drums” is certainly a song title fit for a hip-hop blog like ours and musically it should give you a clear idea of the era this aspiring producer came up in, editing by Chep Nunez and all.
Sever soon hooked up with Def Jam, where he was not only involved in 3rd Bass, but also got to produce Oran ‘Juice’ Jones’ “Pipe Dreams,” the ultimate statement on crack addiction from the soul side. The early ’90s marked Sam Sever’s ascent to artist status as he formed the duo Downtown Science with rapper Bosco Money. Their self-titled album rests on the obscure side of the Def Jam discography but has my complete approval both in the musical and the lyrical department. The “Wall”-sampling “This Is A Visit” hints at what these guys were on, but is just as likely to mislead you.
After both 3rd Bass and Downtown Science disbanded, Sever continued to work for Def Jam coming up with for instance the excellent “The Rapsody (In J Minor)” by Pete Nice & Daddy Rich and Nikki D’s “Lettin’ Off Steam.” In 1993 he released a couple of party breaks on Big Beat (some of which you can hear on his MySpace page) and closed the final LONS album with the monstruous “Spontaneous (13 MC’s Deep!)” Then came his MoWax phase, with according to this interview 12 songs being submitted to James Lavelle, but only a couple of them seeing a release, among them the b-side to his “What’s That Sound (Fucked Up Sound)” single, “Words of Wisdom (They Don’t Know),” words by the way courtesy of one of the Last Poets and apparently applicable to hip-hop to no small degree: “Record company is the pimp, artist is the ho, the stage is the corner, and the audience is the trick.” [Note: Blame the blogger for the skip, it occurred while ripping from vinyl.]
The previously mentioned extensive interview confirms what the name-drop in KRS-One’s “Out For Fame” lead me to believe - that Sam Sever also did a little bit of graf. For now please enjoy Sever’s musical subway art.
www.samsever.com
Posted on January 6th, 2006 by mattmatical
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