Production Breakdown: Hey, Where Does that “Louder!” Sample Come From?

Roughly 99.999% of the time, bands' onstage banter inspires nothing but a chuckle or two. That, or a groan from concertgoers anxious to hear the next song. Once in a blue moon, however, a random ad-lib makes it onto a live recording,which then falls into the hands of a few influential rap producers, and then, boom—your totally off-the-cuff interjection/exclamation/miscellaneous vocalization becomes a pop staple- for decades to come.

For example, few of today's hip-hop heads would know '70s rock band Mountain from a natural upward projection of the Earth's surface but, if you're visiting RefinedHype.com, you've undoubtedly been exposed to the gruff vocal stylings of frontman Leslie West on more than one occasion. In addition to featuring one of the most popular breaks in hip-hop history, the intro to a '72 live version of their “Long Red” spawned a couple of the most ubiquitous vocal samples ever--does the word “Louder!” ring any bells?

Here's the record in question, found on Mountain Live: The World Goes On:



Now, if I were gonna list off every record to swipe the percussion from this cut, I'd be here all day. Instead, inspired by the appearance of the aforementioned “Louder!”on Booth-featured cuts by artists like Jared Evan



and J.Ferb,



I decided that,this week, I'd give readers a whirlwind tour of a few of the records to make use of those those opening ad-libs.

Both of the earliest examples I tracked down dated all the way back to 1987. “It's My Thang,” off Long Island vets EPMD's debut set,Strictly Business prominently featured that ad-libbed shout on the hook.



while lesser-known NY duo Sport “G” & Mastermind did them one better, flipping it into the title of an '87 single.



Just one year later, in one of the most classic examples in today's haul, Public Enemy gave that sample a similarly prominent place on the chorus to ”Louder Than a Bomb.” (It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back)



In 1994, the spirited howl closely following the “Louder!” sample found a place on another classic LP: Nas' Illmatic. Specifically, the Large Professor-produced “It Ain't Hard to Tell.”



Snoop Dogg made even heavier use of that scream on his inexplicable 1999 cover of Queen's arena standard, “We Will Rock You.”



The “Louder!” snippet made it onto yetanother of hip-hop most undisputed classic LP in 2000; “Child's Play” off Ghostface's Supreme Clientele, found RZA working the opening guitar licks into the intro, as well as liberally seasoning the rest of the track with the vocal sample in question.



'04 saw Big Noyd & Prodigy following in the footsteps of Sport “G” & Mastermind, basing their own “Louden”record around The Alchemist's usage of the sample.



Is there any classic sample that doesn't have Kanye's fingerprints all over it? That was meant as a rhetorical question but, you know, he's hit most of 'em at least once. West evidently loved Leslie West's (no relation) ad-libs so much he plastered them all over “Wouldn't Get Far,” off Game's '05 Documentary LP.



And he did it again for good measure on Graduation, turning the “Long Red” scream into the eccentric hook of “Barry Bonds.”



Make that three times. Also in 2007, 'Ye packed “The People,” a joint off Common's Finding Forever LP with the samples he flipped in both of the previously-mentioned jams.



Most recently (aside from the Booth-featured selections with which I led off the column), Madlib deployed that”Louder!” as an accent 29 seconds into “Revelations,” off Mos Def's '09 The Ecstatic LP.



The moral of this story... well... don't scream over a dope break unless you want to hear it repeated more than Howard Dean in 2004? Sure, that works. And as usual, this is merely a representative selection—if I missed one of your favorites, feel free to school me in the comments below.