Production Breakdown: Soul Khan’s “Thunder in Paradise”

It's a great time to be alive, if you're a fan of progressive pop; every day, artists seem to be coming out of the woodwork with combinations of musical elements that would never in a million years have occurred to yours truly. This week in the Booth, we heard Mark Ronson team up with Ghostface Killah over what sounded like a Mexican standoff between indie rockers the Shins and a high school marching band. And the Niceguys demonstrated that it's possible to rap about the Book of Job over hard-rock guitar without sounding absolutely ridiculous – a feat so shocking that it just might be a sign of the Apocalypse.

As excited as I am by the mounting tide of crazily creative urban pop, though, there's still nothing like a deftly-flipped vintage-soul sample to brighten up my day – especially when said sample is borrowed from a classic joint I haven't heard before. The latest joint to earn a place in my headphones, along with its source material was “Thunder in Paradise,” the DJBooth debut and latest solo single from Brown Bag All-Stars member and renowned battle rapper Soul Khan.

In case you were wondering, the record has absolutely nothing, as far as I can tell, to do with Thunder in Paradise the short-lived TV series which found Hulk Hogan (as ex-Navy SEAL Randolph J. “Hurricane” Spencer”) fighting crime off Florida's Gulf Coast, with the help of a transforming boat. But, just because I find it hilarious, here's the intro:



This program was created by the same folks responsible for Baywatch, if you weren't able to guess from the abundance of slow-motion-running swimsuit shots. But... where was I again? Oh yeah, the sample that beatsmith Marink flipped on Soul Khan's first Booth feature. The record in quesiton is “A Love That's Real,” a single released in 1967 by Philadelphia soul quintet The Intruders:



Man, I can't get enough of those vocal harmonies. For his part, Marink (along with DJ Brace and DJ Goo, who provide, respectively, cuts and bass), presents a unique take on the classic joint, slicing and dicing the record's resonant brass chords into a simple but effective backdrop for Soul Khan's intricate rhymes.

While WhoSampled.com lists a number of artists who have grabbed samples from records by The Intruders, I was somewhat surprised to find that no one had previously mined “A Love That's Real” for inspiration. They vintage soul group have, however, made at least one other appearance in the Booth. On Ohio femcee Dominique Larue's “Batter Up,” producer Idasa Tariq served up a chopped sample from their '68 single “(Love Is Like A) Baseball Game,”



So there you have it: there's nothing like discovering a neglected classic or two. Until next time, Reifinedhypesters!