My recent dissection of the beat for Pete Rock’s “In the House” triggered some sort of hunger for All Things Soul Brother, and over the past week I’ve been digging through my vinyl and listening to as many Pete Rock instrumentals that I’ve been able get my hands on. Then I thought, “What if I were to compile an hour-long mix of nothing but Pete Rock beats?” My kneejerk reaction was to immediately discard the idea, reckoning that few people would want to listen to an hour’s worth of instrumentals by a single artist. In the end, I decided to construct the mix anyway for myself, and upload it to the site if anyone else was interested in it. So there’s that. Onto the mix itself.
In addition to adhering to the single-artist ‘theme,’ I set a further restriction: all tracks had to (roughly) be recorded from 1992 to 1994. Not only do I feel that this was Pete Rock’s finest era, but for my purposes here, it gives the mix some uniformity and a coherent musicality that an across-the-board mix would lack. So I selected about 30 or so instrumentals, jotted down some notes, cued up the turntables and checked the levels on my mixer, and went to work. In the end, the mix was nowhere near an hour in length (likely the fault of an insistent bladder) and a handful of cuts fell by the wayside, but I tried to let each track ‘breathe’ for at least a full minute before cueing up the next one. The tempos slowly ascend from 86 bpm to around 100 bpm by the end of the mix. Some of the transitions aren’t as smooth as I’d like them to be, but overall I’m satisfied with it. As always, all tracks are culled from vinyl sources. Enjoy.
”Soul Brother Blends ’92 – ‘94” – Pete Rock 42:23 (April 2007)
Tracklist:
I Got Love
The World Is Yours (Nas)
In the Flesh
Shut ‘Em Down (Public Enemy)
Lots of Lovin’
Searching
Sun Won’t Come Out
Flow On (New Symphony) (Remix) (Lords of the Underground)
I Get Physical
Return of the Mecca
Carmel City
Take You There
In the House
If It Ain’t Rough
Worldwide
For Pete’s Sake
Tell Me
Straighten It Out
Check It Out
On and On
Pass the Mic (Remix) (Da Youngstas)
It’s Like That
Jump Around (Remix) (House of Pain)
They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)
30 Comments so far
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Nice one! The dissection of the Pete Rock beat was some excellent writing. I’ve been a Pete Rock fan since I went to Mount Vernon to visit my cousins and got to experience Money Earnin’ on my own. Seeing everyone call Heavy D “Dwight” and see him still taking out his mother’s trash while rockin’ a dookie gold rope like he wasn’t all over BET was a lot for an 11 year old to handle. Keep it up. One.
Comment by Dart_Adams 04.26.07 @Dude…starting off this mix with “I Gotta Love” was brilliant. That track really got me into Pete Rock, from the horns to the guitar stabs to the Biz Mark sample. “T.R.O.Y.” was of course certified classic, but the video used to creep me out when I was kid. “I Gotta Love” had a dope video with hot chicks on some tropical island then they brought it back to NYC.
Genius mix.
Comment by Rap Jack Bauer 04.26.07 @‘My kneejerk reaction was to immediately discard the idea, reckoning that few people would want to listen to an hour’s worth of instrumentals by a single artist’
Are you kidding??!!!!! A greatly appreciated mix from my top producer of all time. Pete Rock is one of the only producers whose work could work in this context, and it does so with bells on.
Big thanks - cheers!!!
Dan
Comment by Dan Love 04.26.07 @Just realised that this is just a stream (unless I’m being stupid). Could I get a hold of a link to download?
Thanks in advance,
Dan
Comment by Dan Love 04.26.07 @Dart - that image of Heavy D taking out his moms’ trash is almost too much for me to handle. You should drop a post around that story.
Zilla - I’d like to claim the “I Got Love” opener as a choice, but it was kinda out of necessity; it was one of the few Pete Rock joints I had that clocks in at around 85 bpm, and “The World Is Yours” just didn’t sound right in the opening slot. It worked out for the better, anyway. And yeah, I know what you mean about the “T.R.O.Y.” video.
Dan - I figured if anyone would appreciate this mix, it would be you. That should be a direct link to the mp3 - just right-click and select “save as” or alt + click if you have a Mac.
Thanks for the kind words, everyone!
Comment by floodwatch 04.26.07 @Don’t know how I didn’t manage that first time around… thanks again.
Dan
Comment by Dan Love 04.26.07 @Damn, this mix brought back memories. Nice work flood! About the only other track I could have asked for from that time period was Pete Rock’s remix of Jamal’s Fade Em All.
Comment by fresh 04.27.07 @Fresh - I actually thought about that Jamal track, but I’ve been looking for that one for years.
Comment by floodwatch 04.27.07 @Well done man! Great mix of beats.
God bless, keep doing what u doing.
Marcus
Comment by Marc Elias 05.10.07 @This music selection is dope. Listening to this mix of old school beats by the Chocolate Boy Wonder makes me realize how today’s hip hop is moving backwards, most of all of today’s beats sound the same with no soul at all. Almost everybody beats sounds like everybody else. Please continue to drop these gems on the 1’s and 2’s.
Good night and God BLESS
Comment by Blessed 05.13.07 @homey—much apreciated been freestylin and writting some sikniss,,,not a miss a hit - fo sure -legit……
Comment by smoke theemcee 06.17.07 @these staements are rocking to petes basement - face it - time tested classic influential……smoke theemcee will says its essential — hip hop hall of fame - for all those who forget how to be original - all sounding the same - definition of lame … take a trip through memory lane,,,with the soul brother …there will never be another…..excuse me while i make my return to mecca ….with the turntaable recca …..
Comment by smoke theemcee 06.17.07 @Pete is the illest. Does anyone have any of his futureflavas remixes? There are a lot. I have a few but I need all of them badly.
Comment by illest 06.21.07 @Hey,
first time viewer courtesy of souled on. How have i slept on this? Much thanks for quality writing blended with excellent taste.
Comment by anemes 08.15.07 @OF COURSE NO ONE HAS THEM. PETE TOLD ME TO KEEP DIGGING FOR HIM WHEN I INQUIRED ABOUT THIS ON HIS MYSPACE.COM/OFFICIALPETEROCKPAGE. HES FRONTIN
Comment by ILLEST 01.16.08 @Just peeped this via Dan Loves’ FDB blog. Dope mix. I shall continue to check your stuff out.
Pz
Comment by Jonny 06.22.08 @why does the stream keep stopping every few seconds? i’m loving the mix but this is driving me bananas.
Comment by ljiljana 07.12.08 @Really a nice mix enjoyed it, would it be possible 2 up Lots of lovin full instrumental?
Comment by Gino 10.16.08 @I’m a college student majoring in computer science and I’m starting a site called the global collective and i would love to feature this brand of hip hop and instrmentals
please send me some contact info so I can send you a sample of the site cause its kind of hard to explaine, I’d rather yall just see it cause its pretty self expanatory.
contact info:
Jason Thomas
256 8597528 home
904 3274657 cell
jason007thomas@yahoo.com
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Always a pleasure! I need to head down to Providence…
Comment by SomerVile 04.26.07 @