I’ve always been a fan of rap/hip-hop, I think it has to do with my drumming background. I love the syncopation of the beat, the low tones of the bass, and of course a catchy melody over the top of it all. I recently have been using Spotify more, which means I’ve been able to explore music fast and more efficiently, instead of having to google/youtube old songs. One other reason hip hop is cool, is because a lot of the time the producer might use a sample from an older song. This is a great discovery tool! I find myself googling the song title + sample, and that will usually lead to a cool artist that I may never have heard of.

In this case, it’s Willie Hutch.

A couple of days ago I was thinking of old rap songs I used to listen to, and one of my favorites was Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You) by UGK featuring OutKast. Knowing they used a sample in the song, I googled it, and found out about “Willie Hutch” and his song “I Choose You”.

It was awesome to hear the UGK sample in its original form. As I dug deeper into his Wikipedia, it was great to see how many songs he wrote and how influential he was in the music industry. It’s too bad that someone like me who loves music has never heard of him, but his work and resume is quite incredible.

My favorite part of “I Choose You” is the horns, they are just so powerful and so beautiful. It’s definitely a song I would love to see live and be able to feel the energy of the horns in my chest.

So, I would encourage you to look around Willie’s resume and check out some of his other songs.

I can’t get over the horn section!!!!

Here are a few of my favorites: