RMXTP2 Liner Notes: "Give It Up"

Sade “Give It Up” (Re-Edit)

I could sit here and attempt to articulate the importance of Sade in my musical universe, but that would be like trying to explain why the west coast is refered to as the “Fre$hcoast”; If you can’t comprehend if you haven’t been! Either way it goes, I’ve been a Sade fan from jump. The sophistication in their sound was fresh departure from the technologically akward sound ruling much of 80s pop. While working on the [Re]Mixtape Vol. 2, I kept asking myself “what would put this over the top?” I had already went out on a limb, giving a face lift to “Oh Sheila”… I wanted to remix something that was off the radar, but would have folks wishin’ why they didn’t think of it. In fact, the whole idea about doing remix projects came from two of my favorite artists, one being Sade with Remix Deluxe and the other from…Bobby Brown’s Dance! Ya Know It!… I’m not playin’ either!

Back in high school, the homies who helped me get into production did an uptempo re-edit of Sade’s “Like a Tatoo” on some breezy-soulelectro-80’s-dance steez… I think I have it on a minidisk somewhere… Anyway, I went through all her albums and came across “Give It Up”. The track was sparse, perfect. I decided to “plug it into the socket”, electrify the track. My approach to this track was totally different than any other. Because the tempo was organic and imperfect like a drum machine, I didn’t pre-program the music. Instead everything I added on top of the track was played all the way through, from the four-to-the-floor kicks to the Juno synth swells. This method was how I first started making beats; Dual tape decks, a Casio keyboard, and Super NES’ Mario Paint in high school (for you New Jacks, it was damn near $1000 to get in the game with samplers and workstations… Free rips of professional soft synth sequencers like Fruity Loops and Reason weren’t around yet!). The track came out exactly how I wanted…Oh yeah… this is a “re-edit” and not a remix… Your homework is to figure out the difference and get back to me!

Sade-Give It Up.mp3