The Sampling Secrets in Mobb Deep’s Shook Ones Part II

Today we’re talking about the classic Mobb Deep song “Shook Ones, Pt II” and ending up in a few surprising places, breaking down the samples, the musical devices, and in the process of recreating this hip hop classic, we’ll see the story in “Shook Ones Part II” become even richer.

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SOURCES

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TOPICS COVERED
Mobb Deep
The Infamous
Shook Ones Part II
Prodigy
Havoc
Hip Hop
Music
History
Queensbridge
Production
Sampling
Samples
Herbie Hancock
Quincy Jones
Fat Albert

[JustinMorrison]

Shook Ones Part II is THE greatest hip-hop track of all time, on every level. When those drums kick in it stops you dead in your tracks, and then the piano lets you know that this is serious, serious business. And THEN Havoc and Prodigy drop those lyrics. Just untouchable.

Thank you so much for sharing this analysis—I didn't even know it was a Mobb Deep production! Mind blown.

[pervertedalchemist]

I remember when there was a fifteen year wild goose chase trying to figure out what the sample was. The answer was eventuality revealed in 2011.

[eastnystyle]

Q-Tip was a huge part of the making of the Infamous album. He fully produced Give Up The Goods, Temperatures Rising, Drink away The Pain. And he did the drums on Trife Life and Up North Trip. And he added the horns and mixed the drums on Survival Of The Fittest.

[petsounds]

Q.U. Hectic is one of my favorite beats of all time. Havoc captured the grittiness and darkness of NY in the 80s and early 90s

[laurisaarinen]

That beat is absolutely CHILLING... makes it even better when you know the story behind it and hear how all the different sounds come together. This channel is great at explaining hip hop production.

[Clayfacer]

I was actually blown away when I first learned that the sample in shookones was a slowed down piano. Another cool thing about the sample was that the notes heard stayed in key and in sync with the song even when pitched down again. usually if you try play a sample on a different note the pitch completely changes, along with the timing too so it would typically fall out of sync/key in a beat, but with the shook ones sample it just all works out so perfectly, its actually pretty insane. I could talk about this song all day lol, its so good.

[peachy-tay]

i'm loving this sampling series you've been putting out! it's one thing to show where the samples come from but you elevate it to another level with backstory and insane detail

[thedude]

I've already seen a couple of videos about the sample used in shook ones, but still can't get enough of it! The art of using so little and creating such an involving atmosphere out of it makes this song just a pure classic.

[boulderarchitect]

I’m not going to lie, but The Infamous might be my favorite record of all time. It’s just minimal and so good.

[mnspstudioLOST]

The in-depth breakdowns and your showing the exact sample rotation is the best way to present this material. You do an excellent job and I have thus far completely grooved with all of your sample videos, even for songs I didn't particularly care for by themselves. Keep up the good work.

[pygmyhippomusic]

Q Tip is a national treasure and needs to be protected at all costs

[NewGrow-kbbg]

I really like how they use horns and samples to create the sound of nyc subway trains and traffic. I’m just a sucker for that move lol.


For example; the sound at 7:00 sounds just like a musical electric subway train both starting its electric engine, the wheels on the tracks, the sound of a PA alerting you the train has arrived and train breaks. All in one sample.


The effect is like this: the train starting is in the front of a sample, and the breaking sound is toward the end of a sample; giving the effect of a never ending starting and stopping of train cars, which in and of itself, is a statement about the city that never sleeps

The infamous is a classic album. The extended version is great.


Shook part 2 is a great place to start cause it’s the most popular but there’s so much great samples, analogies, stories and sounds on this album, there’s a wealth of content on this album for ya.

Lastly, the nyc subway trains tend to use not flats or sharps as tones, so the Ebm sounds pitched down making the herby train sounding tones give the effect of time being in slow motion, dreaming in a city that never sleeps, being tired from hustling, or being slightly intoxicated to someone used to the normal sound of nyc subway tones. Even for someone without perfect pitch, it’s gonna have a subliminal effect

[brian-mash]

One of the top hip hop songs (of all time) not necessarily skill-wise but seminal in terms of ambience and tone for the genre.

Never knew how much craftsmanship havoc put into this, and for gramps to be musically connected to the legendary quincy. Great stuff.

[blayzej]

Man, Havoc just on the strength of that track alone, is one of the best producers to do it

[Headhunter_]

Can we just agree that the mic audio on these videos is topnotch...just a tasty bonus.

[dewarrencarter]

The crazy thing is… He can explain the beat better than the person that made the beat. He knows some details that didn’t matter to the beat maker. They was throwing stuff and samples on a beat. He is doing the footwork to know about samples, the sounds, the background and the what, when, where and how….TRUE GENIUS

[khalewren]

Havoc isn’t even one of my personal favourite producers, and i still feel like he goes REALLY underappreciated.

[amsf]

One of the most classic records ever. There are certain songs that blew my mind when i first heard them. This was one, The World is Yours by Nas and by Outkast.... Man, the good old days....

[verbone]

I pass by QB all the time. Shook Ones II still goes through my head to this day when I'm there.

[smokeedinero]

You're one of my favorite channels fam frfr keep it up