Don’t Look Any Further

Ok.

Here’s a little homework for you. Nobody likes to click links. In order for you to enjoy the point of this one, you’re going to have to click on the links.

First, listen to this. You don’t need to listen long, 15 seconds or so is all you need to get it, but it’s actually a fun song through the end if you’re not a nerd. (My apologies if there’s an ad. The joys of youtube…)

The first time I actually remember hearing that beat was in Tupac’s “Hit ’em Up,” a song that came out at the height of gangsta rap and was clearly meant as a shot at Notorious BIG and Puff Daddy.

A few years later, there was a remix of TLC’s “Unpretty” going around that used the same beat.

It’s not a new thing that hip hop artists sample beats from R&B tracks, and, by then, I was used to it, as Puff Daddy had pretty much sampled pretty much every record that was ever recorded by early 2000.

But it didn’t stop at those two songs.

Dennis Edwards’s “Don’t Look Any Further” made its way into a couple of other rap tracks.

“Way of Life” by Lil’ Wayne featuring the Big Tymers was Cash Money Records way of paying homage (and money) to good old Dennis Edwards.

And it came up again on Snoop Dogg’s Paid Tha Cost To Be Da Bo$$ album in a track called “Paper’d up,” which you’ll probably remember from a funny film called Old School.

There are lots more, but those are the ones that are significant to me. (If you’re into Spotify playlists, I compiled one with the songs that I could find that sample “Don’t Look Any Further.”)

And I only bring this up because the only thing I can think about when I hear any of these songs is our buddy, Dennis Edwards.