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Samples from the Tribe: I Left My Wallet in El Segundo

Posted at 3:27 PM on February 7, 2012 by Brett Baldwin

In the '90s, nobody could flip a smooth sample like A Tribe Called Quest's Ali Shaheed Muhammad. Many ATCQ's tracks were made what they were by their beat creator, (see the laudatory track "Mr. Muhammad" from Tribe's debut People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm) but perhaps none as much as "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo."

The song consistently ranks among the most popular Tribe tracks, but the rap is pretty lousy. And while it's possible that some of its success has to do with its place in popular culture (see it painfully invoked in the Coen brothers' The Ladykillers), I would make the case that it's the sample and beat that make the song, and not Q-Tip's rap.

In effect, the lyrics of the song are simply building off where DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince's "Parent's Just Don't Understand" left off: Q-Tip's mother wins a game show prize and goes on a month long cruise trip; Q-Tip takes her car, picks up Ali Shaheed Muhammad and they drive cross country to El Segundo. (OK, here's the situation / My parents went away on a week's vacation...)

But that lilting guitar sample, that driving bass line, it's so funky... literally. The primary sample for the song is from "Funky" by The Chambers Brothers.

A Tribe Called Quest artist page

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