Oliver: Lord Finesse - Return of the Funky Man (12 January 1992)

Some time in the late 90s, I was listening to a Peel show in which he played Take Yo' Praise by Camille Yarbrough a 1975 composition from her album, The Iron Pot Cooker, but which was enjoying a new lease of life as the main vocal sample on Praise You by Fatboy Slim.  The ability to discover such origins was always one of the great fringe benefits of John Peel's shows.
Lord Finesse, performer of the present track would also find himself in Norman Cook's plan for world domination as his refrain of "Right about now, the funk soul brother" from Vinyl Dog Vibe by the Vinyl Dogs was lifted onto Rockafeller Skank.
Such exposure was some way off when Finesse was unleashing his  second album onto the world, from which the title track was given a spin on this night.  It's pretty standard "I'm the greatest" shtick, with obligatory references to venereal disease, but I've always been a sucker for records which sample jazz clarinets and the vocal sample is from the peerless Gang Starr.

This nearly made him a star!



Videos courtesy of Gordon Paul and enricoSFK.