Calling Radiohead “eclectic” is kinda like calling Stephen Hawking “a bit of a clever clogs” or Adolf Hitler “quite the rascal, come to think of it.” The word doesn’t cover the way that, for 22 years now, their sound has jerked spasmodically in more directions, down more strange paths and weird cul-de-sacs, than me that time I spilt a can of Fanta on my sat nav and it went fucking haywire on the drive back from Glastonbury 2013. Britpoppy jangles? ‘Pablo Honey’ had those in abundance. Melancholy-sozzled space-prog? See ‘OK Computer’. Skittering electronica? Ambient claustrophobia? Creepy folk? ‘Kid A’, ‘Amnesiac’ and ‘In Rainbows’ (on rustic acoustic ballad ‘Faust ARP’) respectively. If there’s a genre that the Oxford crew have yet to mine for sounds, they either haven’t got round to it yet or rightly believe that no one wants to hear Thom’s beautiful falsetto gnarled by EDM synths or jittery PC Music madness.
The band have so far steered curiously away from hip-hop however, one solitary Doom collab aside. Which is a shame, as their sound lends itself well to rap: as pointed out by fans of Kendrick Lamar’s lauded new album, on which bobbing below the Compton emcee’s raspy rhymes on ‘How Much A Dollar Cost’, lies stately piano borrowed (or at least heavily influenced by) ‘Amnesiac’ standout ‘Pyramid Song’. It’s not a sample, at least not according to the album’s sleeve notes, which doesn’t credit Radiohead in any way. I hope for K Dot’s sake Thom Yorke doesn’t share a lawyer with the Marvin Gaye estate. But that’s another matter. Point is, hip-hop and Radiohead are two things that should be more frequently fused. Don’t believe me? Here are five pretty great rap songs that sample the band. Migos guest spot on LP9 please, fellas.
Vinny Cha$e – ‘Take The Money’ (‘Idioteque’)
“Got the mind of a stock broker with the appearance of a pot smoker,” boasts Harlem rapper Cha$e on this 2012 cut, from his ‘Survival of the Swag’ mixtape. Adding deep trap rumbles to the ‘Kid A’ favourite’s icy synth swells and agitated beats, it’s pretty ace, turning Thom’s “take the money and run” refrain into a tale of aspiration and riches. FYI, it’s not the best sample on the tape: ‘Don’t Speak’ borrows a killer No Doubt hook.
The Roots – ‘Atonement’ (‘You and Whose Army’)
“We toured with them in Europe when ‘Kid A’ came out, and I felt my relationship was cool enough with Thom to ask if the Roots could have liberal use of ‘You And Whose Army.’ Of course the label said no,” Roots ringleader Questlove told Spin in 2011. “I had to use Jay-Z and the bat signal. Jay got Radiohead on the phone in five minutes. And they were over the top excited about it.” Thanks to Hova’s timely intervention, The Roots’ moody seventh album, 2011’s ‘Game Theory’, featured this sad, slurring Radiohead reimagining.
Quakers – ‘Fitta Happier’ (‘The National Anthem’)
The official line from Portishead man Geoff Barrow, mastermind behind this Stones Throw collective, when I interviewed him around the time of their 2012 debut album was: “Radiohead sample? What Radiohead sample?” Plausible deniability, I guess. Regardless, this brassy rework of ‘The National Anthem’ is a highlight of a cruelly overlooked record. With verses from a grand total of 34 different emcees, most of whom unknowns discovered through MySpace, ‘Quakers’ is a restless, ambitious, gloriously incoherent mess. Nice nod to another Radiohead classic in the title, too.
CRS – ‘Us Placers’ (Thom Yorke’s ‘The Eraser’)
Child Rebel Soldier is Kanye West, Pharrell Williams and Lupe Fiasco: a rap supergroup that Kanye originally hoped would also comprise Mike Skinner (The Streets man never returned Kanye’s emails, apparently. Oops). ‘Us Placers’ featured on Ye’s 2007 mixtape ‘Can’t Tell Me Nothing’, the prelude to his ‘Graduation’ album and features the trio rapping about “lifestyles of the rich and famous/bought a big house and a whole lot of rangers/a fresh new couch and a whole lot of trainers/a closet full of clothes and some brand new dangers” over the scatty keys of Yorke’s ace solo album title track.
Lloyd Banks – ‘Cold Corner 2 (Eyes Wide)’ (‘Climbing Up The Walls’)
G Unit emcee Lloyd Banks – named bewilderingly after the place my nan had her savings account – confesses to have “spent half my life vagina-chasing” on this funereal, grittily produced 2011 mixtape cut. A loop from the ‘OK Computer’ original is shrouded in distortion as Banks instructs you to “sit back and let the king record/
You know me, I OD, Shinobi when I swing my sword.” Biiiiiiiiiig.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIDWGOJCL3w