03/01/2024
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Another reviewer wrote about the Power Jam Featuring Chill Rob G release of “The Power” on Wild Pitch: "The Original that Snap Ripped-off”. That’s a rather short and misleading history of this record. The Wild Pitch release features the tag line: “A Wild Pitch reconstruction of a Logic reconstruction of a Wild Pitch production by DJ Mark, The 45 King.” So, here’s the extended version of the story:
Logic refers to the German label that at the beginning of January 1990 released the 1989 production “The Power” of Frankfurt-based producers Michael Münzing (AKA Benito Benites) and Luca Anzilotti (AKA John Virgo Garrett III).
Münzing had been an owner of clubs such as El Cid in Tel Aviv (1977), Eisbär in Frankfurt (1980) and, together with Sven Väth and Matthias Martinsohn the Omen in Frankfurt (1988) which was arguably the birthplace of the German Techno/Rave movement of the 1990s. Working as a DJ,�Münzing incorporated electronic musical instruments in his sets at the legendary Dorian Gray in Frankfurt during the 1980s and used elaborate extended edits of songs which he created by splicing 1/4″ tape.�
Anzilotti started DJing in London but when he moved to Frankfurt in 1982, he was immediately inspired by Michael to buy a Korg MS10 and a Roland TR606.
Münzing and Anzilotti start producing their first records together with Väth under the name “OFF” (Organisation For Fun) in 1985 and later (without Väth) under the name “16 Bit”.
In 1989, they embark on a Studio project which combines their previous electronic productions, the budding house genre and elements of hip hop, which until then had no place on German radio nor charts and was an underground sound as far as clubs is concerned. Concerned about negative preconceptions of Germans making such music they chose new aliases for the Production credits of the project: Münzing calls himself Benito Benites and Anzilotti becomes John Virgo Garrett III. As an artist name they chose “Snap!” – inspired by a function in their sequencer. The first result of their work was an enormously successful track called “The Power” which trail-blazed a string of successful Euro-Dance releases by cleverly combining mainly pre-existing material with a few added touches:
For the beats they sampled a part of Mantronix' 1988 record "King Of The Beats" which in itself is a collage of samples from Rufus Thomas�’ “Do the Funky Penguin”, The Winstons “Amen, Brother”, The Meters’ "Same Old Thing", Kool & The Gang’s “Jungle Jazz”, Pleasure’s “�Celebrate the Good Things”, The Magic Disco Machine’s "Scratchin’", Bob James’ Take Me To The Mardi Gras” and Original Concept�’s “Pump That Bass”. The Mantronix beat used for “The Power” is the section based on the Meters’ tune.
There have been no reports about copyright litigation over this, possibly because Mantronix’ own work is sample based.
The famous female chorus "I've got the power" is of course Jocelyn Brown sampled from the accapella of her 1985 single “Love's Gonna Get You". Many years later, Jocelyn was still awaiting financial compensation of this unauthorised use of her vocals: In 2009 it was reported that she (together with Warner Brothers) was planning a lawsuit valued at 11.5 million Euro (at the time: $16 million, £10 million) to gain 50% of the global earnings of the Snap track, which has reportedly appeared in more than 500 adverts and films (think Jim Carey’s “Bruce Almighty”, for example). (Search Youtube for "Jocelyn Brown discusses her voice behind SNAP's record "The Power" on BBC1 TV Interview" for an interview with her.)
In their defense, the producers of “The Power” have reportedly claimed that the hook is actually not a sample, but a re-recording by a studio singer. In the video for “The Power” a woman called Jackie Harris (Pittsburgh born Jacqeline Arlissa Harris) lip-syncs to the chorus and any other parts of the female vocals. Harris was just a visual stand-in for the studio singer they had used for various tracks on the Snap album that featured “The Power”: Penny Ford (sister of Sharon Redd).
Münzing and Anzilotti had tried to hire Chaka Khan for their Snap! Project. At that time (1989) Chaka shared an apartment in London with Penny and told her: "I don't do rap. You know how to do that stuff, you go do it." Penny continues: “And the rest is history. I went to Germany to sing on some stuff I thought I'd never hear again. I sang for three days, collected a fee, and thought I would never hear of it again […] [I]t was more or less [Münzing and Anzilotti ] picking me up by the scruff of my neck like a pit bull and throwing me in the [recording] booth with a pack of ci******es and a bottle of champagne and turning the mike on. That's how it happened. (laughing) And I'd just create. I just sang the first thing that came off the top of my head, because I didn't understand that music, and I didn't think I'd ever have to hear it again. […] I was just making [lyrics] up as I go along.”
Some of Penny’s ad libs on “The Power” are for example a rerecording of “Some Love” by Chaka Khan.
(Check Youtube for Penny’s original interview with songfacts by searching “Why the real Snap! singer wasn't in the video for The Power”.)
The judicial progress of Jocelyn Brown’s and Warner Brother’s claims is unknown, indicating that Brown might have settled out of court. More likely she probably had to accept that, being “simply” the singer of the words “I’ve got the power” she had no enforceable copyright to the songwriting credits of Love's Gonna Get You". That credit goes to Toni Colandreo… It is not known whether anyone apart from those involved in the production of the Snap! recording received any royalty payments. As Penny Ford explains: “Meanwhile, the Germans [Münzing, Anzilotti and Logic] signed with Ariola Munich, who were a sub-company of Arista, which was parented by BMG, Bertelsmann, which is a German company. This was before BMG got to America and it was still RCA in America. […] [The songwriter credits are] still being maneuvered. Basically, what happens is you have people who are published by Sony, you have people who are published by Warner, you have people who are published by BMG or Jive, as I was, and then BMG buys Jive, and then BMG and Sony partner, so where are all these people and where is all the paperwork? So then you have to hire what they call a forensics guy. The have to do CSI: The Musical Version. Which costs money. And if you didn't get your money to begin with, how do you hire a forensics guy? So it's kind of a vicious circle, isn't it?”
So, on to the rap then:
Session singer Penny Ford, who later became a member of Snap! and toured with the group, explains that Münzing and Anzilotti’s production with the Rob G. vocals “…was the first take of it. They had recorded it and nobody knew it was going to be a hit, and it was long before it was released on any major level. It was a work in progress, and basically what they [later] did was just took him [Rob G.] off of it and put another rapper [Turbo B] on it.” She actually does not refer to Rob G.’s vocals as a sample and explicitly states: “Well, there was a rapper named Chill Rob G, and he had recorded it with them. And I guess he [later] decided that he didn't want to make an alliance with them.” This account seems inaccurate and unreliable, which is understandable, considering that she had just gone to Germany and “sang for three days, collected a fee, and thought I would never hear of it again”. She does not mention ever meeting or witnessing Rob G. recording it for Münzing and Anzilotti.
So, here is the more believable and widely documented version: US rapper Chill Rob G, born Robert Frazier, was part of the Flavor Unit collective, which included DJ Mark The 45 King, Lakim Shabazz, and Queen Latifah, among others and received lots of airplay support by DJ Chuck Chillout (98.7 Kiss FM and 107.5 WBLS, in New York City) and especially DJ Red Alert (98.7 Kiss FM, NYC). Before he was signed to any record label he recorded two demo tracks with Mark The 45 King which they passed to Red Alert for airplay. At that time the owner of the newly created Wild Pitch record label, Stu Fine, was looking for artists to sign to his label. He heard the show, called Red Alert and got in touch with Rob G. who agreed to sign his first record deal in 1987. After his solo debut “Dope Rhymes / Chillin’” in 1988 Wild Pitch released Chill Rob G’s second 12” record in 1989 called “The Court Is Now In Session / Let The Words Flow”. The record was produced by Mark The 45 King and features Vocal, Dub and Acapella versions of both tracks. In an interview in 2006, Rob G says: “…see, I told Mark we shouldn’t keep putting accapellas! I said it, and it happened! ‘If we keep putting accapellas on these records, somebody’s gonna sn**ch the accapella and make a whole ‘nother record of it’. That’s exactly what they did!” Münzing and Anzilotti sampled four verses of Chill Rob G’s vocals from the Acapella of “Let The Words Flow” and used them as the rap for their Snap! production (as well as two saxophone / horn riffs for good measure…).
Rumour has it that Wild Pitch’s Stu Fine had consented to the sample being used in Germany. Rob G. speculates: “I think Stu Fine probably had a deal under the table with Arista records out in Germany, and he actually licensed the record to them – but they didn’t have a deal for the US. So since the record was doing so big out there, Stu came to me as if he had no idea what was going on and he said ‘Yo Rob, let’s put the song out. I mean it’s doing really well in Germany, we might as well make some money out [of] this’. I mean it was me, it was my stuff, so I said ‘Cool, let’s do it’. So we put the song out” on a Wild Pitch12inch credited to Power Jam Featuring Chill Rob G. and on Rob G.’s debut album “Ride the Rhythm”.
Chill Rob G.’s own 12” of “The Power” on Wild Pitch features no background vocals to replace Penny Ford part on the Snap! release. The only female voice heard on the Mark The 45 King production is the Jocelyn Brown sample though the Wild Pitch cassette from 1990 (which I haven’t heard myself) credits “additional vocals” to a certain “Kim Davis”.
The notion that Power Jam was another moniker for Münzing and Anzilotti is discredited by the remarks that can be found on the Wild Pitch vinyl and cassette releases: “A Wild Pitch reconstruction of a Logic reconstruction of a Wild Pitch production by DJ Mark, The 45 King.” and “a Wild Pitch reconstruction mixed by Nephie Centeno / original production by DJ Mark, the 45 King”, respectively.
Meanwhile, Snap’s “The Power” started to blow up in more and more countries outside Germany. Rob G. recalls: “…and then the next thing you know Arista Records decided that they wanted to put it out over here [in the US] too, but since they couldn’t use me – they couldn’t just put out the same record [Münzing and Anzilotti’s production with the Rob G. sample] – that’s when they got Turbo B to go in the studio […]
Turbo B, born Maurice Durron Butler on 30 April 1967, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA used to be a drummer in a heavy-metal band. He enlisted with the US Army in July 1985 and eventually was sent to Friedberg, Germany to join the 60th Ordnance Company in Ray Barracks. After completing his service in the Army he returned to the USA but went back to Germany shortly thereafter to tour with The Fat Boys doing Human Beatboxing. He eventually stayed in Germany and in the late 80s joined the “We wear the Crown“ crew in Frankfurt, another member of which was a certain Moses Pelham. Pelham adopts the stage name “Moses P.” under which he records his solo debut “Twilight Zone” as well as Ay - Ay - Ay (What We Do For Love)” with Rico Sparx, both for Münzing and Anzilotti . When the need arises to release and promote “The Power” internationally Münzing and Anzilotti have to address the problem that Wild Pitch is releasing the Mark The 45 King reconstruction of their song in the USA with Chill Rob G adding newly recorded verses and that they themselves are missing a face for the rapper in the Snap! video needed to promote “The Power” adequately. Looking at their roster and wider circle of potential contributors they identify Turbo B as a suitable replacement just as they find a replacement for Penny Ford in Jackie Harris, Turbo B.’s cousin.
The commercial success of their Arista backed single is enormous around the world while the Wild Pitch single in comparison remains an ill promoted independent release. As Rob G. says: “it was Arista records versus Wild Pitch Records, you know what I’m sayin’? So Wild Pitch lost – big time. ‘Cause Arista was global and Wild Pitch was like “Who’s Wild Pitch?” I was still running around, doing what I could do to help our cause, but we just couldn’t beat that money, man.”
Over the years this changes in certain circles: Being on a highly regarded label from Hip Hop’s “Golden Age” and being one of a handful of releases by Chill Rob G. some hip hop aficionados hold his version in higher regards. Due to the popularity of Rob’s flow and Mark’s raw(er) production amongst Hip Hop cognoscenti the Power Jam version has been put on a pedestal by some commentators who are concerned about preserving “the true art form”. They dismiss Turbo B.’s rap as a failed attempt to sound similar Rob G. while adding some dubious rhymes of his own lines, like “Maniac brainiac winning the game / I'm the lyrical Jesse James” as well as “so please, stay off my back / Or I will attack and you don't want that” and ironically "copywritten lyrics so they can't be stolen". Turbo B’s commercial success under Münzing’s and Anzilotti’s production is unquestionable. It is interesting though that on what is supposedly the “Official Snap!/Turbo B. Website” his accolades reach the climax in this story from The Universal Zulu Nations 30th Anniversary (October 2003 in Harlem): “Turbo B. was pleasantly surprised when after [the] announcement of him and his accomplishments, he received a standing ovation to the strands of "The Power" by Hip Hop's elite, and AFRIKA BAMBAATAA (in full view of MELLE MEL, one of Turbo's chief inspirations) personally inducted him into The Universal Zulu Nation...”
Source for Penny Ford quotes:
http://m.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/penny_ford_of_snap_/
Source for Chill Rob G. quotes:
http://www.unkut.com/2006/12/chill-rob-g-interview-part-1/
Source for Turbo B quote:
http://www.angelfire.com/tn3/universalgroupnj/snapbio.html
Source: YouTube
FROM THE ALBUM "RIDE THE RHYTHM" (1990).
