THE FOXY SOUND OF WILLIE HUTCH posted by O.W.

Wilie Hutch: Tell Me Why Our Love Turned Cold
From Fully Exposed (Motown, 1973)

Willie Hutch: Overture of Foxy Brown
From Foxy Brown OST (Motown, 1974)

Willie Hutch: Baby, Come Home
From Concert in Blues (Motown, 1976)

Trae: Restless
From Restless (Rap-A-Lot, 2006)

Except for the fact that he, you know, uh, died in Sep 2005, Willie Hutch has had a solid year. The late R&B star's music has been coming back into play thanks to a few high-profile hip-hop songs sampling his work. The most famous example was Three 6 Mafia's "Stay Fly" from 2005 which was built solidly around Hutch's "Tell Me Why Our Love Turned Cold" but early 2006 also saw Ghostface and Ne-Yo teaming up for "Back Like That," whose main melody borrows (interpolates actually) the pretty piano that opens up Hutch's "Baby, Come Home." (We love that song, by the way. It's a lovely little ballad).

This year, the most prominent example of Hutch getting more love has been from Houston's Trae (aka Z-Ro's cousin) with the title song to his album, Restless. This may be a rare case where the sampled song is actually better than the original if only because the source for "Restless" is the short, one-minute, "Overture of Foxy Brown, which is more of a musical interlude than actual song. In contrast, the short part that gets looped for "Restless" breathes rich life into the entire song, especially in using part of Hutch's "no, no, no, no no" croons.

More Hutch!