rehearsal still from the movie Elvis: That’s the Way It Is

Yesterday Elvis Presley would have turned 80 years old. I coincidentally pulled this 1997 Sol Brothers 12″ single off the shelf, put it on the turntable, and reveled in its late-90s big beat brilliance. Other than a vocal sample about Elvis being “a pretty good-looking guy” in the intro, there’s no Elvis to be heard. Instead, the propulsive breakbeat track is built from funk and disco samples (Rose Royce, Pleasure, The Bar-Kays, and De’Lacy) and turbo-charged by the inimitable lyrics of Kool Keith: “Now I’m back to funk, freak the funk. Hype the funk, swipe the funk and all that junk.”
Its a breakbeat classic that’d still rock any crowd. I’m not the only one who thinks so; check the Herbgrinder remix from last year. Still available as a free download.