This is the story of one beat and four songs - well three songs and a cover. Prince is a musical genius - I think most people are aware of that but Laid Back is….well who were they? Read the wiki - I knew nothing about them until I read it but I am very familiar with their hit dance song “White Horse”. Did you guys know there was a video for it? Bamm!

White Horse by Laid Back

…the story doesn’t end there though. Prince took quite a liking to this song and figured he would put his spin on it on a Purple Rain album B side. Bamm!

Erotic City by Prince

Sorry for the link - can’t embedd imeem here

…then George Clinton And the G Funk All Stars covered it in the mid 90s on the PCU soundtrack (the first movie I saw Jeremy Piven in and ironically playing basically the exact same role he plays today). Now for more irony - it has been noted that Prince drew inspiration to write Erotic City after seeing George Clinton in1983 in Los Angeles so if your keeping score at home, Prince was inspired by Laid Back and George Clinton in 1983 to write a song that Clinton later covered ten years later.

Erotic City by George Clinton

…and just to make sure there is a version of this groove to everyone’s liking if fruity musicians like Prince, pot smokers like Clinton, or weird Danish dudes aren’t your thing - we have the All American version of this groove. What’s more American than US troops sweating trampy dancers in barely there clothes while being surrounded by choppers. And if that’s not American enough, did I mention they sampled very large portions of existing songs as the basis for Monifa’s song. I guess this is the part where I also say that P-Diddy sampled Erotic City liberally for one of his remixes but for the sake of the American music tradition I’ll try and ignore that period of Urban music ever happened.

Touch It by Monifa