#TBT The Art of The Flip! A Crate-Diggers session, a Look @ KOOL AND THE GANG, 'Summer Madness'

Awwwe man! I'm a huge record fanatic and love, love love!!, diggin in the crates. Diggin for record's, searchin, finding, and learning about great musicians, who have helped, fuled and inspire Hip-Hop producers worldwide for a very long- time. This is one of these records, and groups, that speaks Hip-Hop all over it!

Light of Worlds is the fifth studio album by the American R&B group Kool & the Gang. Released in 1974, it was later remastered by Polygramand was a second success for the band, reaching number 16 in the R&B Charts and number 63 in the Pop Charts. It was a landmark in the funk/jazz fusion genre of the 1970s.

Light of Worlds is regarded as Kool & the Gang's most spiritual and sophisticated work, produced in the wake of the success of their previous album, Wild and Peaceful. While it was their seventh album of original material, the Gang considered Light of the Worlds their ninth LP (counting two compilations), and therefore consciously chose nine songs for the album to represent the nine planets in the solar system. The album contains rock-inspired funk set to jazz-informed playing with afrobeat influences and a tinge of analogue synthesizing.

"Summer Madness" is considered to be the album's highlight, incorporating smooth melodies and a synthesizer. It was later released as a single, with a follow up titled "Winter Sadness" to the Gang's Spirit of the Boogie a year later. A remake of "Summer Madness" was released on the Gang's 1993 album Unite titled "WKOOL/Summer". Light of Worlds has been sampled numerous times. It was used by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince for their 1991 single "Summertime". "Summer Madness" was also featured in the 1976 Picture of the Year, "Rocky". This Love classic song takes many back to their childhood and reminds them of family car trips and vacations.

Kool & the Gang are an American jazz, R&B, soul, funk and disco group, originally formed in 1964 as the Jazziacs based in Jersey City, New Jersey.

They went through several musical phases during the course of their recording career, starting out with a purist jazz sound, then becoming practitioners of funk and R&B, progressing to a smooth pop-funk ensemble, and in the post-millennium creating music with a modern, electro-pop sound.

They have sold over 70 million albums worldwide.

CHECK OUT THIS DOPE FOOTAGE OF KOOL AND THE GANG PERFORMING, SUMMER MADNESS LIVE ON SOUL TRAIN, 1975.

HERE ARE SOME OTHER R&B/HIP-HOP ARTISTS WHO ALSO ARE NOTED ON SAMPLED, 'SUMMER MADNESS':

Aaliyah - "A Girl Like You" Ant Banks - "Big Thangs" Bush Babees - "The Love Song" Coolio - "Mama I'm in Love wit a Gangsta" Digable Planets - "Jimmi Diggin Cats" DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince - "Summertime" Donell Jones - "All about You" Erykah Badu - "Certainly" Gang Starr - "DJ Premier in Deep Concentration" Heather B - "What Goes On" Ice Cube - "You Know How We Do It" Lootpack - "Hityawitdat" Lost Boys - "Intro" Mad Skillz - "Get Your Groove On" Miles Davis - "Doo Bop Song" Montell Jordan - "Somethin' 4 Da Honeyz" Pete Rock & CL Smooth - "What's Next on the Menu?" Powerule - "5 Minutes 2 Showtime" Rodney O & Joe Cooley - "Give Me the Mic" Ten Tray - "World is a Ghetto"