Sample This! - Sample This! (1993)

Sample This! consisted of musician/producer Anton Pukshansky and vocalist Traedonya.  Before joining together for the funk-jazz project, they came from very different backgrounds, but were both pursuing careers in hip hop.  Anton was born in Russia to a musical father and they moved to the US in 1979 when he was 15. He learned piano and guitar, and soon started experimenting with engineering.  He learned bass and recorded and independently released an electro-funk album in 1985 under the name Intellectrics.  As a result, he was soon involved in the flourishing world of hip-hop and got a job at Power Play Studios in Queens, NY in 1989, working with up-and-comers like Main Source and Kool G Rap.  Traedonya was born in North Carolina but was mainly brought up in the Bronx, NY.  She was discovered at 13 by "King Of The Beats" Pumpkin when he heard her rapping.  He introduced her to Aaron Fuchs, who owned the hip hop label Tuff City, and she recorded a double single "The Boogaloo"/"Sixteen" for the label in 1987.  From there she started working with hip hop collective X-Clan.  And this is where their stories merge.  Anton was working at Power Play with influential hip hop producer Large Professor, who was also working with Traedonya.  Anton and his friend Curtis Watts were making jazzy funk music at the studio in their spare time, and Traedonya happened to pass by and like what she heard.  She soon wrote and sang lyrics to Anton's music and they had a demo.  Anton was friends with Elektra Records' Dante Ross, who asked to hear the demos and liked what he heard.  They were soon signed to the label.  They recorded and released their album, as well as the only single, "Another Lie", which was remixed by Large Professor.  The music was a big departure from their hip hop roots, focusing mostly on classic funk and jazz.  But neither single nor album sold much (around 70,000 albums, according to Anton), and the label decided to drop them before they could complete a second album.  They sued the label and ended up winning back their masters and the budget for the second album.  After that Anton moved to California and has kept producing and engineering for major acts, even winning two Grammys, one in 1999 for Santana's Supernatural and one in 2004 for Ozomatli's Street Signs.  Traedonya went to college in New York to get her Fine Arts degree in jazz music and studied with some of the masters of the genre.  She also released some funky solo singles like "Naked Gun" in 1999, "Beloved" in 2003 and "I'll Give It 2 U" in 2009.  It was announced that an EP entitled High Fructose Corn Syrup was to be released in 2013 (and it was to include Sample This! tracks), as well as a new Sample This! album, but as far as I can tell both have yet to surface.  Follow Traedonya on her website and Facebook to find out if and when they are released.

Download Sample This!

1	Intro
2	Another Lie
3	Shake That Egg
4	Between The Tracks
5	Free Your Mind
6	Family Affair
7	Shady
8	Slippin Away
9	Rained On Me!
10	Get A J-O-B!
11	Dangerous Zone
12	Da Flex
13	Sample This!
14	Outro