Set It Off – Big Daddy Kane

“Set It Off” is one of Big Daddy Kane’s DOPEst Bboy sounds, from the 1988 album Long Live the Kane.

Marley Marl drew the high-pitched guitar sample from James Brown‘s seminal “Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved” as well as several other smaller samples and scratches to compile this instrumental that has withstood 25+ years and remains a floor-clearing Bboy track.

The drum loop comes from Soul-Jazz funkster Grady Tate’s “Be Black Baby”, and the low-end bass added by Marley Marl makes for a hardline Hip-Hop beat at a tempo fit for the battle.

Everyone knows the opening bars:

Let it roll, get bold, i just can’t hold

back or fold cause I’m a man with soul

In control and effect so what the heck

Rock the discotheque and this groove is what’s next

And peep the original drumline from Grady Tate’s “Be Black Baby”: