Ready or Not by the Fugees or Is That Fucking Enya I’m Hearing Right Now? I picked Ready or Not, track number 3 on the Fugees’ sophomore album “The Score” for the first episode because listening to this song was the first time I heard musical proof of someone having the same allegedly weird musical taste as me.
I picked Ready or Not, track number 3 on the Fugees’ sophomore album “The Score” for the first episode because listening to this song was the first time I heard musical proof of someone having the same allegedly weird musical taste as me.
Ready or Not
The Score
Fugees
1996
Songwriters: Wyclef, Pras, Lauryn, William Hart & Thomas Bell of the Delfonics, Enya, Nicky Ryan, Roma Ryan
Producers: Wyclef, Pras, Lauryn, Jerry Duplessis (Wyclef’s cousin)
New Jersey
Boadicea
The Celts
Enya
1987
Writers/Producers: Enya, Nicky Ryan, Roma Ryan
Deep in Ireland
Ready or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide from Love)
sound of sexy soul
The Delfonics
1969
Writers/Producers: William Hart & Thomas Bell
Philadelphia, PA
Sock It 2 Me (Feat. Da Brat)
Supa Dupa Fly
Missy Elliot
1997
Writers/Producers: William Hart & Thomas Bell of the Delfonics, Missy, Da Brat, Timbaland
Virginia
Ready or Not
The Dreaming Room (Special Edition)
Laura Mvula
2016
Writers/Producers: William Hart & Thomas Bell of the Delfonics, Laura Mvula
England
Facebook
Spotify
Email: spacetimemusicpodcast@gmail.com
SpaceTimeMusic theme music is a looped sample of the Ana-Tole x Jonah Christian Remix of Ready or Not by the Fugees
Hey y’all, I’m Lyd the Small Black Woman and you’re listening to SpaceTimeMusic, a podcast exploring the roots, shoots and branches of some of my favorite songs through samples and covers.
On today’s episode:
Ready or Not by the Fugees or Is That Fucking Enya I’m Hearing Right Now?
I picked Ready or Not, track number 3 on the Fugees’ sophomore album “The Score” for the first episode because listening to this song was the first time I heard musical proof of someone having the same allegedly weird musical taste as me.
This album came out when I was in college and just about everyone I knew was playing it ALL the time. When I first heard Ready or Not I couldn’t quite believe my ears. Beyond the cover/sample of The Delfonics’ 1969 original version I heard something else, I heard, to my surprise, Enya singing Boadicea (bOO-duh-kuh). I owned 3 or 4 Enya albums at that point. Don’t judge, I found her incredibly soothing and relaxing.
Now, even though Enya was relatively popular in the late 90s Boadicea could be considered a deep cut. Not many people listened to Enya beyond Orinoco Flow, that’s Sail Away to the uninitiated. So when I dared look for confirmation from my friends of what I was hearing on this Fugees’ track, I was met with blank stares but in my heart I knew the truth and when I listened to Ready or Not, I knew Wyclef knew it too. Enya is the shit. Look, I said what I said. Insert Nene Leakes GIF here. I’m not here to argue but to state a fact.
The thing is, Wyclef recognized Enya’s skills but not enough to get her permission to use the sample. According to wikipedia, Enya was prepared to sue the group for copyright infringement. She eventually settled out of court.
Ready or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide from Love) by the Delfonics is also sampled in Sock It 2 Me by Missy Elliot and featuring Da Brat. This song came out around the same time as the Fugees’ track.Which is almost 30 years since the Delfonics recording was released and then my girl Laura Mvula came out with her version in 2016. It was featured on the special edition of her album The Dreaming Room.
I’ll put all of the song credits in the show notes.
People love to categorize things and have everything fit into nice neat little boxes and I find comfort in that as well but I also LOVE it when the boxes get shuffled together to make amazing new patterns. When I discover that the personI thought was strictly a hip-hop head, in this case Wyclef, also listens to Enya. I love this somewhat unexpected communication between cultures and traditions.