Moments In Love

Haven't had time to blog much recently but I've been wanting to do this post for a while, and seeing as I recently got engaged (to an actual real life female woman) I thought now would be appropriate!
I didn't know too much about The Art Of Noise until I checked their wikipedia page just now, but I did know that tha gawd Trevor Horn was involved and that in Moments In Love, they created one of Hip Hop's most enduring samples. The track as been used by everyone from King Sun and LL to Max B and Juicy J and pretty much always sounds great. If you want the full list you can go to Who Sampled but here's my picks of the bunch:

King Sun 'Hey Love' (1987)

KRS One 'Ah Yeah' DJ MK blend (1995)

LL Cool J 'Doin It' remix (1996)

Biz Markie 'Studda Step' (1996)

Koopsta Knicca ft DJ Paul (1999)

TI ft PSC 'Sellin Dreams' (2002)

JR Writer 'Xtacy' (2006)

Jim Jones, NOE & Max B 'Dem Boys' (2008)

Art Of Noise 'Moments In Love' Caspa remix (2008)

Cool Kids 'Gone Fishing' (2009)

Katy Perry ft Juicy J 'Dark Horse' (2014)

Didn't see that last one coming did you? The original stands up as a great track in it's own right, and is pretty much impossible to sound bad over (see also: Ike's Mood and Everybody Loves The Sunshine). I first discovered it when it was sampled by by Italian cut & paste outfit JT & The Big Family on their 'Moments In Soul' track which did good business in the UK in 1990, off the back of the whole Balearic/Summer Of Love thing. I couldn't find the right version of it on Youtube but I'm using it on a forthcoming mix. As you can see from the list, it's use has transcended Rap's regions and sub genres. In more recent times it's been predominantly enjoyed by the Southern states, probably due to the tempo. Those Dipset lads aren't shy of  using it either.
The track's impact is somewhat overlooked as its not the standard UBB fodder thats been rinsed to death by DJs and freestyle ciphers but maybe that's whats given it more longevity than Apache or The Big Beat, and for that we should be thankful.
If there's any decent songs I've missed feel free to link them in the comments section.