Sunday Night Sample - 2 Live Crew - The Fuck Shop

If you wanna talk about epic songs sampled in a Hip Hop track, look no further than Uncle Luke and the Crew's "Fuck Shop".

“The Fuck Shop” was the third single from 2 Live Crew’s massive 1989 album As Nasty As They Wanna Be.

Genius producer, and Constitution defender, Luther "Uncle Luke" Campbell, took a quick soundbyte from one of his favorite comedy albums by LaWanda Page (Aunt Esther of Sanford and Son fame), 

then somehow cleared the opening riff from Guns N’ Roses’ then-brand spanking new “Sweet Child O’ Mine,”

 which then segues into ‘60s pop-rock anthem “Hang On Sloopy” by The McCoys.” 

But it’s the guitar riff from Van Halen’s in this case appropriately titled “Ain’t Talking About Love” that’s at the center of Uncle Luke and crew’s s tribute to no-tell motels (aka Fuck Shops).

(What a fucking banger)

In Brian Coleman’s book "Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies", 2 Live Crew members Luke and Mr. Mixx contextualize “The Fuck Shop”:

Mr. Mixx: "I went to school with white cats and I knew that Van Halen record by hanging out with them. Luke liked that Guns N' Roses guitar riff, so he brought that one in too. We always had rock-oriented records, like “We Want Some Pussy” from the first album and “S&M” from the second (album)."

Luke: "I was like, “let’s do a rock ‘n’ roll song,” and I’d like this song or that song and I’d tell Mixx and he’d come back with something great. “The Fuck Shop” was just another name for a hotel. Everybody had their favorite and they’d go in, wherever we were. Whenever we went on the road it became a fuckfest. [He says this very seriously.] One thing about us is that we never had to worry about going to jail for raping or nothing like that, because the girls pretty much knew what was going to happen when they came in the room with us. It could be any hotel, as long as we had a bed to lay on."

All-time Uncle Luke quote right there.

Luke also samples (and alters) the famous Axl line from "Welcome To The Jungle" in the song yelling, 

"You're in the fuck shop baby, I wanna see you freak"

One of the greatest things I've ever seen in my life involved this song. Phil Donahue introducing 2 Live Crew and some hoochie mamas out on stage to perform the clean version (The "Funk" Shop) in front of a mortified audience of soccer moms. This really happened.

A cleaner version of the song titled “The Funk Shop” (found on As Clean As The Wanna Be) peaked at #14 on the US Rap Chart in the spring of 1990.

p.s.- because this song is just so damn great here is Van Halen performing it live. Listen to the crowd lose their shit when the first chord of that riff kicks