The Sto @TheStoway

ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC | JULY 9 July 9 gave us four albums that prove there was never just one lane in hip-hop and Black music. 🔥 1984 – Ice Cream Castle: The Time Prince’s protégés delivered one of the greatest funk albums of the ’80s. Powered by “Jungle Love,” Morris Day, Jerome Benton, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, and the rest of The Time blurred the line between comedy, swagger, and musicianship. Their Minneapolis Sound would influence generations of artists, producers, and performers. 🎤 1991 – We Can’t Be Stopped: Geto Boys Southern hip-hop kicked the door off its hinges. Featuring “Mind Playing Tricks on Me,” this wasn’t just gangsta rap, it was one of the first mainstream rap records to openly explore paranoia, trauma, depression, and the psychological toll of street life. Decades later, artists are still making music from the blueprint the Geto Boys helped create. ☔ 1996 – Chaos and Disorder — Prince Released while Prince was battling his record label, this album was less about chasing hits and more about artistic freedom. It stands as another chapter in his fight to prove that musicians should own their creativity—not just their masters. 💎 2002 – A Gangster and a Gentleman Styles P Styles P stepped out from The LOX and delivered a debut that balanced street wisdom with introspection. Led by “Good Times (I Get High),” the album showed there was room in hip-hop for a hustler who could talk about survival, loyalty, pain, and peace in the same verse. The Sto Perspective: Four albums. Four different sounds. Funk. Southern rap. Alternative Prince. East Coast lyricism. The lesson? Great artists don’t follow the culture, they expand it. Which album aged the best: Ice Cream Castle, We Can’t Be Stopped, Chaos and Disorder, or A Gangster and a Gentleman?

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On This Day in Music, July 7, 1984 Prince’s When Doves Cry reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and changed the sound of popular music. The song broke one of music’s “rules” by removing the bass line almost entirely, yet it became one of the biggest records of the decade. That bold production choice proved that creativity could outweigh convention. Hip-hop and R&B never let the record fade. Artists have sampled, interpolated, or borrowed elements of “When Doves Cry” for decades, including Tupac Shakur, Ginuwine, Alicia Keys, Murs, Lil Wayne, and many others. Whether through direct samples, interpolations, or melodic inspiration, Prince’s fingerprints remain all over modern Black music. That’s the STO approach: we don’t just celebrate the hit, we trace the lineage. Every sample is a breadcrumb leading listeners back to the originator. STO Question: What’s your favorite hip-hop or R&B record that flipped a Prince sample, and did it make you go back and listen to the original?

youtu.be/E7t8eoA_1jQ?is… July 7, 1987; Eric B. & Rakim changed Hip-Hop forever. On this day, Paid in Full was released, and the sound of rap music shifted overnight. Before Rakim, many MCs relied on simple end rhymes and energetic delivery. Rakim introduced internal rhyme schemes, multisyllabic patterns, and a calm, conversational flow that treated rap like jazz. His pen became the blueprint for generations of lyricists, from Nas and Jay-Z to Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Black Thought, and countless others. Eric B.’s production was just as revolutionary. Built from James Brown breaks, Bobby Byrd, The J.B.‘s, Dennis Edwards, Fonda Rae, Syl Johnson, and The Soul Searchers, Paid in Full proved that hip-hop could transform Black musical history into something entirely new. Every sample became another chapter in the culture’s story. Some of the album’s most recognizable sample sources include: • “Eric B. Is President” – Fonda Rae’s Over Like a Fat Rat and James Brown’s Funky President • “I Ain’t No Joke” – The J.B.‘s Pass the Peas and Syl Johnson’s Different Strokes • “I Know You Got Soul” – Bobby Byrd’s I Know You Got Soul • “Paid in Full” – Dennis Edwards’ Don’t Look Any Further and the legendary Ashley’s Roachclip break by The Soul Searchers The impact didn’t stop in 1987. Paid in Full has gone Platinum, reached the Billboard 200, earned a place on countless “Greatest Albums Ever” lists, and has itself been sampled by artists including Jay-Z, Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., Dr. Dre, Kanye West, Eminem, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, and many more. The STO perspective: Great hip-hop doesn’t exist in isolation. Every classic record has ancestors. Paid in Full reminds us that when you study the samples, you don’t just hear where the music came from, you hear the conversation between generations of Black music, from funk and soul to hip-hop. STO Question: If Paid in Full is one of hip-hop’s greatest classrooms, what’s your favorite lesson from the album, the lyricism, the production, or the samples that connected the culture to its roots?

I’m going to @TheStoGovernor’s upcoming Space. Will you join too?

Set a reminder for my upcoming Space!

🎙️ POWER TRACKS vs. DEEP CUTS 🎙️ Everybody knows the hits… but do the hits always represent an artist at their best? This week, we’re putting Power Tracks against Deep Cuts. Power Tracks are the records that conquered radio, charts, and pop culture. They’re the songs that introduced the world to an artist. Deep Cuts are for the listeners who stayed after the singles faded. The album tracks, B-sides, and overlooked gems that often reveal the artist’s true creativity. At The STO, we don’t just ask what was popular—we ask what stood the test of time. So which tells an artist’s story better: 🔥 The song that made them famous? 💎 Or the song only real fans know? Bring your receipts, your playlists, and your hot takes. This ain’t karaoke—it’s music theory through conversation. Power Tracks vs. Deep Cuts. Which side are you on?

On This Day in Music, July 6, 1971 On this day, Louis Armstrong passed away at the age of 69, but his influence never left. Most people know Armstrong for classics like What a Wonderful World, West End Blues, and When the Saints Go Marching In. What often gets overlooked is that he helped build the musical foundation that hip-hop would later sample. Before rap producers chopped soul records, they were digging through jazz. Armstrong revolutionized music by making the soloist the focal point, popularizing swing, improvisation, and a rhythmic feel that influenced every genre that followed. Without that evolution, there is no James Brown. Without James Brown, there is no funk era. Without funk and jazz, much of hip-hop’s sample culture doesn’t exist. Armstrong’s recordings have been sampled directly by artists including Nas, J Dilla, Madlib, and The Avalanches, while countless producers have borrowed from the jazz language he helped establish. Hip-hop often celebrates the producer behind the beat. Jazz celebrated the musician behind the solo. Louis Armstrong showed the world that one person’s creativity could transform an entire song, a philosophy that lives on every time a producer flips a sample into something new. STO Question: If you traced hip-hop back to its deepest musical roots, would jazz deserve more credit than it gets?

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He slid from the porch to the street 😂🔥

Happy 4th of July yall

IS YOU IS OR IS YOU AINT MAH BAYBEH

NARCISSIST @YUNGJIZZY19

a week ago

I know I’m old, but you’ll never see me skip a Tom and Jerry video. It’s therapeutic.

107 324 808 1.8M 84

Physical media is still king

Back when album releases still meant something..

It’s Hard to Believe It’s Almost a Full Year Without Malcolm-Jamal Warner. We Love and Miss You Theo! #malcolmjamalwarner #cosbyshow #theohuxtable

15 years ago today, A$AP Rocky dropped “Purple Swag” 🗣️ x.com/Nasukush/statu…

July 4 belongs to two giants whose music never stopped playing. Today marks the birthday of Bill Withers and the anniversary of the passing of Barry White. Bill Withers proved that timeless music doesn’t need excess. Songs like “Use Me,” “Grandma’s Hands,” “Ain’t No Sunshine,” and “Lovely Day” became more than classics, they became the foundation for new generations. His music found new life through artists like 2Pac, DMX, Black Star, and the Grammy-winning “No Diggity” by Blackstreet, which famously sampled “Grandma’s Hands.” Barry White left this world on July 4, 2003, but his voice never did. His unmistakable baritone and lush orchestral arrangements became staples for hip-hop producers. “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby” gave A Tribe Called Quest the backbone of “Bonita Applebum,” while “Playing Your Game, Baby” helped shape Big Daddy Kane’s “Smooth Operator.” His music also became a favorite source for producers crafting the luxurious sound of boom bap, G-funk, and Southern hip-hop. One gave hip-hop its heart. The other gave it its swagger. Neither chased trends. They created music so authentic that every generation keeps returning to it, flipping the sample and introducing it to someone new. The greatest records don’t compete with time, they outlive it. STO Question: If you could only keep one catalog in hip-hop’s sample history, whose would it be, Bill Withers or Barry White? What’s your favorite song that sampled either artist?

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@VincentLlewelly Agreed. That’s one of hip-hop’s greatest gifts, it doesn’t just sample the past, it introduces listeners to it. A great sample sends you back to discover the artists who built the foundation.

🎙️ On This Day in Music, July 5 Before Sun Records launched Elvis Presley, it was already preserving Black music. Sam Phillips recorded artists like Howlin’ Wolf, Little Milton, Rufus Thomas, Junior Parker, and Rosco Gordon, believing the future of American music lived in the blues and R&B. Then, on July 5, 1954, Elvis recorded “That’s All Right,” a song originally written and recorded by Arthur Crudup. That session became one of the defining moments in rock & roll history. For The Sto, this isn’t about genres, it’s about lineage. Rock didn’t replace the blues. It carried it forward. STO Question: Should the originators of a sound receive more recognition than the artists who make it famous?

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