Watch the Throne is still a little over a week away from its official release, but the media circus began last night when Jay-Z posted the track "Otis" on his Life + Times website. This collaborative album between Hova and Kanye West is exciting, but just imagine if hip-hop had existed back in Otis Redding's day. Regrettably, the smoky-voiced "King of Soul" died in a plane crash in 1967 at age 26 even before "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" hit the airwaves, and decades before he could experience his pipes getting regularly mined for beats.
While "Otis" is certainly a bold use of "Try a Little Tenderness," it's far from the first time Redding's emotive wail has intertwined with hip-hop. And because 'Ye and Jay picked something that's clearly all about the vox, we stuck with samples that did the same. (This excludes many great uses of the stunning horns Redding had as backing throughout his career -- we're looking at you, EPMD.)
Here are ten amazing samplings of Otis Redding's trademark singing style re-purposed in hip-hop.