435: Guess Who’s Knockin’

Goldnigga (1993)
A first-pressing Goldnigga track that was, at Prince’s behest, pulled from subsequent runs due to the sizeable borrowing from The Wings’ Let ’em In. The removal was possibly due to artistic reasons. At this point Prince’s discography was still cover version free and samples were only used as seasoning. Having a track formed around a borrowed chorus was a bold move and may have been discarded like an unwanted crutch in a similar way to how Cat’s Cindy C rap later got edited out of Positivity after Prince discovered it was lifted from JM Silk’s Music is the Key. But I think the more likely reason is that he begrudged sharing album royalties with Paul McCartney. It’s a shame as it’s one of the catchier tracks on the album and not just because of the Beatle input. Crazed synths, stabbing horns and scratched samples of Biz Markie create a straight-up hip-hop beat that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Das Efx or early Pharcyde release. My fourteen-year-old self cultivated a personality out of nuggets like these.