SWV "Anything"

Album: Above The Rim: The Soundtrack (Interscope; 1994)
Songwriters: Caleb Tyrone Armstrong, Brian Alexander Morgan and Ray Smith
R&B Peak Position: #4

"It feels so right baby/ That it can't be wrong"

In 1979, a little known Jackson, Mississippi R&B-funk act named Freedom scored a regional hit with "Get Up and Dance", the kind of feelgood, "candy and b" entry that Mariah Carey would swarm over for first single material. While the Freedom song wasn't a major nationwide hit (it peaked at a low #82), it was a DJ's favorite, and the following year, it became the focal point for the Grandmaster Flash & Furious Five's breakout record, "Freedom". After that, the instrumental earned recognition as a classic hip hop beat and

With that one sampling, the instrumental was recognized as a classic hip hop beat and saw future spins as a part of the musical backbone for cuts from KRS-One, LL Cool J, MC Shan, Positive K and Beck, just to name a few. It was it's use on a hip hop-ified version of the SWV tune "Anything" (originally a slow jam ballad from their '92 debut, It's About Time) that generated it's biggest success as a sample, though.

Remixed for the Above The Rim Soundtrack, "Anything" married the party-centric tones of the Freedom record and glued them to the double-entendre-esque lyrics the Sisters With Voices gained enormous popularity with in their early days. "Anything you want me to do I'll do it," sung the wail-favoring Coko, in one instance of many lyrical snippets that anyone with a gutter-y mind could burst into giggles from ("Anticipation of what's to come/ I'm so happy that I'm the lucky one"; "Whatever method is used is alright with me/ As long as you get to where you need to be").

"Anything" helped Above The Rim become one of the biggest soundtracks of the decade. Featuring other mega-hits like Warren G's "Regulate", H-Town's "Part Time Lover" and Lady of Rage's "Afro Puffs", the compilation would eventually move over two million units and win the 1995 Source Award for Soundtrack of The Year. For SWV, it would land as their fifth consecutive Top 10 R&B single in less than a year.



DL: "Anything" (YFH)

While the record was fine as-is, there's nothing like the rugged addition of the Wu-Tang Clan to really get things on fire. Another version of the Above The Rim version of "Anything" threw in Wu members Method Man, Ol' Dirty Bastard and U-God (still smoking from the explosive success of their 1993 debut, Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)) for a memorable cameo performance that proved the NYC troupe knew how to have a good time.



DL: "Anything (Remix)" (YFH)