Often below par during qualifying before raising their game at final tournaments, Italy went about things differently for once by taking imperious control of Group B in the European Zone.

Their task appeared potentially tricky when they were drawn alongside Denmark, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, but La Nazionale surged through unbeaten and booked their ticket to Brazil with time to spare, meaning they will head to the finals confident that their internal revolution has been a success.

After all, Cesare Prandelli seems to have consigned catenaccio to the past. “It’s now obvious that you can’t get results without playing attractive football,” explained the coach when he first took over.

Since then he has led the side to the UEFA EURO 2012 showpiece and a 14th consecutive FIFA World Cup™ finals berth – all while remaining faithful to an attacking style of play.

The sample for this track comes from Paul Mauriat’s
“Vole Vole Farandole” which has a weird violin sound to it.

The sample appears at the beginning and 0:12 into the track:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP9t3ikW1bc

The sample for this beat comes from Puella! Puella!’s “Man” which has a strange piano and drum sound that you can hear at the beginning of the track:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZA58e50ZXI

This beat contains two samples:

• Reverend W.A. Donaldson’s “Baptizing Scene”
• Vocals from Blades of Glory

This vocal sample is elaborated on here.

The Donaldson sample appears at 0:04 into the track where you hear a voice say “Yeah”:

There are similarities between this beat and Maceo’s under the radar track “Nextel Chirp”, which came out around the time Hit Boy was in high school and could have inspired him somewhat.

This beat samples Bruce Sanfilippo and Mathew Grassow’s “Ambessence Piano & Drones 1”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnpxgrdN8mw

Drake’s “Started from the Bottom” is a triumph of minimalism. The beat’s barely there, the lyrics are pared down and shouty—it’s like Drake’s own version of mid-2000s ringtone rap. Leading the way is OVO Sound signee Mike Zombie, whose production here loops up a short, new age-y piano line (that really sounds like someone starting up Windows on a PC) over sprightly 808 programming and a bassline that picks out a weird notes under the fore.

• Lil John & The Eastside Boyz’s “Who U Wit” where you can hear the sample that has the same bass, clap and drum loop.

The sample for this beat comes from Samuel Jonathan Johnson’s
“My Music”.

This was originally intended for Ras Kass, but after his record label dropped the ball and didn’t pay The Alchemist properly for the beat, he gave it to Jadakiss, resulting in Ras getting pissed and leaking his version to mixtapes before releasing a diss track called “Kiss U” aimed at ALC. Regardless, Jada and Styles P do a fine job of verbally “balling outta control” over an expertly-chopped symphony of swirling strings and horns.

You can hear the sample at 3:23 into the track which has an funky soul sound to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9rpJr4twp0

Here The Alchemist talks about making the beat:

The day I made it, DJ Premier came to my crib and I was afraid to play him the beat because it had a clap in it and I didn’t know if he’d like the clap in it,” Al tells XXL. “But I played him the beat and he was like, ‘Yeah, I can rap to this.’ And if you know Premier, he’ll say that if he likes a beat; he’ll be like ‘Yeah, I can rap to this.’ He doesn’t rap, but he just likes to say that.”

With Preme’s cosign, Al began shopping the track. Though he can’t remember the first MC who heard the instrumental, he does recall playing it for two New York giants: Jay Z and Nas.

“Hip-Hop former A&R at “Roc-A-Fella Records” is my man and I used to go over there [Baseline Studios] and play beats,” the producer recounts. “One day, I was there, Jay came in the room, heard it—and, you know, that’s the regular occurrence if you’re going to go to Roc-A-Fella at that time and play beats. If he wanted it, he would have been like ‘Yeah, I need that.’”

Nas, on the other hand, did show some interest in the track, but the “Queensbridge” lyricist didn’t move fast enough. “He had it,” Al says, acknowledging that Nas came close to recording on the heater. “I tracked it for him and it never happened. I don’t know what happened.”

Shopping the beat eventually sparked controversy. Upon the release of Jadakiss’s single, West Coast wordsmith Ras Kass took issue with Alchemist selling the track to Jada because he’d already recorded a song of his own titled, “Home Sweet Home” over the same instrumental. Ras had planned on the cut being the lead single to his forthcoming LP, Van Gogh, but Al reportedly began shopping the track again when his attempts to receive the second half of his payment from “Priority Records”—Ras’s label at the time—had been unsuccessful.