Ruthless Bastards

Recently, a friend shared a short clip playing some chords on the piano asking what song is that. The melody was rough but immediately evoked some old Wu-Tang vibes. I spent days racking my brain trying to figure it out. I knew it's not anything from 36 Chambers nor "main" solo albums. I thought it might be from The W but I was wrong. Aside from Wu-Tang, Tram 11 also popped in my head along with DMX's Stop Being Greedy (but that song's sample has violins instead of piano).

Then, going through Wu-Tang affiliate albums, I finally found the song I was thinking of:

Bastards by Ruthless Bastards off Wu-Tang Killa Bees The Swarm album. I remember that album being one of the first I got as an MP3 folder in the early 2000s. For some reason, mp3 albums back then often didn't have correct song order. Instead, songs were ordered alphabetically. So Bastards was the first one on the album and I probably listened to it quite a lot since it stuck with me for so long.

By the magic of the YouTube algorithm I also discovered that beat was used on the original version of Ghost Dini by Ghostface.

I definitely prefer the original over album version (minus Lord Superb weak feature). Too bad they didn't manage to clear the sample.

On topic of sample, it's My Hero Is My Gun by Diana Ross, composed by Michael Masser for soundtrack of the movie Mahogany (1975). Lo and behold, same song is sampled on DMX Stop Being Greedy (different part and instruments but same chords I guess) and VIP and Juice - Ko ce to da plati?. I can't confirm it but I still get the feeling same song is used by Koolade to make Tram 11's Nisi Pazio beat as well.