Hand On the Torch
Hand on the Torch is the debut studio album by British jazz rap group Us3. It received much attention because of its mixture of jazz with hip-hop music, with material from popular jazz musicians of the 20th century being reimagined. All samples used on the album are from old Blue Note Records classics: the most famous was Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island", which Us3 used on the track "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)". It came out as a single having two different music videos.
| Hand on the Torch | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 16 November 1993 | |||
| Genre | Jazz rap, alternative hip hop | |||
| Length | 54:49 | |||
| Label | Blue Note Records | |||
| Producer | Mel Simpson, Geoff Wilkinson | |||
| Us3 chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Hand On the Torch | ||||
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| Review scores | |
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| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Robert Christgau | |
| Entertainment Weekly | A |
| Music Week | |
| The Observer | (favorable) |
| Orlando Sentinel | |
| Rolling Stone | |
In 2003, The Ultimate Hand on the Torch was released, including many of the songs used as sampling material on Hand on the Torch.
Being released in the midst of social and commercial controversy over the nature of sampling in music during the early 1990s, the album became a critical success and also reached a widespread audience, with the work being nominated for a Grammy Award. It also was the first platinum-certified album put out by Blue Note Records. In 2016, the musical publication MusicRadar labeled the release a "hip-hop tour de force".