When Mike Tyson walked out for his comeback fight against Peter McNeeley in August 1995, this is the record that played him to the ring.
It’s Time 4 Sumaksion by Redman (you’ll also see it written Time 4 Sum Aksion), from his debut, Whut? Thee Album, released in 1992. Erick Sermon of EPMD produced it, and it came out as a single early the following year.
This is one of those songs that always gets me hyped up in the gym. Honestly, waking up to it would probably get me to the gym in the first place.
Records talking to records
I love the samples on this one. That chorus, “time for some action”, comes from Cypress Hill’s How I Could Just Kill a Man, which had come out the year before. And that record was itself built on a sample of Lowell Fulson’s Tramp. Sermon also brings in Zapp’s Playin’ Kinda Ruff.
For anyone who doesn’t dig for records, sampling is taking a piece of an older record and building a new track around it. What I love here is the chain: a blues record, a Cypress Hill cut and a Redman single, all passing the same energy along. Anyone who’s spent time in the crates knows the buzz of hearing a sample and tracing it back to where it started.
Sleeves rolled up
The mood of this record is sleeves rolled up: purpose, energy and no waiting around. It’s exactly what you need on the mornings when you’d rather not bother.
If you want another record about getting up and doing the thing, I wrote about Nas and I Can.
And if you want to get pumped up and start your day, maybe it’s time for some action.
