Best known for the 1994 hit "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)," Us3 is a jazz-rap
collective launched by British producers Geoff Wilkinson and Mel Simpson. The
two began working together in London in 1991, creating songs that fused hip-hop
and jazz with vintage samples. That unique approach earned them a record deal
with Blue Note Records, as well as the ability to source their samples from the
label's historic catalog of jazz music. The first of those albums, 1993's Hand
on the Torch, became Blue Note's first platinum-selling record, thanks in large
part to the single "Cantaloop (Flip ...