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Sublime – What I Got (acappella cover)

Whew!!

I just went through my music library and tried to clean up some of the random songs. One song that was the hardest to find the answer to

What I Got (Sublime Cover)

That is all I had to go on. Listening to it, it was sung “A cappella” (acappella) . Searching the net, a lot of people said it was 311, which (lol) it is not, I am a huge 311 fan and trust me, it wasn’t 311.

In the Sublime version, they sing “I got a dalmation, I can still get high.
I can play the guitar like a mother fu*$in’ riot” but in the version I had to look up, they sing “I can play the guitar like a rubber duckin’ riot” so I searched on that, and still people thought it was 311!!

Finally found a message board where someone said it was the “The Stanford Harmonics” – good enough for me! If it isn’t them and someone knows what I am talking about please let me know!

They do start doing a medley at the end of the song, with like “No Diggity” by Blackstreet and “All Mixed Up” by 311, so that is maybe where people are getting confused.

The Stanford Harmonics

Update:
It’s on our myspace site now!

www.myspace.com/academicalvillagepeople

Steve Novoselac's avatar

By Steve Novoselac

Director of Digital Technology @TrekBikes, Father, Musician, Cyclist, Homebrewer

67 replies on “Sublime – What I Got (acappella cover)”

The Stanford Harmonics have not, to my knowledge, done such a cover. They also have a large number of girls in their group, and no female voices can be detected in the a cappella version in question. Indeed, it sounds uncannily like Nicholas when he starts singing “All Mixed Up,” and it sounds uncannily like SA harmonizing with him.

I’m thinking it’s 311.

-Sam
someone cleaning up his music library, too.

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I heard the song on the radio the other day, and I really wanted to find out who performed it. I emailed my town’s radio station asking who it was, and according to Axel Lowe who runs the Everything Alternative 99X program, it’s 311 alright.

He even sent me the mp3. 99x rocks. πŸ˜€

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Okay, for what it’s worth, I absolutely do not think that is even remotely 311 singing that cover. None of the voices match.
I too have been organizing my mp.3 collection. My husband likes to download oddities like this song, but unfortunately, a lot of times the songs are labled completely wrong.
I’m just going to list it as an a capella cover of Sublime’s “What I Got” by unknown artists and just leave it at that unless I hear or find something else.
Marie

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I agree that it is not 311 because the voices simply do not match, and I doubt that 311 would choose to perform an a cappella cover of one of their contemporaries when they have never, to my knowledge, done one of their own songs a cappella. I also agree that it is not The Stanford Harmonics because, according to their website, it is not in their repetoire or on any of their 7 albums. I have discovered two all-male a cappella groups who perform this song, The Heightsmen of Boston College, and Pennsylvania Six-5000 of Penn U. I sent an email to both of them today and hope that they will respond with an answer. I’ll let you know what I find.

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P.S.
Also, The Williams Ephlats of Williams College perform an a cappella rendition of What I Got, but like The Stanford Harmonics, they have female vocalists, so I doubt it is them.

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If it helps, a normal version is on the ‘Fun with Dick and Jane’ soundtrack, still called what i got….. that should lead you to your answer! Accapella is the best verson though!

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Is this serious? I don’t know If we have the same version…It’s defenitively 311 doing the Sublime cover. They actually incorporate 311 lyrics from All Mixed Up (Album: 311-Music), 2 minutes into the cover song…”Watch me now with a wicked andwild and I said We come with the funky style that gets us known for the show Andwe’ll mix the hip hop reggae if we say it is so All mixed up, youdon’t know what to do Next thing you turn around and find the person is you Thought a freak might be the thing But the first could be the last, so just getoff of your ass” And the voices they do perfectly match. Listen to more than one 311 song and you’ll know for sure that the leading voice is Nicholas Hexum…So that’s it. A 100% sure. Sorry ScaleOvenStove, Trent and Marie Dabbs, you’re all wrong! 311 rules!

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DeLaO – I am not debating the fact that 311 is awesome. I am debating the fact that the group singing that song mentioned is not 311. Just like it isnt Sublime, just like it isn’t Shaggy or whoever else they are covering. It is a group of guys that are just covering those songs in a medley of acapella. Sorry, but it isnt 311.

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I was in the same predicament about a year ago. I knew that it obviously wasn’t 311, but couldn’t find any more information.

I just recently ran into a cover of “Semi-Charmed Life” by an all-male a capella band called “The Beelzebubs” and reminded me a lot of the “What I Got” cover. Their website (http://bubs.com/) lists that they’ve done a “What I Got” cover. They don’t have a clip of the song available for download, so I can’t confirm that it’s the “rubberduckin” one, but the style of the “Semi-Charmed Life” cover is very similar. I’m planning on ordering some songs from them so I’ll know for sure soon enough.

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If anyone finds the answer to this puzzle they’ll be my hero! I’ve had this in my library for years without bothering to really try to label it correctly. I decided to try today and couldn’t find an answer!

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It’ll be hard to get a straight answer for this one, since so many college a cappella groups change lead vocalists (and change personnel every couple years).

I doubt that 311 could do the song in this style. It takes a lot more than some ‘dee-de-dees’ to make an a cappella group. Crediting this to 311 is insulting, both to 311 (who would likely do a more traditional cover) and to the hard work the a cappella group put into the arrangement.

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I came across this blog post looking to answer the same question. According to another website it’s UVA’s AVP (Academical Village People).

http://www.kasima.org/creations/acappella/20010112acappellarant.html
(search for “what i got”)

I found the AVP’s website:
http://www.student.virginia.edu/~acadvil/

And quickly perused their CDs, unable to find it. They seem to have some CDs that don’t have track listings. Anyway I thought I’d report it here for people looking to answer the same question.

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i was surprised nobody mentioned Rockapella.
rockapella’s a bunch of guys who do a cappella covers of tons of songs; everything from eye of the tiger, come on eileen, and even bohemian rhapsody.
i checked a site that listed [all?] of their tracks, and this song wasn’t on.

you should email sublime and ask them. if they own the rights to their own song, people would have to get their permission before releasing a re-make.

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OK so after looking awhile and checking back here every so often I actually message the Academical Village People on Myspace and whoever answer my message wrote this back

“Yea, we did that song a while back—1998 I think? It was off of our album, ‘Calabash.’ “

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I know it’s 311- and whomever it was that said that hte voice’s don’t match?? Um.. have oyu ever heard a 311 song?
I also live in Atlanta like one guy above and had 99x (the greatest station ever) send me the info.
Even they say it’s 311.

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Except that the UVA-AVP’s album track is listed as ‘What I Get’ not ‘What I Got’, which doesn’t mean it wasn’t them, but that it might not be…

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Nope, it’s UVA AVP. Just listen to the audio link, and congratulate Acapella Gods and sko.

I’m disappointed, really, but it actually makes the track even more amazing. The fact that these guys could pull off 311 so persuasively–who couldn’t see p-nut making the “bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb!” sound?–is a testament to how amazingly good they were.

It’s the first and last time in my life I’ll say this: It makes me want to listen to more collegiate a capella music.

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i read about half of these, im an avid 311 and Sublime fan, know just about every song because i value lyrics and vocals most in music. and i would be very suprised if this wasnt 311’s a cappella version of what i got. i will be honest and say i dont know for sure, but in my mind it’s 311, sounds like hexum, and SA. unless you can prove me wrong, it’s 311.

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It must be Academical Village People, because they substitue “the Sublime style is still straight from Long Beach” with “The AVP style is still….”

Thanks whoever found that out.

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dude, they definately don’t say “the avp style” it’s still “the sublime style.” listen. as far as it being 311, i don’t think it is. to be honest, the lead singer has a mid range voice which is what most people have. so it’s not that hard to emulate. i’ve been told i sing like him because my voice falls in the same range. so really, there’s no way to be sure, but it wouldn’t be hard to imitate his voice well.

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they say “sublime style” the first time they sing it in the beginning of the song but then later on say “AV”, or maybe “AVP” style. so, I’m almost positive the uva avp sing this. it would make a lot of sense and it is an all-male a cappella group that do a lot of covers, so.. look like this case is closed. *slams book* lol.

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I went to UVA, and I own the CD Calabash, and I knew the guys that sang it, and just…it’s them, I promise. πŸ™‚ I’m playing it right now! (And that whole CD is VERY good, FYI.) They are awesome, I’m sure they still are even now, years later, haha.

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Hey guys, thanks for the info and all the hard work! Just found this via Google, having had the same problem. Another hint that it’s AVP is that it shows up as track 19 in the ID3 tags, and in the album Calabash it is indeed track 19.
By the way, I have a ton more a cappell songs that are all mislabeled, it seems that any college a cappella song will invariably be attributed to the Brown Derbies, or maybe to Dartmouth or even Rockapella. Whoever mislabled all their crap and uploaded it to Napster or Kazaa around the turn of the millenium is a total loser. Has anybody set up a web site dedicated to the proper tagging of collegiate a cappella songs?

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This thread is too f’n funny.

I just went through the same organizing process and this was my first attempt to dig up some info on the song…how lucky I was to find this so page.

In any case no way is this 311 or Sublime or anyother mainstream rock group.

I agree with the AVP conclusion and that’s what I am sticking with. I want to hear the rest of the album now.

Thanks a bunch!

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While 311 did do an accapella cover of this song, the version he is talking about is not from 311. More than one person did this.

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I’m not 100% shure if its 311 or not.the voice in the begining sounds nothing like nick after that sa solo thing it kinda sounds like him.im thinking maybe they put his voice a couple notes higher because i changed the voice down and the voice really sounds like nick.maybe the part about the rubber duckin riot was just said because it was gonna play on the radio.311 rulez either way….

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alright you all. Here’s the Nail in the coffin. My best friend for over 10 years has been 311’s in house audio engineer at the Hive for the past 3-4 years. 311 DID NOT do the “What I Got” cover. I literally texted my buddy the question while with the guys just a few minutes ago and this was his reply:

“Ahhhh the important things in life…No it was the carmen sandiego guys”

so there you have it! πŸ™‚
PS: If you’re interested in some great information sources, you’re all welcome to come check out my myspace…

Much Love and Namaste

scottie k
dj Me
decadex
hollows follow
Blue Bonnet Plague

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You guys all crack me up. But it is def those avp guys cuz the second time instead of the sublime style they say av style. Thanks alot though cuz i never would have noticed that. Can finally label it right.

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Jim (post #39) pointed it out perfectly. There are two different versions that everyone is discussing. A guy I used to party with had the version that everyone is swearing is 311 (and I agree). I haven’t been able to find that version since that dude moved away several years ago. I just now heard the AVP version for the first time, and it is definitely NOT the version that I’ve been trying to find forever. It’s not bad, but I can see why some of you are saying there’s no way that’s Nick Hexum’s voice. If you heard the version the rest of us are talking about, you’d understand.

So, Scottie K’s (post #41) fullofshittedness notwithstanding, ‘everyone’ is correct. That definitely IS and ISN’T 311 on ‘that acappella version’ of What I Got. I seriously wish I could track down the one person I know that has the (alleged) 311 version, or at least find someone else with the actual track…because THAT version seriously kicks ass. The AVP version is just ‘okay’.

My 2 cents…

If anyone ever finds the good version that some of us are looking for, post it up. I’ll do the same.

Peace

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Sorry there’s a lot of confusion. As a recently graduated member of the AVP, I can affirm we did do this song (and that we are still awesome). It’s sweet that people wanna hear more of our tracks… we’re currently trying to make our old stuff available for download online.

We have a couple free songs on myspace if you do that: http://www.myspace.com/academicalvillagepeople

(I sing “Chasing Cars” and am the blond babe in the rap video…)
And some other free stuff on our homepage, academicalvillagepeople.com

Sorry again for the confusion. When I was in high school, I downloaded a bunch of a cappella tracks from UVa… and they were all labeled as by the Hullabahoos (AVP’s rival group). I didn’t even hear about AVP until I saw them perform (and got everyone dancing to “I Will Survive”).

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alright i really wanna know what is going on…in the version that every1 says that AVP is sayin “this av style is straight from long beach” or whatever, theyre definitely not saying AV, i think this lyric may be the missing link to this problem, i know this is a way late subscription but some1 answer me please…

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Wow. I’m glad it only took a year and a half to solve this mystery. Seriously though, I just like to have my songs tagged correctly. I knew it wasn’t 311. Thanks to those who uncovered the truth and posted it. So for the record it’s:
What I Got by the UVA Academical Village People and is track 19 (out of how many?)from the album Calabash. Correct?

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The version just linked in post 48 (in which there is a medly at the end with lyrics from different artists, and they say “av style still straight from Long Beach” the second time) is most likely the UVA Academical Village People song. If 311 ever did an a-capella version, it’s not this one. Thanks to researchers who seemingly solved this mystery, as I too have desired to label this song for some time, and was told it was done by Rockapella.

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