I've uncovered a wickedly subversive trend in radio hits:
The sampled "Hey Hey Hey" percussion element in the drum track
imo it's something far too subtle for these producers to be purposely aping from each other to get spins, so why is it popping up so much? Or are they doing it on purpose?
I first noticed that "Classic Man" by Jidenna and "Slow Motion" by Trey Songz had almost identical "Hey Hey Hey"s in the big pump-up moments of the song, and then a month later here I am sitting on a list of no less than SEVEN different, unrelated radio bangers from the last two years that all share the exact same element. Here we go.
"Classic Man" by Jidenna (0:31)
https://youtu.be/nsiN0W15w0U?t=29s
"Slow Motion" by Trey Songz (1:14)
https://youtu.be/dXTBbM21plg?t=1m12s
"Be Real" by Kid Ink feat. DeJ Loaf (0:26)
https://youtu.be/7TvfG6IzBa0?t=25s
"Dazed and Confused" by Jake Miller feat. Travie McCoy (1:30)
https://youtu.be/x8Nh0rLS9yg?t=1m28s
"League of My Own" by Samantha J. feat. DeJ Loaf (0:21)
https://youtu.be/zOb7VCx_fRE?t=19s
"2 On" by Tinashe feat. ScHoolboy Q (0:43)
https://youtu.be/-s7TCuCpB5c?t=40s
"Fancy" by Iggy Azalea feat. Charlie XCX (0:31) (ORIGINAL SIN???)
https://youtu.be/O-zpOMYRi0w?t=30s
I don't really know what I'm after here other than documentation and a "What do you guys think of all this?" so there it is.
― MrExplorer, Wednesday, 15 July 2015 04:33 (ten years ago)
if you just mean the loop that sounds like someone saying "hey" (and honestly this post was phrased so strangely that it took me a while to figure out that's what you probably meant), it was popularized by DJ Mustard, who produced a couple of the songs you mentioned, and some of the others, like "Fancy," are famously known as DJ Mustard knockoffs. not that it necessarily started with Mustard, there are similar percussive "hey" shouts on earlier crunk tracks by Lil Jon, etc.
― some dude, Wednesday, 15 July 2015 06:02 (ten years ago)
Well I called it a percussion element because it's essentially doing the job of a snare drum when it pops up in these songs. So you attribute it to folks ripping off Mustard? I guess that makes sense, but it seems like such a small subtle thing to copycat thats why i was looking for other motivations. And like I said now they're all in one place for anyone who wants to observe the trend.
― MrExplorer, Thursday, 16 July 2015 03:45 (ten years ago)
hey so somebody noticed something yall are so vanguard let him have his moment
― j., Thursday, 16 July 2015 04:50 (ten years ago)
meant it less sarcastically more "here is your search term"
― for sale: baby shoes, never worn your ass (katherine), Thursday, 16 July 2015 05:14 (ten years ago)
I hadn't heard of rnbass in name, but yeah thats definitely what all of these tunes are
― MrExplorer, Thursday, 16 July 2015 05:20 (ten years ago)
Also even if it is an older trend, has it really been this dominant on the radio before? You can't go an hour right now without hearing at least two of these songs
― MrExplorer, Thursday, 16 July 2015 05:21 (ten years ago)
On 6music the other day they were going about this new emerging underground genre called "chiptunes" and I just thought wow, that's a bit behind the curve to say the least.
― Pheeel, Thursday, 16 July 2015 18:32 (ten years ago)
To be fair to the OP I have also noticed the ubiquity of the "Hey" sample. "Fancy" was the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title.
― Pheeel, Thursday, 16 July 2015 18:34 (ten years ago)