Genius samples of our time

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I was inspired to start this thread by the Strokes sample in "Devil's Pie" by Chicago rapper Rhymefest, on his new album Blue Collar. Please list your own favourite examples.

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 10 July 2006 21:03 (nineteen years ago)

Is this a thread about not sampling old songs? As in, sampling something that is current upon its release?

I've always felt it's taboo unless it rocks...then it's cleared.

Nice and Smooth - Sometimes I Rhyme Slow (Tracy Chapman's Fast Car)
Tribe Called Quest - Find a Way (Towa Tei's Technova)

― Rev. PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie 2), Monday, 10 July 2006 21:11 (nineteen years ago)

What was the Strokes sample of?

― Marmot 4-Tay: You are beautiful, and you are alone. (marmotwolof), Monday, 10 July 2006 21:13 (nineteen years ago)

"Someday".

The thread is about samples you totally would not have expected. Like Crystal Waters in a T.I. record.

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 10 July 2006 21:17 (nineteen years ago)

Or Stereolab in a Busta Rhymes track.

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 10 July 2006 21:18 (nineteen years ago)

the "Hard to Handle" Otis Redding piano riff in "The Symphony" by Marley Marl/Juice Crew All Stars

― M@tt He1geson, Rendolent Ding-Dong (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 10 July 2006 21:34 (nineteen years ago)

"Please Mr. Postman" by the Marvelettes in Juelz Santana's "Oh Yes" is fantastic as well.

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 10 July 2006 21:39 (nineteen years ago)

M@TT, I would agree with that except Hard to Handle was on one Ultiumate Breaks and Beats comp, the series that kicked off the sampling craze (which Marley helped transistion into):

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Performance/3412/Crates/ultimate.htm

― Rev. PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie 2), Monday, 10 July 2006 21:40 (nineteen years ago)

yeah when ll did 'mama said knock you out' on unplugged the band played that break. still great!

― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, 10 July 2006 21:42 (nineteen years ago)

Interesting article written by Steinski about breaks hitting the market from 1988:

http://www.globaldarkness.com/articles/big_steal.htm

― Rev. PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie 2), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:00 (nineteen years ago)

M@TT, I would agree with that except Hard to Handle was on one Ultiumate Breaks and Beats comp, the series that kicked off the sampling craze (which Marley helped transistion into):

ah yep, I hadn't really got the whole "wierd unexpected samples" thing abt the thread! I thought it was just for really awesome samples...haha...man, have yoo doodz ever heard this song "Apache"...so sweet...real diggin' in the crates stuff!

― M@tt He1geson, Rendolent Ding-Dong (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:02 (nineteen years ago)

My fave use of a sample is still Wyclef's use of opera on his Carnival disc ... just becauise it's so completely leftfield ... and works so damn well. Other than that, can never go wrong with a Foreigner sample ...

― O'Connor (OConnorScribe), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:03 (nineteen years ago)

also the sample juxtaposition that makes up It takes Two is pretty classic as well ...

― O'Connor (OConnorScribe), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:04 (nineteen years ago)

You mean "whoo yeah" (which was a stroke of genius in and of itself) and Lyn Collins?

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:06 (nineteen years ago)

I remember being real suprised that the Geto Boys knew who Steve Miller was when they sampled him on "Gangster of Love"...I felt like we had something in common! Steve Miller was popular in my town.

― M@tt He1geson, Rendolent Ding-Dong (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:07 (nineteen years ago)

It Takes Two would've been a 100% sure-shot had marley Marl/Roxanne Shante` hadn't already gone to the "Lyn Collins Think" well a year prior on Go On Girl.

Rob Base and EZ Rock claim that It Takes Two was supposed to be Think mixed with Set it Off, but ironically, they "replayed" set it off as to not be sued. And by replaying, I mean they placed open hi-hats on each downbeat. And by ironic, uh, your JAMES BROWN sample is screaming for attention, whereas Set it Off would barely be noticiable.

(x-post)

― Rev. PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie 2), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:09 (nineteen years ago)

I'm rarely any longer surprised by hip-hop samples - I mean not in the "holy crap, a major hip-hop producer knows about artist x!" way. Beatmakers tend to be among the most avid and non-prejudiced record collectors I've met.

Ok, I was surprised when I heard that Timbaland name-dropped Black Dice in an interview, but otherwise usually no.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:10 (nineteen years ago)

oops i still think they were the "Ghetto Boys" back then and that DJ Reddy Red was still in hte band.

― M@tt He1geson, Rendolent Ding-Dong (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:11 (nineteen years ago)

I remember being real suprised that the Geto Boys knew who Steve Miller was when they sampled him on "Gangster of Love"...I felt like we had something in common! Steve Miller was popular in my town.

Dr. Dre had already been to that well by sampling "Take the Money and Run" more than once on Straight Outt Compton.

― Rev. PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie 2), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:12 (nineteen years ago)

"holy crap, a major hip-hop producer knows about artist x!"

That was most certainly not the spirit in which this thread was launched! More a "they didn't... they did!" type enthousiasm.

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:17 (nineteen years ago)

Nice and Smooth - Sometimes I Rhyme Slow (Tracy Chapman's Fast Car)
Tribe Called Quest - Find a Way (Towa Tei's Technova)

...both still fit the bill for me then.

― Rev. PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie 2), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:21 (nineteen years ago)

damn pappa = fact checker! yr right, i forgot that...

― M@tt He1geson, Rendolent Ding-Dong (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:24 (nineteen years ago)

Sorry to call you twice on one thread M@TT

― Rev. PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie 2), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:28 (nineteen years ago)

I've always wondered what made the 45 King not just listen to Dido (who was practically unknown at the time) but sit and think, "hmmm, I could take this part and make it an Eminem track..." Now that's a gift, to spot that possibilty.

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:34 (nineteen years ago)

i think re: "Stan" that since Eminem and Dido just happened to share alabel, Jimmy Iovine might have had something to do with that connection ...

― O'Connor (OConnorScribe), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:38 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, it might've been marketing.

This is a new era...

― Rev. PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie 2), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:40 (nineteen years ago)

Sorry to call you twice on one thread M@TT

i've retreated into my shame cave!!!!

― M@tt He1geson, Rendolent Ding-Dong (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:40 (nineteen years ago)

"Hard Knock Life"

― deej.. (deej..), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:43 (nineteen years ago)

"Anything"

― deej.. (deej..), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:43 (nineteen years ago)

I honestly thought Hard Knock Life would totally fail and make Jay-Z a laughing stock. I was soo wrong.

― Rev. PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie 2), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:44 (nineteen years ago)

i've retreated into my shame cave!!!!

Don't trash the place; I come back in less than an hour...

― Rev. PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie 2), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:45 (nineteen years ago)

Pimp C samples Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" on his new single!

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:53 (nineteen years ago)

I honestly thought Hard Knock Life would totally fail and make Jay-Z a laughing stock. I was soo wrong.

Mark 45 king is crazy underrated.

― deej.. (deej..), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:57 (nineteen years ago)

The sample of the little girl singing 'he was once a...' in 'Ridin Spinnaz' by 3-6 Mafia is genius. Did they sample the Easy-E song (He was once a dog from around the way...Easy!) or go straight to the original source; the Gumby theme song?

― tylero (tylero), Monday, 10 July 2006 22:59 (nineteen years ago)

How could any sample suprise anyone? Isn't recontextualizing stuff from other genres something that has been inherant in sampling from DAY ONE?

Like Bambaataa is cited as the starting point for crate-digging culture, and his box was full of all kinds of eclectic stuff.

I wish there was some way to retitle this thread so it doesn't reek of "OMG blacks sampling white music!"

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Monday, 10 July 2006 23:04 (nineteen years ago)

tracy chapman ain't white!

― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, 10 July 2006 23:13 (nineteen years ago)

"OMG blacks sampling white music" would be a good thread

― oops (Oops), Monday, 10 July 2006 23:33 (nineteen years ago)

But her music is! (jk/xp)

― It's Rodney, chocolate-covered, freaky, and habit-forming! (R. J. Greene), Monday, 10 July 2006 23:47 (nineteen years ago)

Aesop Rock - No Regrets (Last of the Mohicans soundtrack)

― Rico was an artist too (nemoaimone), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 00:05 (nineteen years ago)

The Orb - "Little Fluffy Clouds" for:

1) Steve Reich/Pat Matheny - Electric Counterpoint
2) Rikki Lee Jones (on acid?) & Levar Burton on Reading Rainbow
3) Ennio Morricone - Once Upon A Time In The West

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 00:20 (nineteen years ago)

...in 1990.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 00:23 (nineteen years ago)

Pimp C samples Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" on his new single!

Teenage Fanclub & De La Soul got there in 1993 on ILM's favourite album, the Judgement Night soundtrack.

― kit brash (kit brash), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 00:42 (nineteen years ago)

The "Amen" break:

http://nkhstudio.com/pages/amen_mp4.html

― mts (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 02:13 (nineteen years ago)

Except for the Amen break was also part of the UB&B series, which all the D&B types seem to forget...

― Rev. PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie 2), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 02:15 (nineteen years ago)

villalobos samples "frank sinatra" by miss kittin and the hacker on "Théorème D'Archimède". he also samples "pleasure little treasure" by depeche mode on another track which i cannot remember the title of.

― breakfast pants (disco stu), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 03:21 (nineteen years ago)

Kanye West's "Jesus Walks" - I forget the name of the sampled group, but it's basically a choir of recovering drug addicts. It's not only a great sample, but it makes the song even more poignant.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 03:25 (nineteen years ago)

"Bitter Sweet Symphony"

I like the De La Soul/Teenage Fanclub song "Fallin'" (though I didn't even know TFC was involved in it 'til just now.)

RZA was really brilliant in how he incorporated Kung-Fu movie samples into early Wu-Tang tracks.

― graf cycliz (graf cycliz), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 04:50 (nineteen years ago)

Eminem sez that he came up with that bit and he heard Dido on the end credits of Gwyneth Paltrow romantic comedy Sliding Doors.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120148/soundtrack

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 08:12 (nineteen years ago)

Cause Eminem's a maaaaaan, baby.

― It's Rodney, chocolate-covered, freaky, and habit-forming! (R. J. Greene), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 08:21 (nineteen years ago)

I'd SWEAR that the Chemical Brothers have a track on Dig Your Own Hole that samples the Hockey Night In Canada theme! (Don't ask me the track's title - I usually have no idea unless they've got a lyric or two.)

― M. Agony Von Bontee (M. Agony Von Bontee), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 15:45 (nineteen years ago)

"Fix Up Look Sharp" by Dizzee Rascal, with it's use of Billy Squier's "Big Beat", strikes me as pretty audacious...

I think "Big Beat" was also sampled in Big Daddy Kane's "Ain't No Half-Steppin'"...

― hank (hank s), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 15:57 (nineteen years ago)

I'm no Beck fan, but hearing a snippet of The Frogs' "I Don't Care If U Disrespect Me" when he played "Where It's At" at the Grammys was certainly a high point in music history.

― Edward III (edward iii), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 17:09 (nineteen years ago)

"The Big Beat" is sampled all over the place.

― It's Rodney, chocolate-covered, freaky, and habit-forming! (R. J. Greene), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 20:04 (nineteen years ago)

WTF?? The sample in "Little Fluffy Clouds" is a Reading Rainbow episode!?!?!?

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 21:33 (nineteen years ago)

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