MODERN USES OF SAMPLING
During the turn of the century, sampling began to decline heavily due to
the risks of lawsuits and high clearance fees that were now required for
rappers to use samples. This turned a lot of artists off of sampling, and with computers
and music editing software becoming more efficient and affordable, computer-generated
synths and drum-machines quickly became the desired method of production in hip hop.
During the mid-90s, it costed around $2,000 to clear a sample,
but by 2008, it has risen to about $10,000, and even with artists like Jay-Z
and Eminem who were able to afford the fees, the master recording owner (record
company) and publishing rights owner (the artist) would not always allow the
sample to be used.
During the ‘90s, it was a lot easier to get away with sampling lesser known artists and obscure music without paying fees, but with the rise of the internet, Google, and websites like Genius and WhoSampled, it became much easier for artists to find out if their music were being plagiarized or sampled without their permission. Even lesser known artists who uploaded their music to file/music sharing forums and websites were at risk of getting in trouble if their music contained samples or copywritten material.
During the ‘90s, it was a lot easier to get away with sampling lesser known artists and obscure music without paying fees, but with the rise of the internet, Google, and websites like Genius and WhoSampled, it became much easier for artists to find out if their music were being plagiarized or sampled without their permission. Even lesser known artists who uploaded their music to file/music sharing forums and websites were at risk of getting in trouble if their music contained samples or copywritten material.
Around the same time, hip hop was becoming much more mainstream, but to appeal
to such a large audience, many rappers began to use more pop-influenced, radio
friendly, synthesized beats. When OutKast released their fifth album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2003 to
critical acclaim and commercial success, many took it as a sign that hip hop was becoming pop, even though the album was very unique and creative in its own right.
Blending hip hop with R&B and pop, the album spawned the hit singles “Hey Ya!” and “Roses,” but unlike OutKast’s earlier work, the album seemed to cater much more to the mainstream and appeared to many as more of a pop album than a rap album. Sampling was also hardly used at all on the album, with only four of the thirty-nine tracks using short samples. The album went on to sell over 11 million units and the lead single “Hey Ya!” became one of the most successful singles of the decade.
Blending hip hop with R&B and pop, the album spawned the hit singles “Hey Ya!” and “Roses,” but unlike OutKast’s earlier work, the album seemed to cater much more to the mainstream and appeared to many as more of a pop album than a rap album. Sampling was also hardly used at all on the album, with only four of the thirty-nine tracks using short samples. The album went on to sell over 11 million units and the lead single “Hey Ya!” became one of the most successful singles of the decade.
 |
| Speakerboxxx / The Love Below (2003) |
After the
release of OutKast’s bestselling album, many rappers began to steer away from
sampling and use computer synthesized beats for their music, as they saw much
more commercial potential that way, but one rapper and producer in particular continued
to use sampling to an extent that was no longer common in the 2000s.
During the latter
half of the ‘90s before his superstardom, Kanye West worked as a producer for local
rappers in his hometown Chicago. He made beats for artists like Grav, Jermaine
Dupri, Trina & Tamera, Made Men, and Foxy Brown before
being noticed by Jay-Z, who saw potential in Kanye’s unique soul sample
production style.
In 2001, Jay-Z released his critically acclaimed album The Blueprint, which sold over 420,000 copies in its first week, despite being released on the same day of the September 11 attacks. Five of the album's tracks were produced by Kanye, including “Izzo (H.O.V.A.),” Jay-Z’s first top 10 single, which sampled “I Want You Back” by the Jackson 5 to form around the beat.
In 2001, Jay-Z released his critically acclaimed album The Blueprint, which sold over 420,000 copies in its first week, despite being released on the same day of the September 11 attacks. Five of the album's tracks were produced by Kanye, including “Izzo (H.O.V.A.),” Jay-Z’s first top 10 single, which sampled “I Want You Back” by the Jackson 5 to form around the beat.
This began a long partnership between the two and Kanye was later signed to Jay-Z’s record label Roc-A-Fella Records the next year with aspirations
of becoming a rapper, even though many in the industry at the time didn’t take
him seriously and didn’t think he’d be a marketable rapper. This changed after
the release of his debut single “Through the Wire,” in September 2003.
The song featured Kanye rapping with his jaw wired shut, while recovering from a near-fatal car accident, and, against all odds, the single became well received by critics and fans, peaking at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100, and being nominated for a Grammy in 2005. The song’s beat featured sample of Chaka Khan’s 1985 song “Through the Wire,” which Kanye heard playing on a CD player while he was recovering in the hospital. The song's sample was pitch-shifted and sped up, a production style that became known as “chipmunk-soul,” which became a staple in Kanye’s music throughout his career.
The song featured Kanye rapping with his jaw wired shut, while recovering from a near-fatal car accident, and, against all odds, the single became well received by critics and fans, peaking at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100, and being nominated for a Grammy in 2005. The song’s beat featured sample of Chaka Khan’s 1985 song “Through the Wire,” which Kanye heard playing on a CD player while he was recovering in the hospital. The song's sample was pitch-shifted and sped up, a production style that became known as “chipmunk-soul,” which became a staple in Kanye’s music throughout his career.
 |
| Front cover of the December 2003 issue of The Fader, foreshadowing the success of Kanye's debut album after the success of "Through the Wire" |
In 2004,
after four years of working on his debut album, and many more years of writing
down song ideas and lyrics, he released The
College Dropout on February 10, 2004. The record was ground-breaking
sonically and lyrically, steering away from the gangsta rap and bling rap that dominated
the genre at the time; the album was more socially conscious, featuring themes
of religion, racism, education, family, and self-consciousness.
Another aspect that made the album stand out was that it was very sample-heavy, which was very uncommon for mainstream rap albums at the time. For comparison, Ludacris’ The Red Light District, which was released the same year, only contained four samples, while Kanye’s debut album contained 43 (including interpolations). While many of the samples on the album were from unreleased tracks Kanye worked on throughout the years, many were also direct samples from soul and gospel records. Every song on the album (not including skits) had at least one sample or interpolation. He was able to get sample clearance for most of the tracks with the help of Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella, and whenever he was denied sample clearance, he used interpolation to re-record the section of music he wanted to sample.
This was noticeable on the hit track “All Falls Down,” in which Kanye wanted to use a sample from Lauryn Hill’s MTV Unplugged performance of “Mystery of Iniquity” as the chorus, but the sample was never cleared due to multiple complications, so he had R&B singer Syleena Johnson re-sing the chorus. Another sample Kanye wanted to use, Aretha Franklin’s “Spirit in the Dark,” was only cleared under the condition that he wouldn’t swear in the song in question, which is why the song "School Spirit" became the only censored track on the album.
Another aspect that made the album stand out was that it was very sample-heavy, which was very uncommon for mainstream rap albums at the time. For comparison, Ludacris’ The Red Light District, which was released the same year, only contained four samples, while Kanye’s debut album contained 43 (including interpolations). While many of the samples on the album were from unreleased tracks Kanye worked on throughout the years, many were also direct samples from soul and gospel records. Every song on the album (not including skits) had at least one sample or interpolation. He was able to get sample clearance for most of the tracks with the help of Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella, and whenever he was denied sample clearance, he used interpolation to re-record the section of music he wanted to sample.
This was noticeable on the hit track “All Falls Down,” in which Kanye wanted to use a sample from Lauryn Hill’s MTV Unplugged performance of “Mystery of Iniquity” as the chorus, but the sample was never cleared due to multiple complications, so he had R&B singer Syleena Johnson re-sing the chorus. Another sample Kanye wanted to use, Aretha Franklin’s “Spirit in the Dark,” was only cleared under the condition that he wouldn’t swear in the song in question, which is why the song "School Spirit" became the only censored track on the album.
 |
The College Dropout (2004)
|
Following The College Dropout, Kanye continued to
release albums that used quite a lot of sampling. His second album Late Registration, was much more maximalist
than his debut, using a combination of blues, soul and jazz samples, synthesizers,
drum machines, and elaborate chamber pop orchestration conducted by film composer
Jon Brion to make the record sound more artistic and cinematic.
Each of the album’s five singles were created using a sample as the basis of the song, all by popular R&B and soul singers of the past. “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” used a sample from the iconic main title theme of the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever performed by Shirley Bassey, “Heard ‘Em Say” sampled and edited the piano intro from Natalie Cole’s “Someone That I Used to Know,” “Touch the Sky” was formed around a sample of the song “Move On Up” by legendary soul singer Curtis Mayfield, “Drive Slow” sampled the song “Wildflower,” which was also previously sampled by 2Pac for the All Eyez on Me track “Shorty Wanna Be a Thug,” and finally, and probably the most iconic of all, the hit song “Gold Digger,” which heavily sampled Ray Charles’ “I Got a Woman.” Four out of the five singles charted, with Gold Digger peaking at number one.
Each of the album’s five singles were created using a sample as the basis of the song, all by popular R&B and soul singers of the past. “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” used a sample from the iconic main title theme of the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever performed by Shirley Bassey, “Heard ‘Em Say” sampled and edited the piano intro from Natalie Cole’s “Someone That I Used to Know,” “Touch the Sky” was formed around a sample of the song “Move On Up” by legendary soul singer Curtis Mayfield, “Drive Slow” sampled the song “Wildflower,” which was also previously sampled by 2Pac for the All Eyez on Me track “Shorty Wanna Be a Thug,” and finally, and probably the most iconic of all, the hit song “Gold Digger,” which heavily sampled Ray Charles’ “I Got a Woman.” Four out of the five singles charted, with Gold Digger peaking at number one.
Kanye’s
third album Graduation also featured a
lot of sampling, but instead of focusing on soul, jazz and R&B music, the
album was produced with samples from a variety of different genres including
pop, classic rock, krautrock, and house. Some of the artists that were sampled
included Prince, Michael Jackson, Steely Dan, Elton John, Can, Young Jeezy, and
most famously, Daft Punk, who’s 2001 house single “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”
formed the majority of production for Kanye’s hit song “Stronger.”
Even though Graduation is considered by many fans and critics today to be one of his “lesser-good” albums when compared to releases like his first two albums, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 808s & Heartbreak, and his most recent release Kids See Ghosts, it is still regarded as one of the most important and influential hip hop albums of the decade. It became one of the first mainstream hip hop albums to feature this level of genre diverse sampling since De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising in 1989.
Even though Graduation is considered by many fans and critics today to be one of his “lesser-good” albums when compared to releases like his first two albums, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 808s & Heartbreak, and his most recent release Kids See Ghosts, it is still regarded as one of the most important and influential hip hop albums of the decade. It became one of the first mainstream hip hop albums to feature this level of genre diverse sampling since De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising in 1989.
How Kanye West’s ‘Graduation’ Changed Music | Genius News (2017)
Kanye’s
first three hit albums and his production work with other artists like Jay-Z re-popularized
sampling, not only in hip hop, but in pop music as well. Many pop and rock songs
that were released around this time used forms of sampling, including Britney
Spears’ “Toxic,” Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love,” Coldplay’s “Viva
La Vida,” and most noticeably, Madonna’s “Hung Up,” which prominently featured a
sample of the introduction synths from ABBA’s
1979 song “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight).”
Kanye’s
unique approach to sampling is part of what made his music so outstanding and captivating,
which is why many of his fans were immediately turned off of his fourth album 808s & Heartbreak, an album that marked
a major departure from his previous style, featuring no rapping whatsoever and
hardly any sampling. The tracks mainly featured minimalist, synthesized beats,
with Kanye singing through Auto-Tune.
Even though the album was a disappointment
to fans who believed that he abandoned hip hop altogether, it became one of the
decade’s most influential pop albums, foreshadowing the future of hip hop and
R&B along with the rise of trap music, influencing the work of future big-name
artists like Drake, The Weeknd, Travis Scott, Young Thug, Future, and Lil Uzi
Vert among others.
Kanye returned to sampling on his fourth album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and continued to use prominent sampling throughout his discography to this day, with leaks of his upcoming ninth album Yandhi even showing signs of sample use.
"Hung Up" by Madonna (2005)
Even
though sample clearances were more expensive than ever by the end of the
decade, it was a lot easier for labels to obtain permission from artists
through the internet, and because of how popular and mainstream hip hop became,
many artists were much more willing to get into the trend and allow their music
to be sampled, which would likely in-turn give the original artist a boost
in popularity and royalties. However, this didn't apply to many newer,
up-and-coming artists with smaller fan-bases and no big record labels
to support them, and during the 2010s, video and music sharing services like
YouTube and SoundCloud became more equipped to automatically detect and remove copyrighted
material. Even with these setbacks, there was still a way for newer artists to
release music with sample-reliant beats, but the music would have to be free.
This was in the form of mixtapes.
Mixtapes have been a part of hip hop culture since the late ‘70s when cassettes became popular, but they weren’t usually widely available for consumers
until internet began to take off. While mixtapes were often distributed in the form of CDs
throughout the early 2000s, many limitations made it hard for people to obtain them.
Since they were distributed for free, the costs of CDs and packaging were not usually made back right away, limiting the amount of copies the artist would
put out. Through internet platforms and websites like Reddit, Myspace and YouTube,
artists no longer had to worry about CD or packaging costs when they could just upload music to the internet for anyone to listen to for free. Social media services
like Facebook and Instagram also made it very easy for up-and-coming artists to
upload and promote mixtapes to gain a following.
SoundCloud soon became the most popular website for lesser known rappers to upload music and gain attraction. Popular rappers like Juice WRLD, Lil Uzi Vert, Travis Scott, Post Malone, and the late XXXTentacion all started their careers on SoundCloud, later becoming viral with unexpected hit songs and mixtapes.
SoundCloud soon became the most popular website for lesser known rappers to upload music and gain attraction. Popular rappers like Juice WRLD, Lil Uzi Vert, Travis Scott, Post Malone, and the late XXXTentacion all started their careers on SoundCloud, later becoming viral with unexpected hit songs and mixtapes.
Some of the
main benefits for rappers to release mixtapes before their debut albums is that
it is inexpensive, less subjective to criticism, it helps the artist develop their
sound, and can gain the attention of other rappers, labels, and hip hop enthusiasts,
without the need of third-party support.
Another benefit towards creating mixtapes is that the artist doesn’t usually have to clear samples like they would with a studio album. Even though it is still technically against copyright law, with artists like 50 Cent being sued in the past for uncleared mixtape samples, most mixtapes, even early mixtapes by popular rappers like J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar, don’t get enough attention to result in artists and record companies filing lawsuits, and since most mixtapes are released online for free and withheld from royalty based streaming services like Spotify, the lawsuit itself would most likely end up costing the plaintiff more than any compensation they would receive for the sample’s use.
Because of the mixtape’s immunity to sample clearance, many rappers’ debut mixtapes featured a lot of sampling while their subsequent studio albums featured a lot less. For example, Joey Bada$$’ 2012 debut mixtape 1999, featured samples on almost every track. The record contained samples from instrumental hip hop tracks, old R&B songs, and some recent music as well; some of the samples even came from sources that are still unknown to the public. The unique sample-based production and advanced level rapping style showcased on the mixtape gave the record an old-school hip hop sound that is often compared by many to albums like Nas’ debut album Illmatic. The overall sound of the mixtape itself sounds as though it could have been released during the 1990s when artists like the Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, and A Tribe Called Quest were releasing albums of a similar production style.
Another benefit towards creating mixtapes is that the artist doesn’t usually have to clear samples like they would with a studio album. Even though it is still technically against copyright law, with artists like 50 Cent being sued in the past for uncleared mixtape samples, most mixtapes, even early mixtapes by popular rappers like J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar, don’t get enough attention to result in artists and record companies filing lawsuits, and since most mixtapes are released online for free and withheld from royalty based streaming services like Spotify, the lawsuit itself would most likely end up costing the plaintiff more than any compensation they would receive for the sample’s use.
Because of the mixtape’s immunity to sample clearance, many rappers’ debut mixtapes featured a lot of sampling while their subsequent studio albums featured a lot less. For example, Joey Bada$$’ 2012 debut mixtape 1999, featured samples on almost every track. The record contained samples from instrumental hip hop tracks, old R&B songs, and some recent music as well; some of the samples even came from sources that are still unknown to the public. The unique sample-based production and advanced level rapping style showcased on the mixtape gave the record an old-school hip hop sound that is often compared by many to albums like Nas’ debut album Illmatic. The overall sound of the mixtape itself sounds as though it could have been released during the 1990s when artists like the Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, and A Tribe Called Quest were releasing albums of a similar production style.
Joey’s second mixtape Summer Knights (which, unlike 1999, was available for purchase from iTunes) and debut album B4.Da.$$ featured much more original instrumentals and less sampling, likely to increase the artist’s marketability and to avoid clearance fees as he was becoming more well-known. Even though Joey Bada$$ maintained a pretty consistent discography, most critics consider 1999 to be his best project.
1999 by Joey Bada$$ via SoundCloud
Similar to the
release of 1999, experimental hip hop
group Death Grips released their debut mixtape Exmilitary in 2011 for free on the band’s website. It was one the
most unique mixtapes to date, with the aggressive rapping style of MC Ride over
the fast-paced, elaborate production of Zach Hill and Andy Morin which combined
electropunk and industrial style beats with samples from a variety of popular artists
including early Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Pet Shop Boys, Beastie Boys, Black Flag,
Jane’s Addiction, and Marilyn Manson. The mixtape received widespread critical
acclaim, despite the group’s elusiveness at the time, and gained the group an immediate cult following.
Exmilitary appeared on Spotify for a very short
time in 2015 but was taken down soon after. No official explanation was ever
given and many speculated that it was obviously due to all of the uncleared
samples featured on the project. This is the main reason many early mixtapes by popular rappers aren't available on streaming services like Spotify; this includes 50 Cent's No Mercy, No Fear, Frank Ocean's Nostalgia, Ultra, A$AP Rocky's Live. Long. ASAP, Kid Cudi's A Kid Named Cudi, Earl Sweatshirt's Earl, and Tyler, the Creator's Bastard. Drake's 2009 mixtape So Far Gone was just cleared for streaming just this year; it contained samples from thirteen songs including Coldplay's "Viva la Vida" and Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl."
Exmilitary by Death Grips via SoundCloud
In 2012, Death Grips released their debut studio album The Money Store after they signed to major label Epic Records. Even though the album featured ground-breaking styles of production, samples were not used as sparsely as they were on their debut mixtape, as though it seamed at first.
Users on the Death Grips subreddit suggested that the album did in fact use many samples, but they were heavily edited and from obscure sources, making it almost impossible to pinpoint every sample used on the album. At first glance, the album appeared to use very little sampling, with almost all of the album containing original industrial-style production, but users of WhoSampled eventually found many samples cleverly hidden and edited throughout the album. Some of the samples were from well-known songs by the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, disguised with effects and distortion. While not obvious at first, the bells at the beginning of the track “Double Helix” are the same bells from the beginning the 1970 John Lennon song “Mother.”
It was also discovered that they sampled seemingly random sounds from YouTube, with the track “SystemBlower” featuring grunting from a video of a tennis match between Venus and Serena Williams, and the engine of a Vancouver SkyTrain in a more obscure video*. It was later revealed in an interview that, among music and sounds from the internet, members of the group would record sounds from everyday life with standard digital cameras, and then add effects before incorporating the sounds into their music. This is shown really well in the music video for "I've Seen Footage," which features a very fast-paced slideshow of hundreds of images both taken by the band members and found online.
They also cited Musique concrète as part of the inspiration for their unique production style.
Death Grips - I've Seen Footage (2012)
Because of
the internet, music became very accessible to just about anyone with internet
connection. Music fans would be able to listen to just about any album, artist,
or song they could think of (past or present) on services like Spotify, iTunes,
Google Music, YouTube and Tidal. Even the more obscure music that hasn’t made
its way to streaming services yet is more than likely to be somewhere on the
internet.
This allowed
older styles of music to become popular again. Not only was sampling repopularized,
but a number of other older music styles and production techniques as well. Reverb drum effects
that were common in the ‘80s made a resurgence in recent years with artists
like Lorde, Taylor Swift and Carly Rae Jepsen using the production style throughout their
hit albums. Genres like disco, new wave, psychedelic rock, glam rock, and even rock and roll all began to be incorporated heavily in much of today's music.
With the internet connecting and expanding so many subcultures with so many different cultural and artistic interests, with many of them being very nostalgic (e.g. hipsters), a lot of older styles of music are being revitalized and used to create new styles of music.
A good example of this would be vaporwave, a microgenre of electronic music that emerged not long ago, being based around the nostalgia of ‘80s and ‘90s aesthetic. The genre also relies heavily on looped, edited samples of R&B, smooth jazz, elevator music, lounge music, ‘80s and ‘90s pop music, along with other sounds that can be defined with that era. The music vaporwave samples from mainly includes the type of music you would hear in an '80s or '90s mall or store, commercials, the old TV guide channel, and other types of music that people in that era would be hearing in the background as they go about their day. Vaporwave has since gained a substantial internet following.
With the internet connecting and expanding so many subcultures with so many different cultural and artistic interests, with many of them being very nostalgic (e.g. hipsters), a lot of older styles of music are being revitalized and used to create new styles of music.
A good example of this would be vaporwave, a microgenre of electronic music that emerged not long ago, being based around the nostalgia of ‘80s and ‘90s aesthetic. The genre also relies heavily on looped, edited samples of R&B, smooth jazz, elevator music, lounge music, ‘80s and ‘90s pop music, along with other sounds that can be defined with that era. The music vaporwave samples from mainly includes the type of music you would hear in an '80s or '90s mall or store, commercials, the old TV guide channel, and other types of music that people in that era would be hearing in the background as they go about their day. Vaporwave has since gained a substantial internet following.
Floralle Shoppe by Macintosh Plus (Full Album - 2011)
Overall, the
2010s saw a major resurgence in the use of sampling. Many of the decade’s most
iconic, critically acclaimed, and popular hip hop albums like Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,
Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly,
and J. Cole’s 2014 Forrest Hills Drive
featured a lot of unique forms of sampling. Some of Kanye and Kendrick’s most
recognizable and popular songs were produced mainly around a specific sample.
While
sampling still isn’t used as much as it was in the late ‘80s, it is used quite a bit
by artists today to create a thematic beat that corresponds to the lyrical
content and themes throughout the album. For example, Jay-Z’s latest release 4:44 featured many samples of old soul
and gospel songs that would directly relate to the track’s lyrics, which mainly
described the rapper’s personal life and social issues.
The title track “4:44” contained a sample of Hannah Williams and Affirmations’ “Late Nights & Heartbreak,” a song that sounds like vintage ‘60s soul even though it was released in 2016. The content and instrumentation of the sample reflects the themes of sorrow and regret in the song which Jay-Z wrote as an apology dedicated to his wife Beyoncé for his infidelity.
The title track “4:44” contained a sample of Hannah Williams and Affirmations’ “Late Nights & Heartbreak,” a song that sounds like vintage ‘60s soul even though it was released in 2016. The content and instrumentation of the sample reflects the themes of sorrow and regret in the song which Jay-Z wrote as an apology dedicated to his wife Beyoncé for his infidelity.
Another track on the album, “The Story
of O.J.,” prominently featured a sample of the 1965 song “Four Women” by Nina
Simone, edited with pitch-shift and glitch-like effects. Both Jay-Z’s song and the
sample's source featured themes of racism, segregation, and references to slavery. The
music video that accompanied the song featured the rapper in a black and white
cartoon world in a similar style to the 1930’s and ’40s Disney and Merrie Melodies
cartoons that featured racist, stereotyped, black-face depictions of African Americans.
"The Story of O.J." by Jay-Z (2017)
Last year
(2018) was arguable one of the biggest years for sampling since the ‘90s.
Almost all of the charting hip hop albums of the year featured some form of
sampling. Albums like J.I.D.’s DiCaprio 2,
Brockhampton’s Iridescence, Anderson
.Paak’s Oxnard, J. Cole’s KOD, Eminem’s Kamikaze, and Denzel Curry’s TA13OO
all featured sampling, much more than most popular hip hop albums of the
2000s had. Even more mainstream pop-oriented rap albums like Drake’s Scorpion, Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy and Post Malone’s Beerbongs & Bentleys used a fair use of sampling, as well as
many of year’s biggest trap releases like Travis Scott’s Astroworld and Playboi Carti’s Die
Lit, which featured a little bit of sampling here and there.
One of the
most noticeable increases in sampling use came in the form of the “Wyoming
Sessions,” a series of five albums organized and produced by Kanye West during
a self-imposed exile in Wyoming. Each of the five albums were released separately
every Friday over the course of five weeks beginning with Daytona by Pusha T on
May 25, 2018, followed by Ye by Kanye
West, Kids See Ghosts by Kanye West
and Kid Cudi (under the duo stage name Kids See Ghosts), Nasir by Nas, and K.T.S.E.
by Teyana Taylor. The albums all received positive reviews by critics, with Kids See Ghosts and Daytona being considered by many to be two of the best albums of the
year.
The
production of the five albums also relied heavily on sampling, with Daytona containing at least one sample
on each track. The samples were mainly sourced from old soul, blues, and psychedelic
songs among other more unusual samples. “4th Dimension” from Kids See Ghosts sampled a 1936 Christmas
song by Louis Prima, who was also listed as an official feature, resulting in him setting the record for longest break in between Hot 100 Hits at 57 years
after the track debuted at No. 42 on the chart. Otis Redding also appeared as
an official feature on Kanye song back in 2011 when his music was heavily
sampled for the track “Otis” from Jay-Z and Kanye’s collaborative album Watch the Throne.
Some
non-music samples were also used on the albums with an excerpt of a 1924 speech
by Black Nationalist Marcus Garvey appearing on Kids See Ghosts and a sample of a 1973 documentary interview with
comedian Richard Pryor on the Nasir track
“Cops Shot the Kid.” The track also featured a vocal sample of the line “the
cops shot the kid” from the iconic 1988 Slick Rick song “Children’s Story” that
looped nonstop throughout the song, representing the nonstop police brutality against
African Americans.
 |
| (from left to right) Daytona, Ye, Kids See Ghosts, Nasir, and K.T.S.E. |
Kanye’s use of sampling throughout the five albums amplified the overall theme and content of the songs within, giving them a more theatrical and historically conscience tone and each album still had its own unique sound and vibe despite all of them being produced by the same guy. Sampling now became much more mainstream and relevant in hip hop and pop culture to an extent that hasn't been seen since the '90s.
Sampling continues to be in use to this day, with each sample-based album lifting them from a unique source and using them in a unique way. Possibly one of the most creative uses of sampling on an album would be the highly experimental Some Rap Songs by Earl Sweatshirt.
Many of the samples contained on the album directly reflected the rapper's personal life, childhood, and current emotional state. The album featured themes of death, loss, depression, addiction, anxiety, and isolation, which was backed by very unique sample-based instrumentation. The samples featured mainly old soul, R&B, and blues songs, which were heavily edited with repetition, pitch-shifting, distortion, and many other effects to give the beats a very hallucinogenic, glitch-like sound.
Earl also included some very personal samples in the album, including excerpts of the beginning of a speech given by his mother Cheryl I. Harris at UCLA School of Law as the Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, giving gratitude to her friends and family, and an excerpt of his father, influential South African poet and political activist Keorapetse Kgositsile, reading the poem "Anguish Longer Than Sorrow" at a Berlin poetry festival in 2009. The two samples were blended together on the track "Playing Possum," possibly reflecting the divorce of Earl's parents when he was six and the recent death of his father earlier that year.
The album ended with the track "Riot!" which was basically a remix of Earl's uncle Hugh Masekela's song of the same name. The track was pitch shifted and, like much of the album's instrumentation, chopped up, looped and reversed at some parts. The unusual messiness, rawness, and somewhat dark psychedelic aspects in the instrumentation perfectly resembled Earl's state of mental health at the time of recording the album.
Here's a video of Anthony Fantano further explaining the details of the album in one of his trademark reviews below.
Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs ALBUM REVIEW (The Needle Drop - 2018)
[MY OPINION ON SAMPLING]
Sampling basically comes down to the reuse of other peoples' art into one's own art, which is art, and if done morally, it should be allowed to an extent. As long as the sample's original creator gets credited and paid, this could be in the form of royalty percentages, a flat fee, or even shares in the record company, or all of the above, it should be okay to sample.
It would also depend on how prevalent the sample is in the song; if a sample is looped throughout the song and forms its entire beat, like "Ice Ice Baby" or "U Can't Touch This" did, the original artist should get a lot more compensation as apposed to a song that uses very short vocal sample, such as the famous "Wow!" from James Brown's "I Got You (I Feel Good)," which many might believe doesn't even need clearance at all.
If the song's sample is completely edited to the point of being unrecognizable to even the original sample creator, or if the song samples a generic drum loop or piano chord that was probably used in thousands of other songs as well, then many would agree that clearence shouldn't be necessary, but anything more than that will most likely have to get cleared. There's probably many exceptions to this, because of the many blurred lines in copyright law and morality in general, but I think that artists should be able to use samples as long as the original artist gets a reasonable amount of compensation (probably in the form of a royalty percentage or fee) and credit, the sample isn't used in any malicious way against the original artist or anyone they know (or basically anyone for that matter), and that the sample used in the track doesn't go against the believes of the original sample creator. The sample artist should also have the right to deny clearance, but should have a reasonable explanation as to why he/she doesn't want to clear the sample (since many of them don't).
There's a lot more to it and it kind of gets confusing after that. Rapper J. Cole talks about his beliefs on how sampling should work at the end of his critically acclaimed album 2014 Forest Hills Drive:
And all the mothafuckin' samples that cleared, thank you, y'all be tryin' to give a nigga a hard time on the samples, man! I'ma go to the fuckin' Supreme Court and try to make this shit easier for niggas like me to clear these samples, man. If you made the fuckin' music, and you made the art, and you put it into the world, I should be able to use it however the fuck I want. I'ma pay you, I'ma give you a percentage, but you shouldn't be able to tell me I can't use it. Yeah, that's fuckin'... that's fucked up, nigga. You was inspired by the world; allow the world to be inspired by your shit and to use your shit. So all them people like the fucking doors or whoever that don't let niggas use they shit: fuck that, man. It's 2014, 2015 by the time you might hear this shit. Fuck that, man, we movin' on.
via Genius
via Genius
With sampling becoming used much more prevalently in modern hip hop and mainstream pop culture in general, musicians are beginning to get more lenient towards letting their music become sampled. Through the use of the internet, it is much easier for newer up-and-coming artists to gain the support of labels, big or small, other music-related organizations, and even their fan-base through lobbying and crowdfunding to obtain desired samples; and if the music containing samples is released for free online to gain interest on the internet, the artist most likely won't run in to any problems as he/she technically isn't making any money from other artists' music.
Since sampling has been around for almost as long as hip hop itself and has been prevalent on many of hip hop's most iconic and influential albums, despite the ever-changing rules and regulations in copyright law, as long the general public and the hip hop community continues to welcome and enjoy the artistic and nostalgic nature behind the use of sampling, it may be here to stay for a long time. Maybe someday, the music industry will figure out a way to make it so albums like 3 Feet High and Rising and Paul's Boutique become possible again; we seem to be much closer to that point than ever before (since 1989).
Was DJ Khaled Wrong For Sampling OutKast? | For The Record (Genius - 2019)
Below are two more Spotify playlists that feature iconic sample-based hip hop songs from the 2000s and 2010s. If you'd like to find out where the samples in each track came from, WhoSampled.com would be a great website to go to. It features user submitted information that matches up the samples to the songs that use them, right down to the timestamp used, type of sample used and a list of other songs that use the same sample.
The History of Sampling: 2000 - 2009
The History of Sampling: 2010 - 2019
Works Cited
@ByCycle.
“10 years ago, Kanye West dropped 808s & Heartbreak and inspired a new
generation of artists.” Twitter, 24
Nov. 2018, 9:29am, twitter.com/bycycle/status/1066383269393022976.
@yanerrim.
“Hey @Spotify why did you remove death grips’ exmilitary. My life is in ruins.”
Twitter, 5 Aug. 2015,
“1999
(2012).” WhoSampled, accessed May
2019, www.whosampled.com/album/Joey-Bada$$/1999/.
“4:44
(2017).” WhoSampled, accessed May
2019, www.whosampled.com/album/Jay-Z/4%3A44/.
“DAYTONA
(2018).” WhoSampled, accessed May 2019,
www.whosampled.com/album/Pusha-T/Daytona/.
“Exmilitary
(2011).” WhoSampled, accessed May
2019, www.whosampled.com/album/Death-Grips/Exmilitary/.
“Exploring
kanye west.” Discogs, accessed May 2019,
www.discogs.com/search/?
“Graduation
(2007).” WhoSampled, accessed May
2019, www.whosampled.com/album/Kanye-West/Graduation/.
“Izzo
(H.O.V.A.) JAY-Z.” Genius, Genius
Media Group, accessed May 2019, genius.com/Jay-z-izzo-hova-lyrics.
“KIDS SEE
GHOSTS (2018).” WhoSampled, accessed
May 2019, www.whosampled.com/album/Kids-See-
“NASIR (2018).”
WhoSampled, accessed May 2019, www.whosampled.com/album/Nas/Nasir/.
“Late
Registration (2005).” WhoSampled,
accessed May 2019, www.whosampled.com/album/Kanye-West/Late-
“Playing
Possum.” Genius, accessed May 2019, www.genius.com/15900859.
“Speakerboxxx/The
Love Below (2003).” WhoSampled,
accessed May 2019,
“The First
Interview – Fucking Hater (6/21/11)” (Archive). Internet Archive WayBack Machine, Death Grips
Archive, Fucking
Hater, Death Grips, 21 June 2011,
“The Money
Store (2012).” WhoSampled, accessed
May 2019, www.whosampled.com/album/Death-Grips/The-
Songfacts. “Through
the Wire by Kanye West.” Songfacts,
accessed May 2019, www.songfacts.com/facts/kanye-
Bromwich,
Jonah. “With Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,
Outkast heralded the decline of gangster rap.” A.V.
Music, The A.V. Club, Onion,
Inc., 8 July 2014, music.avclub.com/with-speakerboxxx-the-love-below-outkast-
Chart Beat.
“The Top 20 Billboard Hot 100 Hits of the 2000s.” Billboard, 31 Oct. 2014,
Close,
Paris. “10 POP STARS WHO SAMPLED OTHER ARTISTS’ SONGS.” PopCrush, 17 Apr. 2018,
Gavilanes,
Grace. “Inside Kanye West & JAY-Z’s Tumultuous Relationship Through the
Years.” People, Meredith
Corporation,
2 May 2018, people.com/music/kanye-west-jay-z-friendship-timeline/?slide=5815799#5815799.
Genius. “How
Kanye West’s ‘Graduation’ Changed Music | Genius News.” YouTube, hosted by Jacques Morel, 11 Sep. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQYslaA1Lus.
Gipson,
Brooklyne. “25 Mixtapes We Wish Were On Spotify.” Complex, 15 Dec. 2012, www.complex.com/pop-
Greene,
Jayson. “Death Grips.” Pitchfork,
Condé Nast, 25 Apr. 2012, pitchfork.com/features/interview/8815-
Herbert,
Connor. “How Kanye Made ‘The College Dropout’ – Every Sample, Every Beat.” CentralSauce, 9 Feb. 2019, centralsauce.com/college-dropout-samples-kanye-west.
Holmes,
Charles. “The Who’s Who Of SoundCloud Rap.” Complex,
28 Sep. 2018, www.complex.com/music/2018/09/soundcloud-rappers-you-should-know/.
Isenberg,
Daniel. “50 Cent Sued Over Mixtape Sample.” Complex,
22, Apr. 2012,
Johnson,
Craig. “Jay-Z’s music on 9/11.” CNN
Entertainment, Cable News Network, 9 Sept. 2011,
Kanye’s
Archive. “Kanye West - Yandhi | Good Ass Job [Compilation Of All Leaks Pt.2].” YouTube, 15 Mar. 2019,
Mench,
Chris. “JAY-Z Responds To Infidelity Rumours From Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’ On His New Album ‘4:44.’”
Genius, 29 Jan. 2017, genius.com/a/jay-z-responds-to-infidelity-rumors-from-beyonce-s-lemonade-on-his-new-
Newton,
Matthew. “Is Sampling Dying?” Spin,
21 Nov. 2008, www.spin.com/2008/11/sampling-dying/.
Noz, Andrew.
“A (Not At All Definitive) History of Hip Hop Mixtapes.” Red Bull Music Academy Daily, Red Bull, 12
Ranker
Music. “The Best Rappers Who Started On SoundCloud.” Ranker, accessed May 2019,
Scott,
Carter. “Tracking Kanye West’s Evolution as a Producer (Every Song).” CentralSauce, 23 May 2018,
Spotify. Spotify, accessed May 2019, www.spotify.com/us/.
Trust, Gary.
“Louis Prima Sets Record For Longest Breat Between Hot 100 Hits, Debuting on
Kids See Ghosts’
‘4th Dimension.’” Billboard,
20 June 2018, www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/8461866/louis-prima-
u/DavidToma.
“Any official reason Exmilitary was taken off of Spotify?” r/DeathGrips, Reddit, 2016,
WhoSampled.
Accessed 2019, www.whosampled.com.
woxX -.
“Vaporwave: A Brief History.” YouTube,
10 Jun. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdpP0mXOlWM.
Zellner,
Xander. “Kanye West’s Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits.” Billboard, 31 May 2018,
Image and Media Credits
Carter,
Shawn (Jay-Z). “JAY-Z - The Story of O.J.” YouTube,
S. Carter Enterprises, Roc Nation/UMG Recordings,
5 Jul. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM7lw0Ovzq0.
Cicconne,
Madonna. “Madonna - Hung Up (Official Music Video).” YouTube, Warner Bros. Records, 2005, 26
Oct. 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDwb9jOVRtU.
Death Grips. "Death Grips - I've Seen
Footage." YouTube, Epic Records, 18 Apr.
Death Grips. Exmilitary. Third Worlds, 27 Apr. 2011, soundcloud.com/deathgrips/sets/death-grips-exmilitary.
Fantano,
Anthony. “Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs ALBUM REVIEW.” YouTube, The Needle Drop, 4 Dec.
Mannion,
John. Cover image of Kanye West from the Dec. ’04 issue The Fader. Fader, 3 Dec. 2003,
Kanye West
in studio. “20 Songs You Didn’t Know Kanye West Produced.” Rolling Stone, Al Shipley, 11 Apr.
Scott,
Jo-Vaughn (Joey Badass). 1999. Pro
Era Records, 12 June 2012, 2015. SoundCloud,
Speakerboxxx / The Love Below album cover. Genius, OutKast, LaFace Records, Arista Records, 23 Sep. 2003,
SoundCloud
logo. SoundCloud, 2007, www.soundcloud.com.
Vox. “How a
recording-studio mishap shaped ‘80s music.” YouTube,
video by Estelle Caswell, 18 Aug. 2017,
Wyoming Sessions
album covers (edited). Kanye To The,
uploaded by Scratchin Bandit, GOOD Music, Def Jam
Recordings, Mass Appeal
Recordings, 2018, www.kanyetothe.com/forum/index.php?topic=7957322.0.
Xavier,
Ramona “Macintosh Plus.” “Floral Shoppe.” YouTube,
uploaded by immortalyear, Beer on the Rug, 9 Dec. 2011, 25 Dec. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCq0P509UL4.
No comments:
Post a Comment