Venturing into the endless tunnel that is music sampling only makes you a better music aficionado. I learned that on my recent journey into the unknown, sparked by a friend giving me one song: Betty Wright’s phenomenal “Clean Up Woman”, to begin this whole thing. Ironically, the only song I couldn’t get on the playlist was the song that sampled “Clean Up Woman”, Chance the Rapper’s “Favorite Song” featuring Childish Gambino. Chance can have all his principles about music ownership and avoiding record labels, that’s cool, but it sure is frustrating to be unable to include his track because it’s not available on Spotify or Apple Music, which I typically use for embedding into blog posts.
I don’t like when things feel incomplete, it really digs at me. However, in order to spare folks a tangent, I will just say that I had no issues publishing the first part of the playlist to Spotify (Part A), as most of the older tracks (even the deeper cuts) were available on Spotify, but it was the Part B that really gave me trouble. I could only get 21 of the 25 “modern” tracks on Spotify thanks to the Royal Couple’s obstinance on music sharing (I am referring to Queen Beyonce and her squire Jay-Z), Dr. Dre’s The Chronic is inexplicably unavailable, and then of course Chance had to be difficult. Using Apple Music I was able to incorporate 24 of the 25 from Part B, without the aforementioned “Favorite Song” (now definitely NOT my favorite). Missing that one track is bothersome, since it is otherwise a pretty cohesive playlist, even with all the different genres represented in Part B.
So now I share the answers to the quiz at the bottom of the post. For those that are lost, here was the process: I posted just Part A to begin (Part A had the original R&B and Soul songs from the 60’s-80’s) and had anyone who was interested in guessing which “modern” track sampled the original take the quiz at the bottom of the post. The order of the Part A was not random. In fact, I labored to make it as cohesive as possible using tracks spanning the decades and spanning several different genres from Jazz to Reggae to Disco. I then created the Part B playlist, which had some “answers” to the quiz in the form of a playlist including songs that sampled the originals. There were a lot of variables or unknowns with the Part B playlist for a couple different reasons; the first is that I had several options for some of the songs. For example, Isaac Hayes’ “Walk on By” and Skull Snaps’ “Brand New Day” have been sampled so many times over the years that I had four or five stellar modern tracks to choose from. The second, and more fun reason, is I kept the order of the “answers” the same as the playlist order of Part A. Naturally, this is how answers are provided for most quizzes and forms of trivia, yet it was still an intriguing prospect to make the Part B playlist with the order of songs already dictated by the Part A. It was kind of a ‘close your eyes and hope for the best’ scenario as the Part B playlist could have been a hot mess using the order established, however, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that it turned out pretty well, even with all of the issues adding tracks due some of the Artists’ doggedness regarding music sharing.
There is an interesting flow to the playlist, meandering through staples of Rap like “Jump Around” by House of Pain or “Nuthin’ But A G Thang” by Dr. Dre (featuring a very young and ambitious Snoop Dogg) while the playlist made its way through some more pop oriented stuff like Gnarls Barkley’s radio-friendly “Crazy” or Justin Timberlake’s “Suit & Tie”. Even the outlier “Rill Rill” by Sleigh Bells, a noise rock band with big riffs and a rebel-pop aura, fit fairly well surrounded by Hip-Hop staples like “Big Poppa” and “Hotline Bling”. Even though it broke the rule about Rap tracks sampling old R&B, I couldn’t help but put it in because I think the sampling of Funkadelic’s “Can You Get to That” is one of the most brilliant borrowings I have ever heard. The segues I’m most proud of are the unexpected flow between Public Enemy’s anarchic “Night of the Living Baseheads” and Nas’ club friendly “Made You Look”, as well as the transition between “Nuthin But A G Thang” and Kanye’s master sampling of Marvin Gaye on “Spaceship”.
Going back to my point at the top of the post regarding researching music sampling making me a better music aficionado; well, that topic really requires another post where I discuss all the many music artists I discovered during the process. It was exciting to avoid some of the artists I was tempted to include like The Meters or Kool and the Gang and instead venture into the exciting proposition of finding deeper tracks that have been sampled, by relatively unknown artists. The hours of research on modern Rap and Hip-Hop songs and the origins of their music was overwhelming, but well worth the dive. Discovering music from the likes of Cymande, 24-Carat Black, Labi Siffre, Jack Wilkins, and Eugene McDaniels was quite the rattling experience; it made me question how much heritage and history in Jazz, Soul, and R&B I was missing out on for not being a more frequent investigator of the catchy beats and clear sampling done in Rap and Hip-Hop. I mean, I thought my finger was on the pulse for knowing folks like Shuggie Otis, Carmen McCrae, and Koko Taylor. But oh how wrong I was! There’s so much more out there, some real classic gems and deep cut artists I learned about during this process that it makes me realize I haven’t even scratched the surface.
There were even some more recent tracks that have been sampled by contemporary artists I had no idea were in fact samples. I mean, listen to this:
I would’ve never guessed in a million years Kendrick Lamar would’ve sampled a Danish Soul group for “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe”, but there you have it. It’s a bold new world out there when you start finding artists that have been sampled in Rap and Hip-Hop. This will definitely be a future post, so many discoveries deserve to be unshrouded.
In walking through the playlist Part A, the segues and ordering of tracks over the course of 25 tracks was a bit tricky, but turned out fairly decent. The first two tracks are instantly recognizable for the classic Rap tracks that have sampled them. Though “The Edge” by David MacCallum is straight-up Jazz, complete with “Yazz Flute” and some conservative piano lines, the orchestral flourishes and funky guitar were prime for the picking, and Dr. Dre recognized this when he used it in the famous track “The Next Episode”, which brought back his friend Snoop Dogg for a 2001 collaboration. Although it’s only the first five seconds of “Harlem Shuffle” that are sampled for the first five seconds of “Jump Around”, I couldn’t help include not only because it is one of the most well known samples in all of Hip-Hop history, but also because the track by Bob & Earl is just an amazing track with it’s own funky guitars and keys. It’s hard to pick which track I like better, the original or the sampler, but I’m leaning towards the original.
Lyn Collins didn’t provide the vocals for Rob Base’s 1988 gem “It Takes Two”, they actually had a session vocalist come in and replicate Lyn. Nevertheless, I like that they used many different aspects of this classic funk song “Think (About It)”, a James Brown production, including the brilliantly concise bass line. I like that the listener has to wait till roughly a minute and a half before recognizing the sample. An easy segue from there is into The JB’s; they have been sampled so many times over the years, most notably by Public Enemy throughout their reign, and “Pass the Peas” is my favorite early JB’s track for showcasing how sharp that band was in the studio and live. Some of the greatest musicians ever to have lived were in James Brown’s backing band. I wanted to also include a song that had a drum beat sampled many times over the years. It came down to two tracks: “Brand New Day” by the funky cult classic band Skull Snaps or the even deeper track “Synthetic Substitution” by Melvin Bliss. Take a listen:
That is one snappy drum to kick-off that track (recognize O.P.P. by Naughty By Nature?) which ended up coming a close second to “Brand New Day”. You can hear how good both drum beats are when stacked next to each other, however, it ultimately came down to the fact I own a Skull Snaps album and Melvin Bliss’ track was difficult to obtain. If you listen to the percussion in “Brand New Day” around the 1:40 mark you might also recognize an eerily similar percussion beat The Internet used on the late night R&B track “Cocaine”. One of my favorite original tracks on the playlist Part A is “Bam Bam” by Sister Nancy. She’s been celebrated recently for being sampled by the likes of both Jay-Z and Kanye West, but was living in relative musical obscurity before these happenings. Now her uncanny vocals, which employed early reverb and over-dubbing, has seen a wider audience thanks to the “Famous” tracks that have sampled her. Another difficult decision between the original and the newer sampler track came when comparing “Superfly” by Curtis Mayfield to “Egg Man” by Beastie Boys. I’m leaning towards “Egg Man” because they really did celebrate the glory of “Superfly” when they sampled it. “Egg Man” is one helluva funky track, so they were able to capture the spirit of Curtis Mayfield’s original pretty well.
Nestled between some tracks you have to be patient with is another JB’s track, “The Grunt”, which I wanted to include if not only to showcase how many times Public Enemy has sampled The JB’s. The song directly before “The Grunt” is a more Disco-oriented dance track by Vernon Burch I wanted to include in order to add some diversity to the Part B playlist – knowing Deee-Lite would be a refreshing palate-cleanser when placed against a whole bunch of old school Rap tracks. You have to wait until the middle of “Get Up” before hearing the intoxicating interlude Deee-Lite used on “Groove Is In the Heart”, but once you hear it it can’t be unheard. The Incredible Bongo Band are one of the most over-sampled groups ever, and “Apache” is the song of theirs that has been sampled the most. Once you hear it, you instantly know why – it simply has some of the most funky percussion you will ever hear in a song.
After “Apache” is a track I had never heard before by an artist I too had never heard. British musician Labi Siffre released a classic album in 1975 called Remember My Song with the track “I Got The…..” kicking it off. Much like “Get Up”, you have to wait till the middle of the song to hear that classic bass line and drum-snap we associate with Eminem. Kudos to a few who took the quiz for also noticing its use on Miguel’s fantastic modern Soul nugget “Kaleidoscope Dream”, another fine example of just how great that beat is, especially in the original.
“Walk On By”, much like both “Apache” and anything Skull Snaps or The JB’s have done, has been sampled so many times over I lose track. Isaac Hayes was the king of intoxicatingly intimate Funk in the 70’s. His deep voice was always accompanied by some real mellow and delicious Funk. I’ve always enjoyed the difficult to spell but fun to listen to “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic”, which has been sampled many times, BUT I had to use the track “Walk On By” because it really is one of the poster children for oversampling. I included Beyonce’s “6 Inch” because I thought it would work better for the Part B playlist, but upon further listens I really think the song does the original some gross injustices. At some point towards that overblown ending I get the feeling it has all become a farce. I love when Beyonce slithers into the whole “6 Inch Heeeeelllssss” chorus with the sensual guitars of Isaac Hayes’ original in the back, but the song is overdone in terms of production, much like most of Beyonce’s music. The far better track showcasing a real love of the original is Hooverphonic’s track “2 Wicky” from the classic Trip-Hop album A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular (1996) (Really brings me back to my College listening days!). Give a listen:
In comes the “erotic” portion of both playlists. Slow jams beget some real mellow groove-based Rap classics starting with the sultry down-tempo Funk of Leon Haywood’s “I Want’a Do Something Freaky To You” begetting the instantly recognizable “Nuthin But A G Thang” by Dre and Snoop. One of the easier samples to spot in the mix is “Between the Sheets” by Isley Brothers (more baby making music), which was famously used in Biggie’s “Big Poppa”. Before that is my personal favorite in terms of all-time samples- “Spaceship” by Kanye West. It sounds as if Kanye took a lot of Marvin Gaye’s “Distant Lover” and put it through the washer. I’m not sure if the vocals are still Marvin’s in his version, however, its reappropriation in “Spaceship”, maintaining the essence of the original while adding many modern production techniques to make it unique, is simply incredible. I think Kanye’s track showcases his prowess as a producer more than most other tracks in Kanye’s storied discography. Sly, Slick, & Wicked’s sexy 70’s cut “Sho’ Nuff” is far better than Justin Timberlake’s “Suit & Tie” featuring Jay-Z, but I do like how “Suit & Tie” adds an unexpected dimension to the Part B playlist. It’s also one of the more difficult samples to spot in my opinion. Drake’s “Hotline Bling” has been in hot water for being too similar to other tracks, most notably DRAM’s club-hit “Cha Cha”, yet it’s undisputed connection to Timmy Thomas’ “Why Can’t We Live Together” has given Thomas’ song a second life.
Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”, a production-collab between Cee-Lo Green and evil genius Danger Mouse is one of the most radio-friendly R&B tracks ever created. I was pretty shocked to discover its origins as part of a score for a 60’s Spaghetti Western by Gianfranco Reverberi & Gian Piero Reverberi. That was a fun one to add that added a nice instrumental transition on the back half of the Part A mix. Next up are two previously discussed tracks – “Clean Up Woman” and the track’s relation to Chance the Rapper as well as “Can You Get to That” by Funkadelic sampling by Sleight Bells. Then comes the lovely Soul songs feat. female singers sampled by RZA for ODB’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” and then for the classic “C.R.E.A.M.” by Wu-Tang Clan. One hidden parallel I enjoyed sneaking in is the chorus in The Emotions’ “I Like It” being used in another song from Deee-Lite’s World Clique, specifically in a small interlude in the song “Try Me On…..I’m Very You”. The Charmels song “As Long As I’ve Got You” is sampled sparingly in “C.R.E.A.M.” but that small ten-second sample is immediately recognizable.
The last three songs of Part B are fairly easy to pick out samples as they are used throughout with great frequency. Kanye and Jay-Z made the famous sample of Otis Redding’s “Try A Little Tenderness” into the brilliant tribute “Otis” (I had to put it on the playlist even if there was a bit of a Kanye oversaturation going on). Though I was tempted to do The Flamingos doo-wop masterpiece “I Only Have Eyes For You” sample on “Zealots” in lieu of the Fugees song I ended up going with (“Ready or Not Here I Come” by The Delfonics being used in “Ready or Not” by Fugees) but felt that The Delfonics song worked better on the Part A mix. Let it be stated that after “Spaceship” by Kanye West, this is not only my favorite source material but also one of my favorite Rap samples – I just didn’t think it worked as well as The Delfonics song when putting together the mix.
Though I had never heard of the group Ponderosa Twins Plus One and their song “Bound” before going on this deep-dive search into samples, I was really pleased to find it. It seems a lot of boy-band and child-singer Soul groups have been sampled in Hip-Hop over the years, especially the Jackson 5, and it was no surprise to find the best track off of Yeezus, “Bound 2”, had used a sample as well as made a reference/ode in the song title. I found both the sampler and the samplee’s songs to be a great capper in both the Part A and Part B playlists.
Although the answers have already been revealed and both playlists posted, feel free to take the Quiz (maybe just try to use the Honor Code?). Also I recommend listening to the playlists back-to-back. It’s interesting to compare them, and I feel both turned out well. However, just remember that one song is missing on Part B, Chance the Rapper’s “Favorite Song”. Once again, I’m still a bit pissed about it, but will have to let down my gripe sooner or later.
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