Sample this
These songs all took on new lives when they were sampled
“Many of our favourite hip-hop tracks wouldn’t exist without the technique of sampling – in fact, lots of samples have gone on to become more famous than the original track”
As Grandmaster Flash explained when he took What Hi-fi? back to his teenage years of stitching seconds of tracks into minutes-long beds of music (see our interview on page 60), some of our favourite hip-hop tracks wouldn’t exist without the technique of sampling. With lots of samples having become more famous than the original track, we’ve traced back six of the best examples for you... APACHE Incredible Bongo Band
“When Kool Herc found Apache, he was under heavy guard,” Grandmaster Flash told What Hifi?. “You’d never see the album cover of where it came from.” Such was the competition between hip-hop’s early DJS to find that special break. The Incredible Bongo Band track has since sired perhaps more tracks than any other piece of contemporary music, and in 2012 its influence was documented in the film Sample This. THE BOOGIE BACK Roy Ayers
N.W.A’S F*** Tha Police wasn’t only censored upon its release in the late 1980s, but garnered communication between the group’s record company and the FBI for its perceived misrepresentation of and incitement of violence towards the police. The seminal track, which protests police brutality and racial profiling, was built on a sample of Roy Ayers’ The Boogie Back. JUICY FRUIT Mtume
The Notorious B.I.G.’S first single from his debut album Ready To Die – Biggie’s story of growing up through poverty, to dealing drugs before artistic recognition and financial success – sits on a bed of Mtume’s Juicy Fruit. Produced by Poke of Trackmasters and Sean Combs, Juicy Fruit actually uses the instrumental version of the track, with girl group Total singing an alternative version of the original chorus. I GOT THE… by Labi Siffre
Dr Dre’s use of this track on Eminem’s 1999 hit My Name Is was originally vetoed. “Attacking two of the usual scapegoats, women and gays, is lazy writing,” said Labi Siffre. “If you want to do battle, attack the aggressors not the victims.” The London-born singer finally approved after Eminem made changes to the original lyrics. THE BIG BEAT Billy Squier
Billy Squier’s The Big Beat has been sampled more than 280 times according to Whosampled. com, by artists as diverse as Beck, The Prodigy and Alicia Keys. Perhaps the best-known uses are by Dizzee Rascal, who sampled it heavily in 2003 for Fix Up, Look Sharp, and in Jay Z’s Rick Rubin-produced 99 Problems the following year. Former Beggars & Thieves drummer Bobby Chouinard plays the famous beat itself. HOWLIN’ FOR JUDY Jeremy Steig
Played by jazz flautist Jeremy Steig – who also played The Pied Piper in the film Shrek Forever After – Howlin’ For Judy is an infectious piece of musicianship that lent itself perfectly as the sample that formed the crux of Beastie Boys’ Sure Shot in 1994. It opened the group’s second number-one album, Ill Communication, which also included the hit Sabotage.
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