THE BEAUTY OF SAMPLING

1978. Marvin Gaye released his album Here, My Dear  and on it, track four, “Is That Enough?” The song is about Gaye’s divorce from his wife. The track is just over seven minutes long but the intro of the song has earned a spot in music history. Twenty two years later in Memphis,  Tennessee the legendary rap group “Three 6 Mafia” sampled “Is That Enough?”and made the iconic “Sippin’ on Some Sizzurp.” The group takes turns rhyming  about different drugs, including “sizzurp” (A.K.A lean) while a few bass strings sampled from “Is That Enough?” plays in the background. Who would have thought of Marvin Gaye & Three 6 Mafia on a song together?

2021. Detroit natives Icewear Vezzo and Babyface Ray team up and create their own rendition of Three 6 Mafia’s song & birth “Sippin’.”This is the power of sampling. Marvin Gaye died six years after “Is That Enough?” was released but 44 years later, we are still talking about his song because it has traveled from generation to generation in both its original iteration and as a sample. I haven’t met a Black person that hasn’t heard “Sippin’ on Some Sizzurp” and there’s no escaping this life without hearing it. Marvin Gaye is a legendary singer already and has a spot in hip hop forever because of that sample. Sampling keeps our Black legends alive, well-after their careers have come to an end. Because of rap music and the power of sampling, no Black artist is forgotten and no Black music goes unheard. Every generation and era is remembered. That’s the beauty of sampling.

Sampling is a music technique that has been commonly used in Hip Hop since the genre was created by the Black youth in the Bronx on August 11, 1973. DJs would play funk and soul records and MC’s would rap over them live. Called ‘em “the breaks.” A lot has changed about Hip Hop  over the years. It is now the most popular genre in the world. It is accessible. The rhyming schemes are more advanced. The rappers themselves even look different. But, sampling has never been lost. It is the heart of hip hop. It’s what keeps this genre alive.

There’s a video on YouTube of Kanye West sampling Shirley Murdock’s “Go on Without You”, from her self-titled album in 1986. The beat Kanye made was used by the rap group,  Do or Die, in 2005 on a song named “Paid the Price.” The track also features Kanye. Both tracks remain timeless. Repackaging Black music with a new twist is an ingenious way to introduce the sound to a new  era today’s youth  were not around to experience. EST Gee’s “5500 Degrees” allows younger people to find comfort in “400 Degreez” by Juvenile, because the sound is no longer foreign to them. 

Sampling doesn’t always involve using a portion of a song and making a beat from it. It is also using rhythm, melody, entire bars/hooks and making a song out of it. Key Glock’s song “Dig That” uses the flow and some bars of Project Pat’s song “Gorilla Pimp”. Key Glock is paying homage to an artist from the same city as him, who helped pave the way for southern artists.

2020. I began listening to artists who make up the “alternative rap” genre. Artists like Navy Blue, MIKE, and Mavi all consistently make great songs while rapping atop soul samples. Though sampling never left the underground, it has become more popular in mainstream lately. I believe sampling is just another part of Black culture. It’s the musical form of “borrowing” w, the Black community is familiar this because we have all had to borrow from and share with each other. Black people, specifically in lower income communities, have had to borrow from each other for the longest. Only recently has this borrowing been looked at under a negative light. It is tradition for us to help each other in a time of need even if it’s something as simple as a cup of sugar. We always trusted that our neighbors would have our backs and wouldn’t want anything in return. J.Cole has a song called “Cole Summer” that samples Lauryn Hill & D’Angelo’s “Nothing Even Matters”. On the song, Cole raps “This sample was yelling ‘loop me.’ Ms. Hill please don’t sue me.” Sampling is a return to community, both an argument for and against tradition. 

Hip Hop is being capitalized on like never before and with that brings stipulations for what is and is not allowed. It is stripping our history from us and limiting our creativity. It sucks hearing an artist say they were not able to put a couple songs on a new project they’ve been working on because they weren’t able to get a sample cleared but the reality is: most artists cannot afford to clear samples and they aren’t rewarded the ability to do so either.

Where would hip-hop be without sampling? Some of the best rap songs have samples in them. What would be the state of hip-hop if someone pulled the plug on “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” by Missy Elliot because it samples “I Can’t Stand the Rain” by Ann Peebles. Would I even love Stevie Wonder so much if Jay Z never sampled “Love’s In Need of Love Today” and created “Smile”? The other day I heard BEO Lil Kenny’s “Good Love” for the first time and was instantly reminded of my grandmother, whose favorite artist, Johnnie Taylor, was being sampled. It put me back in the backseat of her 2002 Lincoln Town Car where she would play his CD often. That is what sampling does. Drives us home and gives us comfort and familiarity even in places we are alien to. Sampling bridges the gap between generations, eras, and genres. It is the heart of our music culture.

[Editor’s Note]: This is a curated playlist by Camille (and I) of popular tracks that later begat more popular tracks through sampling. I don’t think sample snitching is a thing because enjoying music in its many different iterations is nearly half of the beauty. But if you do think sample snitching is a thing, maybe you should listen to the playlist. The experience may change your mind. NAF.