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Songs that made great samples

KEXP dedicated a day of programming to Paul’s Boutique and all the samples it used. Looks like it’s still up on their website.

2015: Beastie Boys
DJ Food and friends made an hour-long megamix of the source material that went into "Paul's Boutique", plus interviews and other stuff.


He's got similar megamixes of Boards of Canada, DJ Shadow, Kraftwerk covers, and so on. The DJ Food website is a treat.

There's also "Raiding the 20th Century" which is an all-you-can-eat buffet and includes Paul Morley with wry commentary.
 
"Land Of 1000 Dances" is an interesting one, because the "na nanana" bit (which opens Ini Kamoze's "Here Comes The Hotstepper", for example) that's always sampled was not in the original but in a cover.

Here's a video on "Funky Drummer" and how James Brown seems to have intentionally released a version intended for sampling.

 
One of my favorites has always been Lens sample of Andrea Tru Connection's More, More, More (sample at approximately 2:20) in Steal My Sunshine :




They sampled what is by far the best part of that song. That break is the only thing that somewhat redeems that very boring disco tune.

And I'm not knocking disco as a whole...I'm saying "More, More, More" represents the worst and most uninspiring that disco had to offer.
 
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My daughter flew in for a visit, and while I was preparing dinner, she put Combat Rock by The Clash on the turntable. I haven't listened to this album in probably thirty years. At any rate, as the opening bars of Straight To Hell played...



I immediately started singing...

 
"Amen, Brother" may be the most sampled recording, but I'd be very surprised if James Brown isn't the most sampled artist overall.

My favorite use of a James Brown sample - and it also happens to be my favorite rap performance - is Kool Moe Dee's "I Go To Work", sampled from the James Brown classic "Super Bad":
 
And... how many were sampled and the original artists never got properly compensated? I know quite a few people who call themselves 'producers' who find records, sample stuff, never credit the original artists, and act like they're creating something 'new'. IMO, if you're going to use samples - sample things you capture yourself.... nature sounds, percussion sounds/loops you create. Sampling IS an art, but it's often used as a crutch
That was my beef from the beginning. All they had to do was acknowledge and pay, but AFAIK, most of the producers doing the sampling did neither.
 
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That was my beef from the beginning. All they had to do was acknowledge and pay, but AFAIK, most of the producers doing the sampling did neither.
That's the mentality I still see in play. People ripping and using samples and posting/releasing stuff with the mindset of 'when it becomes an issue, I'll deal with it.' Ignorance of the law is not a defense in court... which people will find out the hard way. If you compartmentalize the era of the late 80s/early 90s when the practice really started, it was HARD to enforce those copyright laws on a wide scale. I guess it's no coincidence that my favorite Beastie Boys work is the stuff that doesn't rely heavily on sampling.
 
Anyone who thinks it takes no talent to use samples I have to disagree with, clearly it takes talent to make something like the Entroducing album by DJ Shadow or Paul's Boutique album by the Beastie Boys. You may not like it but it took talent to do it.

Like any form of music, there are plenty of less than stellar example out there, too. I won't name names as I try to avoid slagging off on bands and musicians I don't like on TB, but as with all pop music there's always going to be a lot of garbage along with the treasure.
Totally agree.

Someone here on TB likened it to collage art, where artists take parts of images and/or textures and put them together to make unique pieces of art. Some of it's treasure, and some of it's garbage, just like pretty much anything else.