Old songs, or throwbacks, often spark the memory of when you first heard it and takes you back to that groovy, nostalgic time. In today’s music industry, more specifically within the rap and hip-hop community, a majority of artists capture that reminiscent feeling in their music by using beats and/or verses of pre-existing songs and incorporating it into their own, new songs. This action would be referred to as sampling.
Familiarity is often a friendly face, but how is it appreciated when it comes to creating new music?
“I feel that there have been a lot of artists that are using samples in their music and I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily original since another artist already created that song, but it is kind of unique,” said Delta student Anette Guzman. “They are taking a part of a song another person has done and composing another piece of music for their own song and it takes creativity to do that.”
A more formal definition of sampling, according to the 2001 book, Reggae Wisdom: Proverbs in Jamaican Music by Anand Prahlad, is essentially, “…drawing upon segments of previously recorded discourse and weaving these into the song.” Prahlad also states that sampling was invented by deejays, thus making it grow in popularity in the rap music industry over the years.
A primary example of a rap artist, who should frankly be considered one of the kings of sampling, is Drake. A large majority of his songs include samples, whether that includes the use of pre-existing verses or just using the beat of another song. Some well-known examples include: “Nice for What” (samples from the 1998 song “Ex-Factor” by Lauryn Hill), “Hotline Bling” (samples from the 1972 song “Why Can’t We Live Together” by Timmy Thomas), “Emotionless” (samples from the 1991 song “Emotions” by Mariah Carey) and many more.
Drake does a refreshing job at incorporating these old songs into his new music, primarily because it seems as though he uses these samples to compliment his verses without being overbearing or using too much of the original song.
Drake now may have some competition in the sampling game, however. American rapper, Jack Harlow recently released a new song called “First Class,” featuring the beat and sampled verses of Fergie’s 2006 hit, “Glamorous.”
This song has been an immediate hit among many, hitting number one on Billboard’s Top 100 Chart on April 18 and remaining in the top three since then.
Although Harlow heavily based this song around Fergie’s own, music enthusiasts seem to enjoy the catchy throwback vibes that his song provides.
“Right away when I listened to it, it was very catchy. I enjoyed the way he had sampled Fergie’s song and created a part of his own chorus to the way her song goes,” said Guzman. “The beat and chorus really made the whole song stand out.”
Nevertheless, there is one main thing that could trip up an artist when using samples and that is, of course, the copyright issues. When artists sample songs, they need legal permission from the artist they are sampling due to copyright reasons. When this doesn’t happen, it can lead to major lawsuits. Shockingly enough, there are a great handful of instances where artists have faced legal trouble for using samples.
A legal issue highlighting the use of sampling in the music industry includes the lawsuit between Niki Minaj and Tracy Chapman for the unauthorized use of Chapman’s 1988 song, “Baby Can I Hold You” in Minaj’s 2018 leaked song “Sorry.”
What essentially went down here was that Minaj recorded this song using Chapman’s sample prior to asking Chapman permission to use it. Once asking Chapman for permission to release it, Chapman actually denied. After denying access to her song, Niki’s version leaked to the public anyways.
According to documents from the U.S. District Court in California’s Central District, Chapman ended up suing Minaj for $450,000 for this incident. As for the outcome, Chapman and Minaj decided not to go to trial.
The use of sampling has pretty much redefined the way music is made today. It provides a familiar and nostalgic vibe to current music, while also adding new life to pre-existing songs. It’s arguable that the quality of each song differs depending on how each specific artist incorporates old songs into their music style but with the proper incorporations and correct legal actions, the popular use of sampling has the potential to continue positively influencing the music industry for years to come.