Read on Twitter
Hi twitter people, below is a thread of some of my favourite uses of samples in hip hop (will add in some later when I remember more of them I will just make a small list for today)
Ok starting off with 21st Century Schizoid Man in Power, the sound of it is iconic and adds great depth to the songs meaning: refurbishing a song meant to criticise those in power for a song about both celebrating and criticising power works extremely well.
E=MC2 by Giorgio Moroder being sampled by J Dilla in... E=MC2. The time stretched and chopped sample is complete and utter ear candy, combined with the hard hitting Dilla drums and it is nothing short of excellent. It's like a massive droid destroying whatever is in it's way.
Next is my favourite Madlib beat: Shadows of Tomorrow, the sample being R.D. Burman's Hindu Hoon Main Na Musalman Hoon. The track and the use of the sample really opened my eyes and ears to what sounds could be implemented in hip. Bollywood can still eat shit and die though...
Mobb Deep's Survival of the Fittest sampling Skylark by Al Cohn and The Barry Harris Trio. It's great how Havoc turned this into probably the darkest feeling instrumental I've heard. Like it really is the sound of a depressed mf walking down the streets at 3am.
Premo chopping up Ennio Morricone's Sporco Ma Distinto, for Hov's So Ghetto. Premo's classic tactic of playing the sample like a kick drum works so well with the aesthetic of the whole track. There's more iconic examples but this track gets overlooked and it's really grown on me.
Pusha T's Exodus 23:1 sampling What's Beef? by Biggie. I find the idea of answering the question in a real life beef to be clever. The execution of it is nothing short of menacing. Is the perfect homage to a great of the past, while lyrically taking down a great of the present.
Yvonne Fair's Let Your Hair Down was used in my favourite rap song oat: Hov's Where I'm From, which in turn was sampled in Ye's Saint Pablo. All 3 songs have 3 really distinct moods to them and it is just wonderful to see samples being repurposed like that.
RZA sampling Kalyanji Anandji's Dharmatma Theme Music for 4th chamber. I have nothing else to say other than holy fucking shit, out of all the out of place and eccentric samples RZA has implemented in his stuff this is right at the top for me. It's stupidly creative sonically
Completely forgot to continue this thread so: Jesus Walks sampling Walk With Me by ARC Choir is kinda crazy. Whole track is jam packed with the vocals and it is a true artistic display of what can be achieved in a song with the most basic of all instruments, the human voice.
