Article by – Lee Fairweather

Every time I hear a song that sounds like it has sampled another song, usually with melodic moans or manipulated soulful bass lines, I always wonder what the producer has lifted in order to create a new song altogether.

For years now I have been obsessed with finding out samples of songs I like. Family and friends have always told me I have an ear for hearing what a producer has sampled to make a song, luckily for me it kind of comes naturally. I must confess that my talent for hearing who sampled what is quite dependent on complexity of the producer.

While I understand people’s view on the whole ‘sampling is cheating’ argument, I have never agreed with it. Yes many times sampling can be done so terribly, it comes across as lazy and forgettable but that should not be a reflection on the art of sampling. Samples also seem to carry this connotation that a chunk of music is taken and simply looped without adding any technical aspects that heighten or subdued elements to highlight a particular soundscape. Let’s take the art of sampling in the case of Hip-Hop. P.Diddy, or Puffy Daddy a.k.a Puffy a.k.a. Sean Combs a.k.a. Shiny Suit Man as he was known back in the nineties, was infamous for taking popular tunes and looping the most obvious segments of the song to create a hit. To be honest some of them were cool, I still smile hearing certain Notorious B.I.G. songs such as ‘Mo’ Money Mo Problems’. However, they have nothing on the album cuts which took a much more dark and sometimes underground tone with credible producers such as Havoc of Mobb Deep and DJ Premier where samples were much more layered and detailed, with the intention of creating a certain vibe to go hand in hand with Biggie’s superior writing skills and emphasis his sinister subject matter.

Eugene McDaniel – ‘Lovin’ Man’

Not only did I find it beneficial to listen to the original of a song that had been sampled, it was also another way to find out about musicians and music I had never heard before. Searching for hours on end for originals through forums or keyword searches on Google, which has now translated to people putting the titles in YouTube comments or whosampled.com, could be quite time consuming but worth it. I should take this time out to thank Hip-Hop extraordinaires Pete Rock, A Tribe Called Quest and 9th Wonder for sampling the criminally overlooked Eugene McDaniels on numerous occasions. This eventually introduced me to what would become one of my favourite albums of all time, arguably the funkiest folk soul album ever ‘Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse’.
Joe Scudda Feat. Phonte – ‘Groupies’ (Produced by 9th Wonder)

Also it helps when that I grew up on great music due to the eclectic taste of music I heard my family play. Everything from my mother playing Alice Coltrane, my uncle playing Public Enemy, to my grandmother playing Frank Sinatra and Gospel music. My father had rooms full of vinyl so I would hear everything from Stan Getz, Cream to Roy Ayers. When it came to music I was spoiled. Everytime they mention my ‘good ear’, I point the finger towards them.

Which brings me to why we are here, I have decided that should probably share my fascination with samples with others. This week we have Lee Fields & The Expressions with ‘Love Comes and Goes’, a heart-felt, soulful song about Fields attempt to make a stormy relationship work but it will not due to the love being lost over the years. Detroit’s sought after producer/rapper Black Milk samples the track for his own song ‘Don Cornelius’, which is named after the cool host of seventies dance show ‘Soul Train’. Milk mainly uses the beginning portion of the song for a raw, uncut loop without really changing the drums but rather altering the pitch and bragging about how many others cannot see him when it comes to the mic or behind the boards. Until the next version excursion, enjoy!

Lee Fields & The Expressions – ‘Love Comes and Comes’
http://youtu.be/m0JRewOoJA0
Black Milk – Don Cornelius

Article by – Lee Fairweather