Sample *Licious

B.I.G. To Rihanna & Jay-Z - "Who Y'all Talking To?"

2012-01-29T05:52:00.001-04:00

If it wasn't credited on the liner notes for Talk That Talk , Rihanna's new album, you would probably doubt that the title song contained a sample of The Notorious B.I.G's I Got a Story To Tell.

After giving both songs a listen it doesn't seem like it at all but the sample is there.

It's a vocal sample taken right from the intro of ...Story To Tell of Biggie saying "Who y'all talking to?".

So where can you find the sample in the Rihanna song?

Right in between where Jay-Z says "Everything I do is BIG", you can hear the sample before he continues with the "I talk big money" line (around 0:44 in the Talk That Talk clip above).

Prodigy Talks about Sampling 2Pac and Rap Beef

2011-11-25T22:39:00.001-04:00

Remember the days of the East Coast vs West Coast beefs? When Pac was going at Biggie, Mobb Deep, Jay-Z and everybody else?

In 2007, Prodigy released his album Return of the Mac and the title track sampled 2Pac on the hook.

The song sampled is from 2Pac's verse from the 1993 freestyle in Madison Square Garden that also featured The Notorious B.I.G. and Shyheim and Big Daddy Kane.

2Pac re-used his verse on a song called Nothing To Lose that was post-humously released on 1997's R U Still Down? (Remember Me) .

Here's an interview of Prodigy talking about sampling 2Pac and the talk about his previous beefs also come up.

The Firm's Desperados Sample - Dune by Wasis Diop

2011-01-01T18:57:00.000-04:00

Save for a couple of tracks, The Firm's "The Album" was a pretty solid album. I never could understand why people said 'the firm flopped' according to Dr. Dre.

Maybe it was the whole "mobster concept" of the album but I found it was pretty banging. Standout tracks included the singles Firm Biz and Phone Tap as well as Five Minutes to Flush, Untouchable and the Canibus featured Desperados.

The beats were banging and you can't go wrong with lyrical giants like Nas, AZ and Nature. Foxy Brown is much better than Nicki Minaj in my opinion but...

Anyway, today's sample of the day is Desperados which samples a song called Dune by Senegalese musician, Wasis Diop. Dune is a 1993 song from the soundtrack to a Senegalese movie called Hyenes.

Desperados

Dune

I'm at WhoSampled.com

2011-01-01T18:31:00.000-04:00

When I first created this blog, I did it because I loved listening to songs and finding connections to other songs. I wanted to put them on a blog so that others could find these same connections and we could probably discuss them.

Then I found WhoSampled.com, which I think is the best website out of the many that have sample databases. WhoSampled links the connections in much the same way I wanted to have them, allowing for discussions and also allowing you to see other connections such as covers and remixes.

I've been on WhoSampled for over a year now and it's become kind of addicting. I'm one of the top 10 contributors over there and have submitted and discovered lots of great connections.

This is the reason why Sample *Licious has been so quiet lately. You can see my submissions at WhoSampled by checking out my profile. Maybe join up as well.

The Coolie Dance Riddim Inspired by Only the Strong

2010-08-27T00:02:00.000-04:00

When I saw Only the Strong back in the early 90s, it introduced me to the Brazilian martial arts culture and music. It was a very enjoyable movie as well as memorable.

The song Paranue as performed in the movie was one of the highlights of the film and although I didn't notice until the other day, was also the inspiration for the 2003 Coolie Dance dancehall riddim produced by "Scatta" Burrell.

The drums, the handclaps, the rhythm...all used on Scatta's instrumental. But the use of Paranue is probably most evident on TOK's Unknown Language where they interpolated the song.

Scarface's Influence on Hip Hop - The World is Yours.

2010-01-04T18:09:00.002-04:00

Wow. I just watched Scarface last night and all I can say is that movie influenced a lot of hip hop.

A lot of the songs in the movie were samples by different hip hop artists including the very familiar opening theme.

Here are some of the gems from Scarface.

The Intro - (at 1:05)

Sampled on Mobb Deep and Nas' It's Mine

The other song I caught right away was Push it to the Limit.

Any hip hop fan would know Rick Ross sampled this on his song with the same title.

Here's one you might not know about. The music that plays when Tony goes to Bolivia the first time.

It was sampled by Immortal Technique on his song Peruvian Cocaine.

There are a lot of other notable influences in the movie. Off the top I can think of:

Jay Z's Reasonable Doubt album

Nas - The World is Yours - Scarface's mantra plus there's a scene in the video where Nas is in the bathtub watching tv.

Belly - the DMX, Nas movie - the scene where Ox was killed in his house.

Vibe cover with 50 cent as Scarface.

...and countless others. Great movie. Great music.

If you love Scarface and love the music inspired by it you're going to love Music Inspired by Scarface which contains music from Mobb Deep, Notorious BIG, Jay Z, Ice Cube and even Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

I Wanna Know What Love is - Sampled and Covered

2009-12-20T16:15:00.002-04:00

Mariah Carey recently did her version of Foreigner's '80s power ballad I Wanna Know What Love Is. Good cover of a great song. The song can be found on her latest album Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel.

I love the original by Foreigner and even have it in a playlist somewhere. I don't think any cover of this song comes close to the original.

Know what I love most though?

When genres cross. Check under the radar reggae/dancehall artist Terro 3000 sample called In My Life as he remembers a fallen soldier.

Speaking of crossing genres, reggae and fallen soldiers, slain South African artist Lucky Dube also recorded a version of the song in 1997 for his album Taxman.

R.I.P Lucky Dube.

And for the reason I did this post...The Chipmunks covered the song on the soundtrack to their new movie The Squeakquel.

Check out the trailer featuring the original version by Foreigner.

Best I Ever Had is Falling In Love

2009-10-15T03:09:00.001-04:00

Listening to Drake's Best I Ever Had, I knew there had to be a sample in there. That melody is so groovy its addicting.

Hip hop has helped me discovered some of the music my parents used to listen to and I really love that 70's soul music.

Best I Ever Had samples Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynold's Fallin' In Love which was a #1 hit in 1975 on Billboard's adult contemporary charts. It was the groups biggest hit.

Baby Come Home - Willie Hutch is Back Like That

2009-07-27T22:31:00.011-04:00

Y'all know Willie Hutch. No?

Well you've been hearing his pimpilicious music all over hip hop for years. Willie's the man behind 70s classics like "The theme from The Mack".

Here's a tune you'll instantly recognize. Its called Baby Come Home.

And Wu Tang's Ghostface Killa bought it Back Like That on his 2006 album Fishscale. The song also featured Ne-Yo on the hook which also sampled JayZ's Song Cry.

Mattafix Cools Down the Pace with Gregory Isaacs

2009-04-11T18:05:00.001-04:00

Not much as sample as it is a cover. Although based in the UK, Mattafix has roots in the country where I came from so the culture was bound to be a part of their music.

Their new single, Cool Down the Pace is a relaxing reggae joint that many reggae heads will recognize immediately.

Of course if you don't recognize it, the original version of Cool Down the Pace was done by the legendary Gregory Isaacs on his classic 1982 offering, Night Nurse.

Shaggy meets the Delfonics

2009-04-01T22:53:00.003-04:00

Amazing song by Shaggy as he gets in touch with his softer side (again). His first single off his ninth studio album is Bad Man (Don't Cry).

Bad Man borrows from the classic 1968 song La La La Means I Love You by Delfonics.

Wow. Just cant get enough of either.

Something In Common with Bobby Caldwell's Open Your Eyes

2009-03-30T22:34:00.006-04:00

Was just browsing around on twitter and one thing led to another. Before you know it, I'm on sweet Caribbean poet, Carmelite Souffront's blog.

That's how I got inspired to do this post. I know...been a while.

Remember Common's The Light?

The Light @ Yahoo! Video

Great song. Classic hip hop.

It's sampled from Bobby Caldwell's Open Your Eyes which is also a classic song.

Q Tip Gettin Up on Black Ivory

2008-11-01T01:25:00.005-04:00

Some classic soul for ya. Its Black Ivory with their song You and I.

Ah what sweet music.

QTip bought it back with his new song Gettin Up with was co produced by JDilla. Beautiful music makes more beautiful music.

Gettin Up - Q-Tip

Gettin' Up is from Tip's new album The Renaissance which will be available Tuesday.

Illmatic Samples - Life's A Bitch/The World is Yours

2008-10-31T13:16:00.002-04:00

Life's a Bitch was AZ's spectacular introduction to the world and he killed it on the track. Nas' father, Olu Dara also collaborated with Nas on the song for the first time.

Life's A Bitch was produced by L.E.S.

The beat for the song was sampled from The Gap Band's Yearning for Your Love.

The Gap Band - Yearning For Your Love -

Real Soul. Real Hip Hop.

The World is Yours

This is my favorite joint off Illmatic. It was produced by Pete Rock.

This is the same song Jay Z sampled on Dead Presidents where he later dissed Nas about how 'you made it a hot line/I made it a hot song.'

Nas ft Pete Rock The World Is Yours
Uploaded by oublierleracismeskyblog

I'm out for dead presidents to represent me...

The World is Yours samples an the voice of T La Rock on his song Its Yours.

It also samples jazz pianist, Ahmad Jamal's I Love Music. I couldn't find a video for this one but I found something you should love. It starts off with the Nas sample from Ahmad Jamal and then some other great samples. Enjoy.

Look for tomorrows installment where we will continue the Illmatic series with One Love.

Illmatic Samples - NY State of Mind

2008-10-30T23:59:00.003-04:00

This month we're gonna take a look at some samples from classic albums starting with Nas' Illmatic.

Nas released his debut, Illmatic in 1993 and with production from Qtip, DJ Premier, L.E.S, Pete Rock and Large Professor just to name a few, the album had A class beats plus Nas' rhymes put him in up there where his name would be mentioned among the best to ever do it.

You gonna love the samples too, trust me on this. There are no no-name producers on this album and the album is totally flawless. Ok, you must have heard the cd right?

Ok, so enough of the requisite album review. Lets check out the samples of Nas' Illmatic album.

NY State of Mind

Premo did this one.

NY State of Mind contains a sample of Mind Rain which was performed by Joe Chambers on his 1977 album Double Exposure.

NY State of Mind also has this soulful piece by Donald Byrd called Flight Time. Oooh, I could listen to this all day.

And finally, check Rakim saying "NY State of Mind" in the chorus of the song. Thats from Eric B and Rakim's Mahogany.

Tomorrow, the samples from Life's a Bitch.

Live Your Life - Numa Numa

2008-10-29T00:15:00.009-04:00

Well I just checked out TI & Rihanna's #1 song Live Your Life video and decided to drop it on here.

Yeah, Live Your Life has a sample in there. You know the opening part where Rihanna does the yodelish type singing? Well it comes from a song by a European trio called Ozone.

The sample however was modified due to copyright issues. The song is called Dragostea din tei (er...thats pronounced Numa Numa :))

O-Zone - Dragostea Din Tei
Uploaded by babe11

Ready Or Not - Fugees Sampled Enya

2008-10-25T01:28:00.004-04:00

And Enya wasn't too pleased about it. She hadn't let them use her song Boadicea, but 'Clef and them used it anyways.

Enya's song Boadicea.

Funny thing though is that I thought The Fugees sampled the theme song from an early '90's movie called Sleepwalkers. Its one of those Steven King novels made into a motion picture.

Anyway The Fugees flipped it real nice and made something banging out of it.

And of course you know Mario Winans and his bitchassness talking bout I Don't Wanna Know.

Rappers Love Taana Gardner's Heartbeat

2008-10-22T17:03:00.006-04:00

This morning I'm listening to DMX's second album, Flesh of My Flesh, and It's all Good comes on. I knew I had to do a post on this because that rappers just love Taana Gardner's Heartbeat.

You've probably heard Taana Gardner's Heartbeat before. Its a disco song and is said to be one of the slowest disco beats. It makes a great break beat for rappers to spit over though.

Here's Taana Gardner's Heartbeat:

Sweet eh? DMX lays down his pimp game on It's All Good.

But no matter who you are, Heartbeat is best known for its use in early 90's dancehall artist, Ini Kamoze's Here Comes The Hotstepper. Its probably the biggest song to use Heartbeat. Here Comes the Hotstepper was # on the US Billboard Hot 100 Charts and was used in the movie Pret A Porte (Ready To Wear).

De La Soul also used it in their 1991 hit, Buddy, off their classic album 3 Feet High and Rising. Buddy featured other Native Tongues... A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers, Queen Latifah and Monie Love.

Another B.U.D.D.Y also used the same beat. Check out Musiq SoulChild's version.

Are we done yet?

Nope.

Blackmoon used Heartbeat for their record Two Turntables and a Mic. Man, I remember that one. Thats real hip hop right there.

KRS One also sampled Heartbeat on his I Got Next album with a song by the same name. Heartbeat featured Redman and Angie Martinez.

Harlem rapper McGruff used it on his song Before We Start and Mack 10 & Snoop Dogg repped their respective hoods over Heartbeat in their song LBC to the ING.

Rappers just love a good breakbeat so you can be sure there's more that I didn't mention.

On another note, Sample*licious got another blogger by the name of DJ Funktual. You can look forward to his posts very soon and check out his profile on Youtube.

Welcome DJ Funk!

Straight to Hell in Paper Planes

2008-10-14T18:13:00.005-04:00

I'm loving that Paper Planes song right now. Especially the remix version with Lil Wayne and the Notorious BIG sample. I couldn't find it online though.

MIA's song is mad catchy so listen at your own risk.

M.I.A. "Paper Planes" (Uncensored)
Uploaded by bluntedsoul

Nice how they use a sample of one of my old man's favorite bands, The Clash's Straight to Hell.

If anyone finds the remix version of the song with the Biggie sample, please link ya boy.

Hot Sex On A Platter Samples

2008-09-10T19:42:00.004-04:00

It was a hot song in 1992 when A Tribe called Quest did Hot Sex on a Platter. The song was featured on the soundtrack to the Eddie Murphy movie Boomerang. Check out Tip in a mask, the result of a beatdown he supposedly receive from New Jack Swingers Wrecks-n-Effects.

To those that are just hearing this for the first time, the beat sounds familiar don't it?

Thats cause Hot Sex on a Platter was used on the Method Man featured, Mary J Bligs single, Love @ First Sight.

And for all the hardcore underground heads, Heltah Skeltah also borrowed the beat for the track I aint Havin' That off their 1998 album, Magnum Force.

Who Borrowed Whodini's Friends?

2008-08-31T20:21:00.005-04:00

One listen to Whodini's classic song, Friends and you can immediately tell who sampled it.

Well at least one song is obvious...Nas and Lauryn Hill's If I Ruled The World samples the beat which has one of the most recognizable baselines in hip hop.

Yesterday, I mentioned that 2pac's Troublesome '96 also samples the beat.

Who else? MF Doom sampled it on Deep Fried Frenz.

Bone Thugs and Harmony also did their own version of Friends on their Art of War album.

We gonna go back...waaay back. To 1987, when Public Enemy sampled Friends on their debut album Yo! Bumrush the Show. Sophisticated Bitch contained a sample of the classic beat.

2Pac - Troublesome '96 inspired by Rich Man.

2008-08-30T19:02:00.009-04:00

After the post yesterday with the Rich Man sample, I realized that I'd heard the melody performed by a rapper but couldn't quite figure it out.

I just realized that 2pac could have been inspired by the original Louchie Lou and Michie One song, Rich Man. He doesn't directly sample the song but the melody on the chorus for Troublesome '96 sounds like Pac borrowed the melody from Rich Man.

The beat to Troublesome '96 was sampled from Whodini's Friends which is more known for another very popular & classic hip hop song.

Rich Girl - From Rich Man to Gwen Stefani

2008-08-29T22:00:00.007-04:00

Speaking about reggae, I was listening to some ol' school dancehall vibes today and one of the songs was Louchie Lou and Michie One's Rich Girl.

Here's that song:

Ok maybe from the name you had already guess the borrower; it's Gwen Stefani with her 2004 Dr. Dre produced song featuring Eve, of the same name - Rich Girl. The song aint that bad but the original definitely is better.

But what if I told you that Louchie Lou and Michie One's version is also borrowed?

Yep! They borrowed the song from a 1964 Musical called Fiddler on The Roof. The name of the song is called If I Were A Rich Man.

Here's a clip of If I Were A Rich Man from Fiddler on the Roof:

Sanchez for Dipset Anthem

2008-08-16T03:32:00.006-04:00

Everyone knew that the Dipset Anthem by Juelz Santana uses a reggae sample right?

Here's Juelz Santana's Dipset Anthem.

Dipset Anthem uses a sample of the first 7 seconds of the 90's lover's rock hit One in a Million sung by Sanchez.

Samples of Africa by Toto

2008-08-11T12:15:00.006-04:00

Eighties group Toto's biggest hit was probably the song Africa. The beat for the 1982 Billboard #1 song was sampled numerous times over the next two decades.

Here's Africa by Toto.

Among the artists that have sampled Africa are:

Nas

His song New World off his Nastradamus album.

Xzibit

His song Heart of Man off his album Man vs Machine.

Jojo

Her radio single Anything, contains a snippet of Africa at the beginning.

Ja Rule

Ja's single Murder Reigns also samples Africa by Toto and is off his album "Blood In My Eye."