Chance The Rapper and How Sample Clearance Is A Headache and a Half.

If you’re a Chance The Rapper fan than you’re probably having a great weekend. The Chicago rapper just officially released his 2012 and 2013 mix-tapes on all streaming services. And with a vinyl release imminent it seems that fans are finally going to have their hands on a physical release of his critically claimed projects.

For the fans of the original releases, however, you may notice a few differences with these new streaming versions. Mainly two tracks for their respective projects missing. On his debut 10 Day, the track Windows is not playable on any streaming service. And on his sophomore effort Acid Rap, we see the track Juice replaced by a message by Chano on why the song was excluded. While many people understand what a sample is and how pivotal it is to hip hop, many might not understand how the process of clearing a sample works. I’m going to try to explain it in the simplest way possible and give a few examples of how exactly this works throughout the genre.

So, how exactly does the process for clearing a sample go? While often times it can be as simple as asking for a blessing and getting permission other times it can become a much more complicated process. If you can clearly identify the song and are familiar with the person and can get in contact with either the artist or the estate the conversation usually goes one of two ways. You work out a deal with the owner of said sample whether it be a lump sum up front or a portion of the proceeds of the song/album, or you’re just flat out denied and the song has to be scrapped. This, unfortunately, has prevented many great cuts of records from being released.

To learn more about why sample clearance is so important and the culture surrounding it it’s important to look through some issues that contemporary artists have gone through to get samples cleared. For some of the most blatant examples, you have to look no further than two of the greatest hip hop/plunderphonics albums of all time. DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing and The Avalanches Since I Left You both to contain thousands of — samples combined and with that many problems emerged when official releases were due to arrive. For The Avalanches, when it came time to release their debut masterpiece Since I Left You through XL Recordings a plethora of problems began to emerge regarding sample clearance. With so many little chops and bits of hundreds of songs, it was near impossible to remember and get permission from the dozens of artists that would’ve needed to be contacted. And this process can prove to be even harder when you have to deal with both the copyright owner and the publisher of said work. Regardless an entire song had to be removed off the project and small portions of songs had to be reworked for official distribution of the album. And while there are copies of the original out there on the internet it’s a shame that the original cannot be heard as intended. When it came time to make their sophomore effort 16 years later they had much more manpower behind them as far as their label went and made sure to get every single sample noted and cleared before going through a worldwide release. Even going as far as to get a Beatles sample cleared, something that among the sampling community isn’t exactly an easy task. As far as Endtroducing is concerned, while you may find many of the samples used in the project in the linear notes, upon listening to the album you’ll come to the realization that obviously not every single sample is listed. However, if you go to his more recent projects it becomes apparent that as his career has gone on he’s been more careful with his clearance and permissions.

So what do you do when you simply just can’t get permission from the owner to use the sample? In most cases and if you’re looking for a legitimate distribution deal with streaming services your hands are simply tied. You need to remove that sample and work with whatever else you have. However, if you truly believe that you need this song or do not plan on making a streaming or physical release you can proceed and hope that a lawsuit doesn’t occur. While this method worked very well during the early stages of hip hop when sampling was relatively unknown, if you’re planning on trying to make any money off your songs whether it be physical release, Spotify, or just playing live and in concert it is a necessity to have your songs cleared in the modern era. That doesn’t mean that many people still don’t try to get away with not clearing their samples. Many of the legendary producers like DJ Premier, Madlib, and Dilla did not clear specific samples that they either couldn’t or didn’t get permission to use. This is where the term “Sample Snitching” rose to popularity. The term is used anytime fans or bloggers dissect producers works and find samples that may have not been cleared. This can be dangerous because what may be a harmless hobby to some die-hard fans can become a headache full of legal issues for those producers they admire so much. To try my best and quote legend DJ Premier, he understands why people may feel the need to admire and dissect artists work, but there are still many old artists who either don’t want or don’t respect hip hop as a genre and would rather not have their work featured on that type of music.

Another important lesson to learn is that while many artists try and eventually do get another artists blessing to use their work, without the proper legal steps being taken it can still cause a headache and even massive financial damage. Take for example the release of Teens of Denial by popular indie rock back Car Seat Headrest. The album was released back in 2016 with physical copies having to be recalled and destroyed, costing Matador Records an enormous amount of money. According to the record company they had negotiated to use a sample by popular and well-known rock band the Cars and had received Ric Ocasek’s blessing in good faith. And with hundreds of Vinyl records and CD’s ready to be sent out to waiting fans they were alerted by the publisher of the Car’s work that they were not allowed to use said track. So not only was the sample uncleared and essentially illegal, Ocasek refused to allow the band to use the work in any way shape or form. Every copy was shipped back to the label from every record store and new issues had to be pressed including a reworked version of the song, with Matador incurring all of those fees.

So we got through most of what sample clearance is. Most people pay up or get permission, and some just say fuck it and pray that whoever made the song never hears it. So how does this relate back to Chance and the release of his mixtapes? Well, 2013 was a different time for the streaming game. While Spotify, Beats Music, RDIO and others had begun to spring up and make waves in the music industry they weren’t exactly the titans that services like Spotify and Apple Music are today. With services like DatPiff and Soundcloud artists didn’t exactly HAVE to release their music on streaming services to make a name for themselves. As Chance explains in a Beats 1 interview,

I think the reason why I wanted those songs to be on Soundcloud and on Datpiff at the time was because I wanted everyone to have access to it and I don’t like having things be blocked by the sale. At that time, the climate was different.

Given the lack of mass distribution or sales of physical copies, both Ten Day and Acid Rap were both allowed to be distributed for free across these websites without the need for clearance. Now 7 years deep in his career, it made sense for him to re-release some of his most important work into a more accessible format. And frankly, it’s a little amazing that he and his team managed to get most of these two projects on streaming services intact. Especially given the fact that he is a proud independent creator. We’ve seen even big artists backed by big labels fail to keep their projects intact when debuting on streaming services. Just earlier this month when Jai Paul decided to bless us with an official release of his previously leaked album Bait Ones many samples had to be removed and songs altered because of a lack of blessing from certain sample owners.

Remember when I mentioned earlier about hard it is these days to get clearance as far The Beatles go? Well isn’t amazing how everything comes together! The track Juice features an interpolation of a John Lennon song Jealous Guy performed by legendary soul singer Donny Hathaway. And while I’m sure his team is working on this as hard as they can all they can really do is offer as much money as they are comfortable with and hope that his estate will allow them to proceed. As far as Windows goes Chance’s team has been locked in a legal battle with jazz artist Abdul Muhammed since 2017, who claims that the song was sampled without permission. In this particular case, it’s not exactly a black or white issue on whether or not Chance “stole” the song. According to him and his team, he got permission from fellow Hip Hop artist Apollo Brown who sampled Mr. Muhammed’s track for his own song. Indirect sample “stealing” like this happens way more often than you think, as often rappers simply rap to the beat regardless of where the sample may have come from. Often leading to legal headaches like this.

Update: As of July 1st Windows has officially hit streaming services! Enjoy the song!

So now that we have a basic understanding of how sample clearance works and the headache it can often cause, I hope that I was able to explain this in a way that even people not familiar with music distribution can understand. As always thank you for reading I hope to get more content out soon and as always we’re continuing our monthly playlist which you find on my twitter @SampledThis

Thanks for reading ❤