The Art of Sampling
Over the years, artists have sampled songs from one another, bridging a gap between genres and fans everywhere.

Years ago artists and producers would scour record shops, garage sales and thrift stores for a vinyl with the perfect sound to sample on a new track. Now sampling is made much easier with YouTube, Sound Cloud, and many other sites. These sites make these sounds readily available to artists so they can quickly grab a drum, synth, chorus, chord, or even a viral video that draws an inspiration.
Drake’s newest hit and viral challenge, thanks to Shiggy, samples the hit show Atlanta on the track In My Feelings as well as sampling Lil Wayne’s Lollipop and Magnolia Shorty’s Smoking Gun. Other hits like DJ Khaled’s Wild Thoughts have a much more noticeable sample. In the 2017 single featuring Rihanna and Bryson Tiller, large elements of Maria Maria by Santana can be heard throughout the entire song.
Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal can be heard in Kendrick Lamar’s King Kunta through the use of the “Annie are you ok” lyric. Musical elements of Jackson’s song can also be heard in Ashanti’s Rescue Me and Ice Cube’s Givin’ Up The Nappy Dugout.
The Beatle’s Here, There and Everywhere can be heard in Frank Ocean’s White Ferrari. Their Eleanor Rigby can be heard on Dope Boys by The Game and their Blue Way Jay can be heard on Death Grips Double Helix.
The Winston’s, Amen Brother has been sampled 2,943 times making it the most sampled song in history. The track was released in 1969 and was first sampled by Steady B in Stupid Fresh. The drums on the track has caught the attention of many artists since. The sounds appear on N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton in 1988, Slipknot’s Eyeless in 1999 and even Tyler The Creators Pigs in 2013. The track has been featured across many different genres and is still continuously being used.
Viral videos have also inspired many artists to add the audio clips into their tracks. On N.E.R.D.’s track Lemon samples a 2009 confrontation between a citizen and Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter. A man stood up in anger over the private insurance under the Democratic healthcare proposal. Pharrell went on to take the mans “wait a minute” and use it in his track. The same track also samples another viral video from 2015. In the track we can hear “shout out to them people” and “mad ethnic right now” taken straight from the video.
Pharrell went on to use the same 2009 video in a track he produced for Ariana Grande’s album Sweetener. In the track titled the light is coming featuring Nicki Minaj a “you wouldn't let anybody speak and instead” can be heard throughout the whole song.
A$AP Rocky has also sampled a viral video on his track titled Electric Body produced by Hector Delgado. The track samples a “oh my god, your cables turned off. You shouldn’t’ve sucked the n****a dick for free” from a 2014 vine.
Travis Scott is another artist to sample videos in his music. In a more recent 2018 release Watch the artist samples a 2005 news clips commemorating Six Flags: Astroworld in Houston TX. In the track we can hear a young girl say “…because it’s the last ride ever gonna that I’m ever gonna take at Astroworld.” This is after the news reporter asked her if she was excited and why. This was the last day the theme park was to be open and the same park also inspired Scott’s third studio album titled Astroworld.
Whether its videos, T.V. shows or other tracks, artists can find new inspiration almost anywhere. The ability to sample a sound has changed and evolved music in ways we don’t usually recognize. Sampling creates a bridge from one artist’s music to another, whether they do the sampling or are the ones being sampled.
