Sample Size

Firstly, I just want to say that I trust your gluttonous feast was a raging success. Hopefully your family interactions were not horribly painful and you managed to scrounge up at least some good leftovers. For me, my brother and I have pretty repetitive conversations. We basically talk about two things, fantasy football (which has no relevance to this column) and music. And since he hates all of my “whiny white s***,” that conversing normally pertains to hip-hop. So when he sent me a link to this website last spring, we both nearly peed our collective pants (those pants extend from Rhode Island to NYC).

The website, whosampled.com, can only be described as one of the coolest sites for anyone who appreciates the DNA of music. What does this website do you ask, great question. It has a database of thousands of songs, and the original they sample. And while I have never had less respect for Biggie than when I heard Mtume’s “Juicy Fruit,” I still think the website is insane. The site allows you to hear both songs side by side and even tells you when the sample begins.

I know many of you are saying, “We haven’t gotten new Animal Show in so long. These are not the blazing new singles that I’m used to, this is just a gushfest of some admittedly awesome website.” For that I apologize, but I thought you would all want to check this out. I mean “Juicy” has an identical pair. Notorious legitimately changed nothing, simply removed the lyrics, and spat hot fire over the remnants. It’s still incredible — don’t get me wrong — I’m just glad that whosampled.com allows me the opportunity to credit Mtume with a funktastic classic.

Possibly even cooler than “Juicy” is “Big Pimpin’.” Timbaland merely Americanizes a Baligh Hamdi song (since that version was never recorded, whosampled.com uses the Hossam Ramzy version). The owners of the rights to the song even sued Timbaland, Jay-Z, Linkin Park and EMI Music for lifting parts of it note-for-note in 2007. And while you could have known all of this if you did any research, whosampled.com gives you all the tools and the tracks.

And while most music fans will know the first two, I’m sure fewer knew that “So Fresh So Clean” was similarly lifted? Jo Simon’s 1977 track “Before the Night Is Over” features the exact same beat as the Outkast classic. Again, I do not take anything away from the artists for sampling. I love sampling. I think it’s one of the best parts of Hip-Hop. Artists  connect generations with beats, and put their own twists on classics. All I’m saying is that I want to make sure all listeners understand that not all the beats they hear are created out of the genius of Kanye West’s producing abilities, but rather many feature help from previous generations, or at least contemporary artists of different genres. And the true greatness of whosampled.com, is that it gives recognition to both the old artist, and credit the new for building a masterpiece on a solid foundation.

I’ll assume you have the newer masterpiece (yes all of the aforementioned are masterpieces) and just give you the sample, but go to whosampled.com and check out their crazy database that extends far beyond the realms of Hip-Hop. And if you’re looking for some more fun samples check out “Jump On It,” “Brooklyn’s Finest,” “School Spirit” and “It Was a Good Day”. All of those feature some pretty awesome samples, and please leave some more cool ones in the comments.

Juicy Fruit – Mtume (YSI)

Khusara Khusara – Hossam Ramzy (YSI)

Before the Night Is Over – Joe Simon (YSI)