Hip Hop has been a colorful cornucopia of different genres since inception and samples have always been its essential building blocks. A producer finds a track they like, reuse of a portion (or sample) of a sound recording in another recording and make it their own.
Still, veteran producer Timbaland found himself a trending Twitter topic on Monday (January 18) after he was accused of “stealing” samples for some of his biggest hits, begging the question, “Do some people still not understand how Hip Hop works?”
A young woman by the name of Nooriyah kicked off the chatter after she shared a video of herself playing three Middle Eastern songs used in Timbaland’s work. The songs included the 1957 single “Khosara” by Egyptian singer Abdel Halim Hafez (and later, Hossam Ramzy who released “Khosara Khosara” in 1994), which was heavily sampled for JAY-Z’s 2000 hit “Big Pimpin.”
“Everyone knows @Timbaland is a master of his craft,” she captioned the post. “Did you know these three hits sampled these Arabic classics? To hear more about the Middle Eastern influence in Western mainstream music (that was once called “Belly dance music”) head to my Plus 1 Radio show on Soundcloud.”
Other songs played in the video are “Alouli Ansa” from Syrian singer Mayada El Hennawy and “Batwannis Beekarda” by Algerian-Lebanese singer Warda, which were used in Aaliyah’s 2001 single “More Than A Woman” and 2003’s “I Don’t Know What To Tell Ya,” respectively.
Despite the fact Hip Hop has always been a melting pot of funk, soul, jazz, R&B and any other genre one could possibly dream up, Timbo was still dragged through the dirt and the debacle put a spotlight on the generational disconnect that often rears its ugly head in current Hip Hop culture.
As one Twitter user attempted to explain, “People don’t know how samples and clearances work I see. He didn’t steal it guys. He paid for it and flipped with his own touches. He also has many non sampled beats as well. This just hip hop.”
Yep — and that’s just how Hip Hop has historically worked. Snoop Dogg sampled vocals and lyrics from Slave’s 1980 single “Watching You” for 1993’s “Gin & Juice” from his celebrated debut solo album Doggstyle. DJ Quik lifted the rhythm and some of the lyrics from Kleer’s 1984 cut “Tonight” for his classic “Tonite” from 1991’s Quik Is The Name, while Dr. Dre pretty much ransacked Parliament-Funkadelic’s entire catalog for his 1992 solo debut The Chronic.
A quick peruse of the WhoSampled website and it’s easy to get a taste of the sheer number of samples pulsating through Hip Hop songs. But as Hip Hop ages, we’re starting to see Hip Hop sampling Hip Hop — like Megan Thee Stallion’s “Girls In The Hood,” which basically borrowed the entire concept from Eazy-E’s 1987 track “Boyz In The Hood.”
But guess what? — and this may totally blow your mind, I know — N.W.A & The Posse sampled Jean Knight’s 1971 hit “Mr. Big Stuff,” Original Concept’s “Pump That Bass” and Whodini’s “I’m A Ho,” in addition to NINE OTHER SONGS for that track.
Other albums such as EPMD’s Strictly Business or Unfinished Business comes with a plethora of samples from ’70s and ’80s soul/funk, including Faze-O’s Billboard Hot 100 hit “Riding High,” which serves as the sonic blueprint for “Please Listen To My Demo,” and Kool & The Gang’s 1973 song “Jungle Boogie,” which helped build “You’re A Customer.”
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And by no means is sampling a walk in the park. In 2007, both Timbaland and JAY-Z were sued for copyright infringement by Ramzy’s uncle Osama Ahmed Fahmy. Four years and hundreds of thousands of dollars later, U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder ruled the family didn’t have the right to pursue a copyright claim against Jay or Timbo. With a little Egyptian magic,”Big Pimpin'” went on to peak at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the most successful single from Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter.
Unless you’re a Hip Hop producer like Pete Rock who recently stepped outside of the box with his first sample-free record Petestrumentals 3, you’re sampling. It’s sad in 2021 this still needs to be explained but before anyone attempts to “cancel” Timbaland, study up and leave the man alone.
Well, so long as the originals are acknowledged and royalties were paid and there were clearances, it’s a win win situation. If not, then homie has been put on blast.
I think that most people think sampling is taking a small piece of a song and not ripping the entire track off. That’s why Twitter is getting on Timbo. He’s far from the only person to do it but Jesus…
No, either way is the same thing. Justice League has made a lot of money doing just that, taking obscure songs and sampling the whole damn beat, and people are like word, they put out a banger. They’re not the only ones.
I see Trump isn’t the only person who needs to get their Twitter suspended. Stop letting dumb people say anything. Anyone with a lick of sense knows samples get cleared and the people who made the song get paid off it. Yet this dumb bitch trying to get her fake internet show popping off it. SMH.
It just goes to show how lazy hop hop really is. It really isnt that impressive to rhyme words. Especially when most of them dont even write their own lyrics. And its def really not impressive to construct unoriginal radio singles that steal beats, lyrics and melodies from hit singles of the past. Coat tailing & piggy backing off musicians with actual talent that can sing and play instruments themselves. Im actually ashamed that i ever gave a crap about hip hop music, culture, or you people. Complete waste of my time and my life.
Then get off the site. Sampling is a win win situation. I myself have discovered artists that I would’ve never heard nor come across were it not for sampling and being curious to the original songs. Get off your high horse. One can argue that a lot of hip hop was based off samples. And if you’re privy to music nowadays, a lot of R&B being played is based off 90’s hip hop, that sampled joints earlier, and hip hop is capitalizing doing the same off 90’s R&B. Shoot, it stretches far and wide. You sound like those disgruntled comments off YouTube that complain about how people are only just discovering Golden gems just because the listener happened to comment on why they visited the page in the first place. I could go off to how diverse and extensive my music palette is because samples introduced me to the originals, artists or different genres for that matter, but I’d rather not waste my time doing so on somebody just out here trolling, and wanting to complain about something they have no idea about. So be gone. Don’t listen to hip hop. You think the world will follow suit because of your opinion? I don’t. Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.
But you’re still here commenting in a hip hop website…smh
If your tired of listening to rap don’t listen if your fed up with you people..go jerk trump off then kill your self
Just to clarify, by “you people” he means he doesnt like the coloreds
You are correct. What is that not obvious?
does anyone think there is something larger at play here? like the pirate party a political organisation. artists producers whatever they see what they do as being political and being the right thing to do to raise a middle finger to capitalism. fuck that shit. timbaland should be able to program a beat in just ten minutes if he is any good. same with dr. dre. they just get lazy because they are told that they have to do this this way and that way fuck that shit. anyway i hope you learned something.
I think these people are unaware of the practice of sampling because fewer modern producers utilize, let alone rely on it in the creation process, so it’s probably a matter of them simply getting angry at something they don’t understand.
Well kinda. Producers have gotten more stealthy. In the 90s there was a heavy island influence, Trinidad and Jamaica were lit, and that music, by necessity, relied on illegal interpolation. Songs would sing the exact melody and lyrics as a pop song, and put it over a reggae beat. It was usually done with reverence and respect, and since resources were limited, they got a pass. Hip hop producers learned from the soundbwoys, so when they sampled an old soul song they loved, they left it obvious. They were paying tribute. Also the gear was more analog meaning it took more actual skill, and there were many technical limitations. Now we can manipulate any sound so easily that youll never recognize a sample. Very few professional producers are sample free. Some may program all the drum patterns but they cant play the keys like that, they aint hiring a session bassist, they doing it free/cheap, with high quality samples, then altering it beyond recognition. The live acts like roots are what they are, but to think theres more than a handful of beat makers hand crafting all 48 tracks 1 by one, with live or digital instruments, or even playing the keys well enough to do it all by controllers is insane. Theres a few goats that could kill an mpc like araab, or play some nice piano like scott storch, or handle controllers just as well like dr dre, but they all still sampled and played live. Im an ex band dude learning to make beats on maschine, and have no clue how to sample, but i play piano, guitars, drums, and use digital versions to play the parts. Its tedious , time consuming, expensive, and ridiculous. I already developed my own style at it no one has beats like this, so ill never sample. I expect everyone else to, and whether its obvious or they hide their tracks, as long as the samples clear, it can be sold for profit.
everything is a sample these days from a string sound or a snippet to a record. what you are talking about is looping a finished recording and then rhyming over it which started in the late 80s on record but didn’t become mainstream until the mid 90s when sampling technology became more powerful and available in every pro studio. You can loop records and rap over them as a straight up tribute sort of like Alchemist does sometimes but those are the records you have to clear if they become popular. Guys like Dilla I don’t know if half his samples on his solo albums were cleared because he was like an artiste like Basquiat and he never did straight loops. But if he put a sample under something that got played on BET like Tribe or Common those records had to get cleared.
So we canceling Timberland okay. Lets canceled P-Diddy, megan the stallion, DJ Khaled, Goodie Mob, Outkast,Brandy, Monica, Britney Spears, who else Katy Perry, Snoop Dogg , DJ Quik who else oh my God it’s so many people in and that’s just the people from back then. oh yeah I forgot Lil Wayne he had four-five dedication CDs that was other people’s beat that was already sampled by other people but he just freestyled it yeah Lil Wayne let’s cancel his ass too. Now let’s talk about the recent people I don’t know too many of the alternative rock in the pot people cuz I don’t really listen to it but I know of the little girl little Nokia I know she sampled somebody else. What’s the dude name Watch Me Whip watch me Nae Nae that sample Juju on that beat that sampled from Crime Mob lucky done sample the baby done sample Lil Baby done sample Gunna done sample all of Rich Game done stamp quality control done sampled everybody is sample that’s how it works you get at you hear something from some other you and I like that Melody and you put it in your song like it is not just rap music. Like come on nobody ain’t say s*** about Biz Markie when he did but you say he’s just a friend , nobody was downin Mario when he came back out with the she say said he just a friend and then now is a new rapper that came out with the she says he’s just a friend so is like the f*** is you talking about?! Yeah yall just want to be butthurt about something shut up.
“Dont storm anything else, yall already in trouble for yall stunt at the Capitol, smh”
Agreed, cancel em all. Rap is crap.
Thats such an ignorant, trash, opinion. Is everything you think so toxic and malformed? If you suffered head trauma or have a developmental disorder, I apologize, but if youre a normal, basic, average, white guy, im gonna tell you to eat a fat dick.
The Cancel Culture Kids are a disease! You kids are angry about everything grow up educate yourself and then come back and talk about something you know because this aint it!!
Facts. Im sorry our dads fucked up the world for these kids but we put equity into that world, we lost. They crying for no reason, go fix the planet kids, yall dont need to concern yourselves with 90s music at all. Go save the fucking dolphins you little asshats
You catch a negro stealing, he gets mad. Busted.
Its not stealing. You literally pay to sample lmao. You buy expensive equipment, pay licensing fees, and use that element to make a completely different song. Old rap used to be 10-20 different samples, the snare from a bowie track, the bass from sly stallone, a nina simone vocal snippet, and by the time its all together with the new programming and elements, it sounds nothing like that song. Is collage art art? Of course. Is sampling art? Of course. Can it ever be stealing? Well yea, vanilla ices team stole the samples, didnt pay, and got sued. All the best rap songs use some samples. You literally are at an article explaining that, so im sure you will fail the understand my words as well. Its not too late to go back to Zoom-school. Good luck bro.
Rambo played the bass?
I can’t wait for mainstre culture to move on and leave hip hop the fcuk alone. People that have no clue commenting on legends and culture they know nothing about.
Mainstream
Facts. Social media gave every unexperienced idiot a voice and opinion. 5 more years of mumble rap worship and hip hop will react with a return of hyper lyrical vinnie paz and black thought type artists and the non-fans will leave. They will go turn death metal or stoner rock to shit. Aint much left the masses havent pissed all over.
as long as the sample gets cleared! It’s all up from there.
You’re flipping the narrative and avoiding a bigger issue with this generations debate on appropriation . On one angle why would culture appropriation not be valid?
It’s hypercritical to bring up a culture appropriation debate on music, and then forget about how non Chinese hiphop heads feel about Wu-tang clan. Can you really on one end defend the current culture appropriation debate while defending samples from other cultures of music.
Wow….that moment when u realize how many stupid people there are in the world.
Just tell the Gen Y and Z’s the truth, Hip Hop was pioneered by the Boomers and they’ll lose all interest.
So… People are not comfortable with cleared samples but hail ultimate praise to people who literally re-make and re-sing entire songs and get away with it by calling it a cover song… People need go hug a cat and stay away from the internet altogether. Obviously no one is using it to actually learn but instead it is used to troll and cancel each other. No wonder the rest of the world is laughing at America. Just a bunch of sleep sheep.
Idiots thrive on Twitter.
Is this cultural appropriation or not? Seems like you avoided the bigger question.
I can answer that for you … No it isnt ‘cultural appropriation’ to use samples in music you massive bellend