JAY-Z’s longtime engineer Young Guru had a lot to say regarding the criticism producers have faced recently for sampling tracks from the late ’90s and early aughts.
“In 94 we sample records that were 20 years old from 74,” the legendary engineer wrote on Twitter. “Please stop critiquing the youth for sampling records that are from 2000 or even the 90’s. Let the youth be the youth!! You 50 trying to argue with a 20 something. Stop!!!”
It’s true criticism of sampling has ramped up in recent years. J. Cole faced a wave of critiques for sampling A Tribe Called Quest and Outkast melodies on his 2013 effort Born Sinner. DJ Khaled got an earful when he used an interloping of OutKast’s legendary 2000 hit “Ms. Jackson” for his 2019 track “Just Us” with SZA, and most recently Jack Harlow was eviscerated by critics who found his sampling of Fergie’s 2006 hit “Glamorous” for his Billboard-charting hit “First Class” to be just a diluted version of the original.
Needless to say, this isn’t the first time Young Guru has expressed a disinterest in the current state of Hip Hop culture. In January, Guru took issue with modern-day’s reliance on braggadocious lyrics.
“At this point you gotta say something,” he wrote on Twitter. “I’m starting to fall out of love with people who rap about how good they rap!!”
The producer’s tweet sparked an onslaught of responses on Twitter, with many divided on the subject of lyrics.
“I said that 40 years ago,” wrote Richard Simmons in response, while King Los wrote, “Factual.” Skillz, meanwhile, offered a different take and said, “I’d rather hear that than a bunch of murder & killing.”
Young Guru sampled his entire moniker, the True Guru is from Gangstar with DJ Preme. Young Guru bit his entire name so I don’t expect him to be original. Years ago everyone sampled James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Earth, Wind And Fire, etc. Not to mention Jay-Z’s entire style was built on boasting. Yet Jay don’t never want to see The God Nasir again.
It’s not the same as the production from guys like PR, Large, Ali Shaheed, Q-Tip or Premier. They sampled songs to include it in their own composition they created on their own. What the hell did DJ Khaled take the original “Ms. Jackson” beat and turn it into? Not a damn thing. He did the same thing w the Santana “Maria, Maria” beat. Stop making it comfortable for ppl to be lazy artists; that’s why hip hop’s bar is so damn low as it is. That’s like buying Kroger’s chicken, dumping it into a casserole w some pepper and saying you made it. Either you got the talent to create or you stealing from somebody. It’s that simple Guru
guys from 74 appreciated that the youth brought back the actual music in the loops when it seemed they were going to be remembered for platform shoes and loud bell bottom stereotypes. people looked further into it saw the music and the style in some cases WAS early hip hop. IF some producer today samples Sade or some electro style act from back then like Sneaker Pimps who is complaining? Young Guru wants to simp out knowing these particular productions folks hate they hate for a reason they sound like computer glitch trash. We want to save our youth from cultural destruction.