As a long time proponent of classic rock, I have wrestled with the idea of "sampling" most of my music-listening life. I will concede that there is an arrogance to dismissing a whole facet of music production as "uncreative" or simply "not music." But, sampling is, by its very nature, lifting out a portion of someone else's work and placing it in your own - and I'm still an idealist about creating original content. This said, there was also a time when a little pretentious fifth grade Dave scoffed at people for knowing good music from Guitar Hero and Rock Band, instead of seeking it out for themselves. I have since outgrown that, and get the feeling my days of pouting and sticking my nose up about sampling are numbered. There is something about the passage of time that mellows you out about things that you once so hated. It's something about having distance; of course it seems silly now that I used to seethe over "High School Musical" and the Jonas Brothers Band.
Anyway.
In my mellowing-out, I've learned to accept and celebrate a good, tasteful, sample. Here are some examples of songs I think meet those qualifications.
1. "Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)" - Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz
Sample: "Black Cow" - Steely Dan
Best Lyric: "Keep 'em near da fifties and da hundreds all arranged/Anything less than that, you keep the change"
2. "Worst Comes To Worst" - Dilated Peoples
Sample: "I Forgot To Be Your Lover" - William Bell
Best Lyric: "I'm a glutton for the truth/Even though the truth hurts"
3. "On My Block" - Scarface
Sample: "Be Real Black For Me" - Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway
Best Lyric: The whole song
4. "It Ain't Over" - Classified
Sample: "Don't Dream It's Over" - Crowded House
Best Lyric: "You can speak foul/But can you really freak, pal?"
5. "Hey Ma" - Cam'Ron
Sample: "Easy" - The Commodores
Best Lyric: "Seen shorty she was crazy right/And I approached baby like/Ma what's your age and type?/She looked at me and said 'You's a baby right?'"
6. "Ready Or Not" - The Fugees
Sample: "Boadicea" - Enya
Best Lyric: "Gun blast/Think fast, I think I'm hit/My girl pinched my hips to see if I still exist/I think not, I'll send a letter to my friends/A born again hooligan only to be king again"
7. "It Was a Good Day" - Ice Cube
Sample: "Footsteps In The Dark - The Isley Brothers"
Best Lyric: "No barking from the dogs, no smog/And momma cooked a breakfast with no hog"
8. "Get By" - Talib Kweli
Sample: "Sinnerman" - Nina Simone
Best Lyric: "I let them know we missin you, the love is unconditional/Even when the condition is critical, when the livin is miserable/Your position is pivotal/I ain't bullshittin you"
9. "N.Y. State of Mind" - Nas
Sample: "Mind Rain" - Joe Chambers
Best Lyric: "I never sleep, cuz sleep is the cousin of death"
10. "The Heart of the City" - Jay-Z
Sample: "Ain't No Love In The Heart of the City" - Bobby Bland
Best Lyric: "I scramble like Randall with his Cunningham/But the only thing running is numbers fam/ Jigga held you down six summers; damn, where's the love?"
11. "Who Am I (What's My Name)?" - Snoop Dogg/A ton of other songs
Sample: "Atomic Dog" - George Clinton
Best Lyric: "It's the bow to the wow/Creepin' and crawlin'/Yiggy yes y'allin'/Snoop Doggy Doggin'"
12. "Passin' Me By" - The Pharcyde
Sample: "Summer In The City" - Quincy Jones
Best Lyric: "When I dream of fairytales I think of me and Shelly/See she's my type of hype and I can't stand when brothers tell me/That I should quit chasin' and look for something better/But the smile that she shows makes me a go-getter"
13. "O.P.P." - Naughty by Nature
Sample: "ABC" - The Jackson 5
Best Lyric: The Chorus
14. "The Rhythm" - Kwame
Sample: "Look-Alike" - Bob James
Best Lyric: "I can conquer boy/I break MCs like a Tonka toy/Smooth, suave, savoir faire, debonair/Come in the party yeah I see you stop and stare"
15. "Be" - Common
Sample: "Mother Nature" - Albert Jones
Best Lyric: "I look into my daughter's eyes/And realize I'ma learn through her/The Messiah, might even return through her/If I'ma do it, I gotta change the world through her"
16. "Changes"- 2Pac
Sample: "The Way It Is" - Bruce Hornsby & The Range
Best Lyric: "Take the evil out the people, they'll be acting right/'Cuz both black and white are smokin' crack tonight/And only time we chill is when we kill each other/It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other."
