If you've listened to the radio sometime in the last 10 years, you've probably heard a hip-hop or R&B song that used the melody of another song in its chorus. For instance, the chorus to "Gold Digger" by Kanye West and Jamie Foxx takes the melody from Ray Charles's song "I Got A Woman." This technique is called "interpolation," and it is one of the most popular, controversial tools in modern pop music.

I am constantly tripping over myself about whether or not I like it. Just when I say I can't stand it, I find out that the chorus I've been humming came from somewhere else and I'm a hypocrite. Then, when I do make my mind up and decide to stand behind it, I hear some trash song that makes me eat my words. I've even started to make two separate lists of songs using interpolation that either win me over with it, or make me an enemy of it. I guess whichever list is longer after a few months will decide my position:

The S**tlist

1) "Na Na" - Trey Songz (uses chorus to "Fu-Gee-La" by the Fugees)

2) "Me Love" - Sean Kingston (interpolates "D'yer Maker" by Led Zeppelin)

3) "I'll Be Missing You" - Puff Daddy (int. "Every Breath You Take" by The Police)

4) "Right Round" - Flo Rida (int. "Right Round"

5) "The Man" - Aloe Blacc (int. "Your Song" by Elton John)

6) "Cupid's Chokehold" - Gym Class Heroes (int. "Breakfast in America" by Supertramp)

7) "Angel" - Shaggy (int. "Angel Of The Morning" by Merrilee Rush)

Rulebreakers (Songs I Do Like)

1) "Changes" - 2Pac (int. "The Way It Is" by Bruce Hornsby & The Range)

2) "Gangsta's Paradise" - Coolio (int. "Pasttime Paradise" by Stevie Wonder)

3) "Hard Knock Life" - Jay-Z (int. "It's A Hard Knock Life" from Annie)

4) "Brooklyn" - Mos Def (int. "Under The Bridge" by RHCP)

5) "Through The Wire" - Kanye West (int. "Through The Fire" by Chaka Khan)

But even if the songs that interpolate in a way I hate continue to overtake the songs I think use "interpolation" well, what will that prove? Just because the technique fails more often than not doesn't mean it can be dismissed altogether.

So if it isn't fair to take a hardline about interpolation, what is fair? How do we assess it? For me, I take the same attitude about it as any other form of sampling. If the piece of music the artist composes surrounding that chorus is different and layered enough, that's tasteful. In Mos Def's "Brooklyn," for example, he sings just a few bars of the melody from the Red Hot Chili Pepper's "Under The Bridge" before going into a completely original rap. The instrumental music that plays underneath this section is altogether different from the Chili Peppers song, too.

Kanye's "Through The Wire" completely remixes the vocal of Chaka Khan's "Through The Fire", speeding it up and raising the pitch. The rap that he creates is clearly supposed to be the primary focus of the song. Even if it weren't, he at least makes no attempt to disguise what he's done. The song's titles would be identical except for one letter. There is no effort to keep listeners in the dark about the musical origins of his song. Sure, he's not shouting out Chaka Khan, but he's coming pretty close.

What Shaggy's "Angel," Gym Class Heroes's "Cupid's Chokehold," and Sean Kingston's "Me Love" do so wrong is just the opposite of what Kanye does right. Kanye includes the singer's original vocal, leaving less room for a misunderstanding that he is the original songwriter. These 3 songs, though, simply have someone else sing the same chorus with doctored lyrics. From the beginning, it is clear they are trying to pass someone else's work off as their own. The other, most frustrating thing about it is that the most attractive part of all three songs ARE their choruses - as in the part they had the least to do with creating. But, even if you pointed out to someone that "Me Love"'s chorus is the same musically as "D'yer Maker's," they might still prefer Sean Kingston's song. It is faster-paced, more dancable, and cleaner-sounding because, well, music production in the 2000's was a much more advanced realm than it was in 1973.

This demonstrates a kind of creative lethargy; an artistic unwillingness to even try to create something by oneself. Why strain trying to write a catchy hook when you can just borrow someone else's?

That's just the problem with any kind of sampling, and especially with interpolating. If you're going to incorporate pieces of someone else's art, go for it. But make sure those pieces aren't the only thing attracting people to your art in the first place.