Information relayed to me by my cousin, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a book in the Harry Potter universe. The movie, which is JK Rowlings first screenplay, follows the author of said book in 1920s New York City. The adventure occurs when he loses a bunch of magical beasts that he’s studying and he has to find and recapture them. Sounds pretty interesting if you ask me. However, this post has nothing to do with the book or the movie.
Nay, this post has to do with my own list of the songs that I would sample if I was a hip-hop producer. See the connection, right? I just took out the first ‘s’ in “beasts” to make the word “beats” and wrote a whole post about it.
I’ve always been fascinated by samples used in hip-hop songs. And I appreciate what producers like Rick Rubin, Dr. Dre, DJ Premier, Q-Tip, 9th Wonder, Puffy, Large Professor and Kanye have done for the genre.
I like to think that I know and listen to a wide range of music. And for a while now, I’ve kept a list of songs that I think would be a killer sample on a hip hop song. Sometimes I dream of what it would be like to be a music producer. I know nothing about what it takes, and I’m sure it’s more difficult than I imagine it to be, but that’d be so badass. Creating music would be such a cool thing to do. So if any producer out there wants to show me the ropes, I’d be happy to learn. Also, please don’t take my ideas.
Here are some fantastic beats (some may have been used before)
Everybody Plays the Fool – The Main Ingredient
This was the first song that made me think of a topic like this. The first 13 seconds could go on forever for me, I just love hearing that. But the back beat when the chorus comes around for the second time and when the strings come in at like 1:52 is really just a great piece of music.
You know how Young Gunz sampled Luther just incredibly, this is my hope for that. This bassline all the way through is so money.
This, to me, would be the perfect all around song to be used in hip-hop – the beat, the hook, or even parts of any of the verses and chorus. It’s incomparable, but if I were to try, I might say Big Poppa’s sample of Between the Sheets.
Sometimes a good sample was taken from a corny song. I can’t think of any off the top of my head, but I know they’re out there. (Maybe “Take Me Home“?) This would be like that. ‘Happy’ is kind of a lame ass song, and while I’m not crazy about the synthesizer, which the video shows is a flute (gtfoh), I bet if you made it deeper sounding, it wouldn’t be so bad.
I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire – The Ink Spots
I’ll be completely honest with you, I cannot explain this one. I heard it once and something about it just stuck with me. Maybe because it reminds me a little bit of if a ’90s R&B group were around in the ’40s. See Boyz II Men
There’s nothing to this, the drum line is so simple, yet so good for a continuous beat. A fun thing to do with this one is to put the speed at 1.5 and see how it changes your opinion about a song.
Rock Me Baby – B.B. King & Eric Clapton
This already sounds like a 90s West Coast hip-hop beat. Now if Tupac would just come out from hiding and rap on this, no one would ever think he died. They’d be like, “oh, shit, Pac was just waiting for someone to find him the perfect sample to return to the game. Mad respect.” Tupac Back indeed.
Baby Love – Diana Ross & the Supremes
If Diana Ross can be sampled to create one of Bad Boy’s funnest hip-hop songs, then she can probably do it again.
The opening reminds me a lot of the ‘Otis’ sample and while I thought that was kind of louder than the actual song, here’s your chance to do it right.
Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now – McFadden and Whitehead
One of my favorite samples in hip-hop is when Busta sampled Alicia Myers (yes, he produced it himself). Just dig everything about it. And because I love this song, I feel it would have the same result.
CreativeEqual 