Made With Tracklib
Just like the J. Cole-assisted track "The Secret Recipe" on Lil Yachty's Something Ether EP, "A Lost Sunday" also digs into the magical year of 1977 for its sample: producers Aris Tatalovich and Josh Broadway looped two parts of "Inspiration of My Life" by Citation, a short-lived Detroit soul group. "A Cold Sunday" was originally part of Lil Yachty’s Verses I'm Proud Of series on TikTok and sees Yachty rapping about "living the life of a rolling stone."
Conductor Williams: "I knew that I wanted something that had soul and a sticky, nasty bassline with hips. This was a fantastic vision by my brother Jimmy Q. The funny thing is, I had a goofball on YouTube comment, 'So you basically did nothing'—my style of art is centered around the death of ego. All that matters is the music. When the sample is great and the music is there, it boils down to producing and arranging them to make a great record. Finding the right sound for the drums was the most challenging part. My first pass at making 'Stories About My Brother' had way too much going on: I filled up all the space with hi-hat work, shakers, claves… It was a projectile vomit of percussion all over the top of two sample chops. The key was being reductive."
For "Redrum," London On Da Track flips Brazilian vocals by Elza Laranjeira. With the line "Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in" halfway through the track, London nods to the classic horror movie The Shining, where the title "Redrum" originates. The term "redrum" is also associated with the birth of UK Drill, first used by Brixton rap collective 67. With 21 Savage's music video visiting "the real London," the use of the term is likely a nod to 21 Savage's city of birth and the gritty rap that erupted from neighborhoods like Brixton.
Mark Byrd: "When I first heard the sample, the initial horn hit caught my attention. I was like, I know it's gold on this. And VOILA: I heard the loop, where and what to chop, and it was a magic moment! I tried fully producing the record but all the other elements I added took away from the feel of the sample. So I stripped it all the way down. When I knew the sample would be the drive, I did have to EQ to make the percussive elements pop out more and also to give it some body so it wasn't just bare."
"Don't Be Gone" shows another case of crate-digging comradery between Hit-Boy and The Alchemist. We can only imagine the hype in the studio after Uncle Al needle-dropped the end of the A-side of 1975's Blind Over You by Chicago Gangsters... No wonder "Don’t Be Gone" was the namesake for their collaborative track. Speaking of: did you know you can sample Chicago Gangsters yourself on Tracklib? Check out the track "Gangster Boogie," which Wax Poetics calls "legendary (...) a breakdancer’s staple and sample fodder by many artists, like Eric B. & Rakim and Too Short."
Some Cartoon Network action right here: Yeat's "Breathe" samples a clip from the cartoon series Regular Show. After the main character Mordecai declares that "basketball sucks," the God of Basketball arrives from space in his flying white Cadillac Escalade, soundtracked by an 808 beat with heavily distorted bass. A flip of that sound was exactly what producers Bart How and StarBoy needed to assist a slam dunk for Yeat. In 2012, vocal snippets from Regular Show were also sampled by Jneiro Jarel for Key To The Kuffs, his collaborative album with MF DOOM, who was known to be a huge cartoon fanatic.
Ten Billion Dreams: "I'm a big fan of dark classical music, so the sample gave me a certain feeling straight away. That's how I find samples: it has to evoke some form of feeling or emotion. I started with the sample, spreading the chops across the piano. I then started playing around until I found a melody. This is what I did for 'Twin Sisters' by Getts. I use Serato or Maschine to sample, and I experiment with different sample speeds and pitches until it feels right."
Producer Kal Banx and TDE regular Jason Pounds (a.k.a. J.LBS) share the production duties on "THank God 4 Me," with an additional producer credit for DJ Fu (of Ear Drummers). The tranquil flute sample is present throughout most of the track, except for their beat switch. The sample is taken from the 1973 soul/funk record The United Chair by Julius Brockington. In the song itself, ScHoolboy Q interpolates lyrics from Project Pat's "Chickenhead" with Three 6 Mafia. He also delivers his take on an iconic line by MC Ren from NWA’s "Real N*ggaz Don’t Die."
Juko: "My first reaction when hearing the sample was that it would be perfect to chop it up into something more simple. I used the Tracklib Loops function to find the part of the sample I wanted to chop. I also used layering and adding on more sounds to the sample that way it would sound more full. Also pitching it up and down until I found the pitch that sounded the best also helped a lot. After I finished working on the sample chop and looping that, I added some extra piano and synth elements on top of it."
Tame Impala's Kevin Parker is known to be a big fan of hip-hop. Following his collaborations with the likes of A$AP Rocky, Kanye West, Travis Scott, and Kendrick Lamar, it's a safe bet that Parker was delighted to hear "One More Hour" turned into a hip-hop banger. Producer ReidMD flipped the electric guitar, drum hits, and a pitched-up vocal line ("I did it for love") from Tame Impala's modern classic. Coincidentally, two weeks after "Bandit," was released, Kid Cudi dropped "HUMAN MADE" which flips the same part of "One More Hour." Maybe they both listened to Tracklib's Tame Impala Inspired collection? Who knows...
Chris Grey: "The Mauro Giuliani sample has a darkness to it that stood out to me. It’s hard to put into words, but I can usually just feel when a sample will fit my music. The song started completely from the sample. Once I flipped it, I built the song around the sample. I wanted to keep it sparse in the verses with just a sub bass and let the dark ambiance of the sample shine. I retimed the sample with Logic’s Flex Time markers and then chopped it up."
Insert nuclear emoji here... "Like That" by Metro Boomin and Future dropped a bomb on the hip-hop world—more specifically: the merciless feature by Kendrick Lamar did. While the rap rumble of who is The Best is ongoing, let's shine a light on the samples. Metro Boomin sticks to a Compton theme by sampling "Everlasting Bass" by pioneering Compton duo Rodney O & Joe Cooley, tied in with iconic vocals off "Eazy-Duz-It" by N.W.A's Eazy-E. 1988's "Everlasting Bass" was originally based on Daisy Lady's "7th Wonder" and the intro of Barry White's "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby," giving their interpolations a heavy 808 bass and synth treatment.