Of all the songs featured on Billboard’s Hot 100 list during this year, 14% contained samples from previously released songs. This is a steady number, with last year’s total amounting to 13% and 2019's total amounting to 15%. This year also saw the highest number of samples in the last three years, with 111 samples spread out across the 89 charting hits that sampled from other songs.

54% of all new albums that were featured on Billboard’s Top 25 charts contained samples. That's an increase from last year (51%), and a rather consistent number throughout the last five years, never falling below 50%.

The most sample-dense release of this year is Drake’s divisive album Certified Lover Boy with 15 samples in 21 songs. It’s not only one of the most sample-heavy albums on this year's charts, but also one of the most sample-diverse albums: CLB features samples from Right Said Fred’s "I’m Too Sexy" to *NSYNC to 70s soul to Masego to R. Kelly to Notorious B.I.G...

48% of all songs on the five Grammy-nominated releases for Best Rap Album of 2021 include samples from other songs. This is a consistent trend: the last three years, every single hip-hop album nominated in this category contained samples and relied heavily on sample-based production. The high cost of sample clearance (outside of Tracklib) still seems to be worth it for hitmakers...

The average release year of all the songs sampled for Billboard Hot 100 hits throughout this year is 1992. An interesting number that indicates that there’s a trend to sample older songs this year: 1992 is the oldest average as far as our State of Sampling records go back.

Dissecting all sampled songs in 2021 hits shows us that the 70s, 90s, and 2010s are the most popular decades to sample. Contrary to popular belief: the 2010s continue to be the most popular source for samples for Billboard Hot 100 hits—which it has been for seven years straight!

Our analysis also shows that the 70s are back in fashion to sample. That decade is 122% more popular to sample compared to last year. The 90s also continue on an upwards trend, as it has been for the past three years. The 90s are 41% more popular to sample compared to last year—when it was already more popular to sample than ever before.

Hip-hop continues to dominate as the most-sampled genre, making up for 23% of all samples on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Sampling R&B also continues to grow: R&B samples make up for 14% of all samples, which is an increase of 25% compared to last year.

For the first time in a long while, rock has made its way into our annual report. 8% rock samples might not seem like a lot, but considering the previous three years the genre was close to 0%, it’s definitely on a slight upswing.

With producers born in the 80s and 90s dominating the charts these days, it’s no big surprise to see that 90s hip-hop was the most popular source for samples this year. Closely followed by 70s soul.

"Push The Feeling On" by Nightcrawlers is arguably one of the most remixed songs ever. Funnily enough, the official 1992 song everyone knows is also a remix: the original version of “Push The Feeling On” was actually acid-jazz-inspired R&B at a much lower BPM. This year’s re-edit by UK producer Riton uses the “original” music by Nightcrawlers to sample the viral Instagram video It’s Friday Then!!. The “Push The Feeling On” remix saga continues, by way of sampling…

Colombian singer/rapper J Balvin and dubstep retiree Skrillex sampled a piece of New York house history for their “In Da Getto” collaboration: the similarly titled “In De Ghetto” by house pioneer, David Morales. His mid-90s club hit together with a group of artists centered around Morales called The Bad Yard Club, provided the source for the synth melody and vocal hook to Skrillex & J Balvin’s 2021 reggaeton hit.

There’s quite a sampling chain behind the very first notes on Drake’s Certified Lover Boy. Here we go: back in 1965, The Beatles’ Paul McCartney was inspired by “Milord” by French icon Edith Piaf. That inspired him to write “Michelle” for The Beatles' Rubber Soul album—hence why the chorus is sung in French. The Singers Unlimited covered that classic in 1972 for their A Capella album. Over fourty years later, in 2017, producer J.L.L. sampled that for Masego's "Navajo." That’s the version you hear skillfully chopped up in the opening track of Certified Lover Boy. Halfway through the song, the high-pitched sample leads into another vocal bit: “Until I Found my Lord (My Soul Couldn't Rest)” by gospel group The Gabriel Hardeman Delegation.

As shown in her directorial debut Dark City Beneath the Beat on Netflix, rapper/director TT the Artist explains she wants Baltimore Club to get its due. That certainly worked out with “Girls Off The Chain.” Even more so when rising star Chlöe (of Beyoncé-mentored sister duo Chloe x Halle) sampled the song for her Murda Beatz-produced debut solo single, "Have Mercy." The song took on a life of its own on TikTok, with the sampled snippet becoming a lip-challenge meme template (yes, you read that right; a lip challenge meme template), amassing well over a billion views.

70s jazz fusion, electro from the 2000s, 90s hip-hop gems, leftfield percussion… The samples on Tyler, the Creator’s CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST are as genre-defying as the album itself. For the 90s R&B-inspired “WUSYANAME,” he sampled the silky slow jam "Back Seats (With No Sheets)" by Houston-based group H-Town. “WUSYANAME” was the highest-charting song off of CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST. That says something, as part of an Album Of The Year contender...

1982’s "No One Like You" by German pop-metal band Scorpions was originally released in German. But the song was big enough of a hit to be re-recorded for a global release. The song was produced by Dieter Dierks, whose studio Dierks Studio became home to the first-generation wave of Krautrock artists between 1969 and 1975. Producer TayTayMadeIt dug up the Scorpions original for “4 Da Gang” by Detroit rapper 42 Dugg and Compton’s Roddy Ricch.

Was Olivia Rodrigo’s megahit “good 4 u” inspired by Paramore’s “Misery Business,” or was it straight-up plagiarism? Numerous mash-ups on TikTok claimed to prove the latter. But don’t get fooled by the similarities: this is actually a complex case of chord progressions, pop structures, interpolation, and lyrical themes. Music theory aside: Olivia Rodrigo ended up giving writing credits to Paramore for "good 4 u," with royalties worth millions. Similarly to 2018's Robin Thicke/Pharrell Williams vs. Marvin Gaye Estate, this case certainly blurs the lines for copyright, fair use, and interpolation even more...

There was a wave of outrage among young people when they found out that—hold tight—Timbaland sampled other people’s music for his productions(!). After radio DJ/presenter Nooriyah shared an Arabic original in a Twitter video, youngins completely lost their minds on social media about “that [Timbaland] claimed it’s his own music,” with TikTok comparison videos going viral. Timbaland already had to fight a decade-long drawn-out legal case around his (cleared!) sample of Abdel Halim Hafez on Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin”. This time he had to battle a cancel culture witch-hunt. Let’s hope this doesn’t get drawn out over a decade as well.

Influential duo and sampling legends Daft Punk announced a breakup after 30 years. Shortly after the news, views, and shares of our Sample Breakdown of their hit "One More Time" sky-rocketed across social media. Shortly after, a new story by the Los Angeles Times on now-homeless L.A. musician Eddie Johns caused a lot of debate on the rightfulness of Daft Punk’s sampling of his 1979 disco song “More Spell On You”. Vibe Magazine reported in 2014 that the sample was officially cleared—however, to this day, Eddie Johns hasn’t seen a single dime. But as Questlove noted on Twitter: “I wanna know what circumstances occurred that caused the writer of the song to no longer have his publishing. THAT is the story.”

A co-writing credit for R. Kelly on “TSU” off Drake’s Certified Lover Boy album caught fans off guard. Did Drake really work with R. Kelly despite his trials for sex trafficking and racketeering? Luckily, that wasn’t the case. Producer Noah ‘40’ Shebib spoke out on Instagram because "to think we would stand beside that guy or write with him is just incredibly disgusting." In order to license a sample for "TSU," they had to credit an R. Kelly song which is playing in the background of the sample of veteran Houston DJ and label owner OG Ron C talking. The R. Kelly song in question—which is barely audible—is 1998’s “Half On A Baby.” An important lesson for the general public on music publishing and how sample clearance works.

History repeats: for young hip-hop producers, it’s not old jazz, soul, and funk records they grew up on. Instead, it's most notably 90s and early-2000s hip-hop and R&B hits. No wonder you hear many classics from that era in the music by today’s producers. After all, a new generation means a new definition of ‘nostalgia.’ Think of Mark Morrison’s 1996 number-one hit “Return of the Mack” on G-Eazy's "Provide." Ne-Yo’s breakthrough hit “So Sick” on the chart-topping “Woo Baby” by Pop Smoke. Cash Money's Juvenile on both Capella Grey's "GYALIS" and EST Gee's "5500 Degrees". The New Nostalgia for this era's generation of producers.

An increase of 122% of 70s soul samples in Billboard’s Hot 100 charts shows another trend: the cherished spirit of the 70s keeps coming in and out of fashion. Cases in point: Motown classics found their way into new hits like Nicki Minaj’s “Fractions” and DJ Khaled’s “Sorry Not Sorry” featuring Nas, Jay-Z, and James Fauntleroy. For J. Cole’s The Off Season album*,* even 57% of all songs feature 70s soul samples.

This year saw a clear trend of hits not only sampling music but also repurposing the original song titles. Rod Wave’s “OMDB” salutes Drake’s Take Care original, “Over My Dead Body.” Drake, on his turn, named “Papi’s Home” after “Daddy’s Home” by Montell Jordan. Or the Lootpack echoes on the Swizz Beatz-produced "Hood Blues" by Griselda which references Lee Mason's "Shady Blues." And on "Girl from Rio," Brazilian singer Anitta proudly represents her own heritage by building off a bossa nova classic: "The Girl From Ipanema." This trend perhaps indicates that samples not only played a role in music production this year. But that in many cases the samples even were the main inspiration for the hit.

Horn stabs have been a long-running staple of hip-hop production. This year, however, sees producers turning to vocal stabs rather than chopping up brass samples. A stab is a staccato note or chord to add punctuation to a composition. Kanye West’s “God Breathed” is a great example to illustrate this: three bits of vocal taken from 1981 no-wave cult classic “Bell Head” by Liquid Liquid used by 'Ye as one-bar accents*.* Just like horn stabs, vocal stabs are manipulated with effects like delay. Of all samples in Billboard’s Hot 100-charting songs, a total of 13% are either vocal stabs or a few bars longer vocal riffs, so to speak. Perhaps we could call it the WAP effect?