Staff Pix 3/7: Sample Crate

Your favorite artist’s favorite artist…literally. This week’s Staff Pix is in the interest of reduce, reusing, and recycling with samples and interpolations galore!

“Your woman” by white town

I cannot tell you the first time I consumed “Your Woman,” if anything, it was probably unconsciously as a small child, tumbling about on our swingset as my dad threw on another one of his ultra curated CDs. Since that moment, I’ve more or less listened to this track at least a hundred times. So, yeah, it’s eternally timeless to me, lost in a space of nostalgia. I do know for a fact that “Your Woman” is the singular piece of work that exemplified to me that music can be cool. What is and how to have the sauce. White Town’s 1997 trip-hoppy hit samples Lew Stone’s 1932 swing song, “My Woman” (it’s also sampled on Dua Lipa’s objectively best song, “Love Again”). This vintage sensibility grounds “Your Woman,” emulating the original danceability while, of course, injecting modern flair with masterful layers and textures. I can’t help all these years later but still smirk at the playful lyricism: “You don’t even know you’re being unkind / So much for all your highbrow Marxist ways.” —Sofia Giarrusso

“What Would I Want? Sky” by Animal Collective

The only licensed Grateful Dead sample ever also just happens to be one of the greatest sample flips ever, who would have figured? Really just a mindblowing song, and the sample doesn’t even come in until the second half of the track! The first half brain-blasts you with undiluted psychedelic bliss for three minutes before a sample from the Dead’s “Unbroken Chain” slides into the mix, chopped and screwed to sound like it’s repeating the title of the track. The moment where the both parts of the track transition is euphoric, like emerging from a dense thicket of fog into the brightest, most temperate summer day. And that isn’t even mentioning how the entire track is in ⅞ time. The way AnCo builds off and plays around the sample is a whole other strength of the track, at times moving it to the background of the mix, at others elevating it to the forefront, and at the end even harmonizing with it as if Jerry Garcia himself was in the room with them. Real magic exists, and it is this song. —Lucca Swain

“ARE U HAPPY?” by Jpegmafia

The king, the expert, the genius of sampling himself, Jpegmafia is an incredibly talented producer whose use of cryptically abstract samples are unmatched. In “ARE U HAPPY?” from Jpeg’s 2021 LP, he samples four songs: “You’re With Me Tonight” by The Beach Boys, “Transition (Acapella)” from the Underground Resistance, “Hard Not 2 Kill” by Gangsta Boo, and “Explode” by The Cardigans. The combination of those four songs alone is honestly jarring but if Jpeg can do anything it’s connect samples seamlessly. The song begins with Brian Wilson’s voice from the recording of the first take of “You’re With Me Tonight” as “Transition (Acapella)” begins and sets a contemplative tone. Then, like the songs were meant to be mashed together, The Cardigans’ “Explode” begins and makes for some ridiculously catchy ad libs that fit perfectly into the foreground. “Hard Not 2 Kill” comes in by the first verse and ties the four samples together harmoniously. Even after three years of religiously listening to Jpeg’s discography, “ARE U HAPPY?” still remains as one of his most stand-out uses of sampling. Upon breakdown, it’s challenging and complex yet when hearing it, it seems as though the songs had never been apart in the first place. —Sophie Parrish

“Mistadobalina” by Del Tha Funkee Homosapien

Sometimes a sample can be a man repeating the words, “Mr. Dobalina, Mr. Bob Dobalina,” back and forth for a while. That’s okay. When Ice Cube’s cousin, the deliriously original Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, took a bizarre acapella skit on The Monkees’ Headquarters album and fused it with the funk stylings of James Brown and Parliament, I doubt he intended to change the world. Nevertheless, with 1991’s “Mistadobalina,” he changed mine. I’ve never been the biggest fan of rap, but hearing Del’s slicker-than-slick bars about Aunt Jemima, Uncle Fester, and Guadalupe (lovingly pronounced “G-wahd-a-loop-ee”) blew my mind in thousands of different directions. “Mistadobalina” is a boom-bap piece of swaggalicious candy, and an utterly hysterical examination of annoying groupies trying to get down with Del’s crew. Sure, Bob Dobalina’s name might be ridiculous, but his sax-heavy groove is as serious as anything ever heard on a hip-hop cut. —Charlie Desjardins

“Shake Your Rump” by Beastie Boys

Paul's Boutique is the final boss of sampling. Released in 1989, the Dust Brothers produced the album with only one word in mind: More. $250,000 worth of samples piled on one another across the entirety of the 23 layered dip, the boys and brothers managed to find themselves tangled up in a TuftAmerica lawsuit for unauthorized samples (smh). Nevertheless, this song is pure confidence. As the second track of the album, following up the sex-laced “To All The Girls,” “Shake Your Rump” is an air siren in the form of 15 samples, down to the tagline. Everything from Alphonse Mouzon and Ronnie Laws to three Rose Royce songs, telling you to get up and just go go go. To quote the masterpiece, “And if you don't believe us, you should question your belief.” —Salem Ross

“I Smoked Away My Brain” by A$AP Rocky

The mashup of “I’m God” by Clams Casino & Imogen Heap with “Demons” by A$AP Rocky makes for twice a song in “I Smoked Away My Brain.” “I’m God” is a surreal, dreamy instrumental that’ll hypnotize anyone with its spinning high tempo. Every time I listen to it, I’m hit with indescribable nostalgia that’ll send me back years — but in the best way. “Demons” is rough-edged and unafraid to delve into the human experience of going through struggle and pain alone: “Demons posted all around me, I can't beat 'em all alone / (Thinkin' 'bout you, thinkin' 'bout you) Add it to your thoughts / These evil thoughts, they start to drown me / Lord, don't leave me all alone.” Together, these individual gems intertwine their webbed emotion and beared lyrics to produce “I Smoked Away My Brain,” a song that verges on haunting psychedelics. —Heather Thorn