Like others have said, it's amazing when it's done right. And some songs that get sampled are awesome and sound like the sort of music that would smash today, like 'A Little Bit Of Love' by Brenda Russell,
That's the instrumental and it slays. But most young people would have never heard of it had it not been sampled in Ariana Grande's 'The Way' - why let a lot of awesome samples gather dust on a shelf without people knowing how great a relatively unknown piece of music is. Like -brian said, Kanye West is phenomenal at finding great samples. Most rappers are. Mac Miller too.
I completely agree, it's great when its a sample of a song that isn't hugely remembered....and yeah, Kanye is great at finding samples. I also like how he kinda makes it obvious that its a sample, like in Bound 2...it's like he's paying respect to it in a way, and not just lazily reusing someone's hook.
This is an unreleased demo that Kelly probably wrote for another artist, but I think its a pretty good sample. Not as creative as like Bound 2 or something like that, but its still a fresh spin.
I also like Jessica Simpson's "Jack and Diane" sample on "I Think I'm In Love With You". Although its not as creative as a song like Bound 2, it's still a good one.
I think the most annoying one is Good Feeling, that's the definition of lazy. He got an extremely well known hook, had a dance beat behind it and rapped the verses....most people only remember the hook in that song, not the rap.
This is an unreleased demo that Kelly probably wrote for another artist, but I think its a pretty good sample. Not as creative as like Bound 2 or something like that, but its still a fresh spin.
What is she sampling? Never knew she was on this demo.
I also love subtle samples, like of a single instrument. Like how Queen's "We Will Rock You" drums have been sampled in songs like...
-You and I - Lady Gaga
-Rock N Roll - Avril Lavigne
-Rock Me - One Direction
It's actually harder and more of a hassle to take a sample and recreate it into something special. That's why Kanye is considered such a musical genius, to those who make and know music. He handles each one with care and creates something even better with the addition of the sample.
If they aren't handled and utilized properly, it's a waste and doesn't show much artistic ability.
I think it's great personally. I have discovered lots of old songs or songs from different countries thanks to artists I like sampling them. And usually the song it samples sounds completely different, it's rare that a song is 100% built on another song, usually it's just the hook or a part in the beat.
I think it's actually more difficult to sample. It's more complicated than simply making your own song from scratch, and also you make less money off the song since you have to pay a lot of the royalties to the people who made the original, and you risk getting taken to court, and a lot of people who are anti-sampling will automatically hate the song. So in my opinion it takes a lot of guts to sample, especially since your record label would probably be pressuring you not to so you don't lose money.
It's hard to make a throwback sound current and not sound lazy. The Man is pretty good, but the others in the OP are tired. This is the best one for me.
Like others have said, it's amazing when it's done right. And some songs that get sampled are awesome and sound like the sort of music that would smash today, like 'A Little Bit Of Love' by Brenda Russell,
That's the instrumental and it slays. But most young people would have never heard of it had it not been sampled in Ariana Grande's 'The Way' - why let a lot of awesome samples gather dust on a shelf without people knowing how great a relatively unknown piece of music is. Like -brian said, Kanye West is phenomenal at finding great samples. Most rappers are. Mac Miller too.
"The Way" actually directly samples Big Pun's "Still Not a Player" (which sampled the Brenda Russell song):
It was directly sampled in Thalia's "I Want You" too:
As long as they incorporate it properly and sounds good.
It also serves as a way for me to discover and rediscover old songs that I either did not hear the 1st time or forgotten.
Examples (well, for me at least) of a bad sample:
The Eurodane Trance masterpiece Better Off Alone deserve something better than this.
I personally love dance songs that only takes the verse or the chorus of a particular song and work around it with an awesome beat.
