I’m sitting in the basement of a low-rise corner building in Bushwick with 23-year-old rapper/producer Cash Cobain, and it’s finally time to throw on the Spice Girls. The basement is a converted ...

This article has been handpicked from the Okayplayer editorial archives and included in our Hip Hop 50 collection as a noteworthy inclusion to the genre's rich and diverse narrative. The article has ...

Right from his breakthrough, Drake was all about the art of the sample. His now iconic “So Far Gone” mixtape was built around sample-heavy beats you wouldn’t expect in the year 2009 or any year really ...

The backbone of hip-hop production is the sample. Sure, over the years some producers may have abused sampling, but that doesn't diminish the technique's value in rap's currency. Producers skim ...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. DJ EXPO 2014: Since the mid 1980s, artists have been sampling breaks and beats from their ...

The South Bronx native rose to prominence in 2021 when he produced ‘My Everything’, the breakthrough track for fellow New York rapper B-Lovee that sampled Mary J. Blige’s ‘Everything’. The song went ...

From locker rooms and warmups to highlight reels and All-Star Weekend, here's how music became basketball’s unofficial language. A flipped sample of "One Step Ahead" is the first thing listeners hear ...

Sampling in hip-hop has been going on since the genre’s inception, but in 2023, it’s been more prevalent than ever. If everything sounds familiar, it’s because it definitely is. Words: Grant Rindner ...

Last summer, I received an email from an independent rap label, promoting one of its new releases. It had a note attached about samples. “Do your best to refrain from mentioning them by name unless ...

Alvvays have been sampled for a new rap song and it's, well, um... How do we put this? It's terrible. X (formerly Twitter) user @tlop44 shared a 23-second video along with the caption, "this sample is ...