Rey Flemings

Beyonce “Crazy In Love”

Chi-Lites “Are You My Woman (Tell Me So)”

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

– Alphonse Karr

Is your favorite ‘new’ song, not really that new? No matter how hip, new school or bleeding edge you are, listen to the radio these days and you can’t avoid samples, interpolations and re-works of the classics. Imagine if commercial radio were formatted the way a DJ mix-show might be, playing the originals and the original ‘inspiration’. I experiment with this premise every now and then in my live sets.

DJing has always been an interesting activity for me, a balletic, high-wire tightrope act, balancing the desire for creativity with the public’s desire to dance to the ‘hits’. A pride surrendering, (often) thankless avocation, nearly every club-goer thinks they can do a better job than the DJ. How much better they think they are is often proportional to the ounces of alcohol imbibed.

Increasingly, crowds pressure DJs to spin the 20 to 30 ubiquitous songs being played on commercial radio and TV at the moment. Many people want to hear exactly what they’ve been listening to in the car on the way to the club and will listen to again on their ride home. They want the DJs to not only play the songs, but to play them all back to back and when the DJs played them all through, well, play them all over again.

T.I. “What You Know About”

Donny Hathaway “I Believe To My Soul” (wait for 1:43 mark)

Sadly, while artists and producers are increasingly agnostic in sampling bits and pieces from all over the musical spectrum, many ‘music fans’ aren’t aware of the rich history of music. They often have no idea that they’re listening a sample or remix of another song. Many club kids can’t readily tell the difference between a real DJ and a guy just playing one song after the other. Music has always been covered, rearranged and remixed and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it shouldn’t hurt to discover the inspiration for some of our current hit songs and broaden our musical palate.

I was spinning at a local club mixing Kanye West’s “Stronger” with the original source, Daft Punk’s “HBFS” when a hip-hop head comes up to me and says, “Mane, play the real song, we don’t want to hear that Techno shit” (Memphis-speak for, “Would you be so kind as to please play original song by Kanye West and stop playing the techno remix” but I digress). I replied, “Kanye’s song is the remix.” He looked at me with utter incredulity, amazed at my ignorance and replied, “Kanye’s the most original artist of all-time, he writes, produce and he sing like Roger Troutman![sic]” Angrily leaving the DJ booth, he glared back at me and said, “We need a real DJ!”

Enjoy these popular songs and their songs that inspired them.

From this week’s Billboard Top 100, a full 50% of the Top 10 are samples or interpolations:

#1 - Sean Kingston “Beautiful Girls” inspired by Ben E. King

“Beautiful Girls”

“Stand By Me”

#3 - Timbaland “The Way I Are” inspired by Salt N’ Pepa

“The Way I Are”

“Push It”

#6 - Kanye West “Stronger” inspired by Daft Punk

“

“Stronger”

“Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”

#8 - Fabolous “Make Me Better” inspired by Sherine

“Make Me Better”

“Al Sa’Ban Aleh”

#10 - Plies “Shawty” inspired by Earth, Wind & Fire

“Shawty”

“Fantasy”

For your listening pleasure, a few extras from recent hits outside the Top 10.

Common “The Light”

Bobby Caldwell “Open Your Eyes”

Jay-Z “Hard Knock Life”

Annie “It’s The Hard Knock Life”

Gym Class Heroes “Clothes Off”

Jermaine Stewart “We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off”

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