Why we love hip hop and where hip hop samples come from

WHY WE LOVE HIP HOP

At Smokestack, music isn’t background, it’s the point.
We’ve always been drawn to sounds with history and soul: funk, blues, jazz, Latin, Afro, ska, reggae. Music that’s lived a life before it reaches the speakers.

Hip Hop sits right in the middle of all of that.

At its heart, Hip Hop is about respect. Digging through crates, finding something forgotten, and giving it a second life. Looping a moment, flipping a feeling, celebrating what came before while pushing it somewhere new. It’s music that knows its roots — and isn’t afraid to grow new branches.

But Hip Hop has always been bigger than records.
It’s MCs, DJs, dancers, writers, storytellers. A culture built on expression, resistance, humour, pride, and community. It connects generations, crosses backgrounds, and creates shared language on dancefloors, street corners, and sound systems. Homage and evolution, side by side.

That spirit is what we love.

WHERE THE SAMPLES COME FROM

Sampling didn’t come out of nowhere. It’s part of a long conversation in music.

Blues and folk fed into jazz. Jazz and gospel shaped soul. American R&B travelled to Jamaica and came back flipped as ska and reggae – off-beat guitars, deeper bass, new rhythms, sound-system culture. Hip Hop picked up that same thread, using technology to lift drum breaks, basslines, horn stabs, and vocals, then rebuild them into something entirely new.

Sampling isn’t copying. It’s a collage. Transformation. Respect.

Taking fragments of the past and turning them into foundations for the future. It keeps musical lineage alive, not frozen in time, but moving forward, evolving, and still dancing.

Some of our favourite examples say it better than we ever could:

“Queen of the Nile” – Young Holt Unlimited used in “Don’t Sweat The Technique” – Eric. B & Rakim

“The Grunt” – The J.B.’s used in “Rebel Without a Pause” – Public Enemy

“E.V.A” – Jean-Jaques Perrey used in “Just To Get A Rep” – Gang Starr

“Three Is The Magic Number” – Bob Dorough used in “The Magic Number” – De La Soul

“Walk on The Wild Side” – Lou Reed used in “Can I Kick It?” – A Tribe Called Quest

“Saudade Vem Correndo” – Stan Getz, Luis Bonfa and Maria Toledo used in “Runnin’” – The Pharcyde

“Heather” – Billy Cobham used in “93 ‘Til Infinity” – Souls of Mischief

“Flute Thing” – The Blues Project used in “Flute Loop” – The Beastie Boys

“Bonnie and Clyde” – Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot used in “Nouveau Western” – MC Solar

Why we love hip hop and where hip hop samples come from