What is Sampling? Plus 10 songs you didn’t know were sampled

What is sampling?

The term sampling has become more and more popular with the evolution of technology, making it easier for artists and producers to sample finished recordings before turning them into a new masterpiece. Genres like hip-hop and dance often incorporate a wide use of sampling, with Drake’s 2015 hit ‘Hotline Bling’ sampling Timmy Thomas’ Why Can’t We Live Together’. Some songs have even been sampled thousands of times! According to Who Sampled, ‘Amen, Brother’ by The Winstons is the most sampled song, having been sampled in 5282 different tracks!

So what exactly is ‘sampling’? Sampling is the process of reusing a specific portion of one sound recording or composition in another recording or composition. The portion and length of the sample may vary and could be as little as incorporating a specific portion from a guitar riff or drum combination, or as much as including an entire chorus from a pre-existing song. A sample may incorporate elements such as speech and rhythm and may be layered, have a tempo change, pitch change or be otherwise manipulated. The composition side of a musical work includes melody, lyrics, rhythm and harmony, all of which may be sampled or interpolated. Interpolation is when a recording is recreated note for note and reflects the underlying composition of a musical work.

Song sampling originated in the 1970s where experimental DJs would use their vinyl on turntables to manipulate pre-existing songs with an audio mixer, with the term sampling being coined in the late 1970s by the creators of the Fairlight CMI, a synthesizer with the ability to record and play back short sounds. Listen to any modern charts now and you’ll soon realise that many songs include samples…some are just more obvious than others.

Here are ten interesting examples of hit songs that contain samples from other well-known classics.

1. Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ replayed a sample of Boney M.’s ‘Ma Baker

The famous ‘ma ma ma ma’ at the beginning of ‘Pokerface’ originally came from a 1977 Boney M. disco tune which was inspired by the story of 1930s outlaw Ma Barker. The tune was also based on a popular Tunisian folkloric song called ‘Sidi Mansour’ but was rewritten into a disco tune.

Sample appears at 0:08

Sample appears at 1:04

2. MC Hammer’s ‘Pray’ sampled ‘When Doves Cry’ by Prince

Pray’ has sampled multiple elements from the Prince track, with the main percussive beat and melody standing out. ‘When Doves Cry’ was apparently written after Prince was asked by director Albert Magnoli to write a song to match the theme of a particular segment of a film.

Sample appears at 0:17 and throughout

Sample appears at 0:22

3. Madonna’s ‘Hung Up’ sampled ABBA’s ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)

Madonna’s single features a direct sample of multiple elements from the ABBA hit, with the very memorable instrumental melody appearing as Madonna sings ‘Time goes by, so slowly’ before the catchy chorus. Madonna personally sought permission for the sample from the songwriters.

Sample appears at 0:32

Sample appears at 0:19

4. ‘Kings & Queens’ by Ava Max sampled Bonnie Tyler’s ‘If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man)

Ava Max’s hit single interpolates the main vocal melody from the famous 80s Bonnie Tyler song, with the notable main hook playing at the beginning of both of these hit songs, with huge similarity in terms of the melody and vocals.

Sample appears at the start and plays throughout

Sample appears at the start and plays throughout

5. ‘Ego Death’ by Ty Dolla $ign feat. Kanye West, FKA Twigs and Skrillex features 5 different samples:

The sample at 0:48 from ‘Free’ by Ultra Naté appears at 1:44 in ‘Ego Death’

A sample from ‘You Used To Hold Me (Mucho Michie House Mix)’ by Ralphi Rosario feat. Xaviera Gold (played at 6:56) appears at the start of ‘Ego Death

Dance For Me’ by Queen Latifah appears at 3:19 in ‘Ego Death’ featuring a sample that’s originally played at 2:11 in Latifah’s song

Slam’ by Onyx appears at 2:17 in ‘Ego Death’ featuring the sample from the original song which plays at 2:42

Not a song but a clip of Kanye West going off on Drake, Nick Cannon and Tyson Beckford in an Instagram video. In the video he pauses as a train goes by after saying; ‘Hold on there’s a train going by’. This bit of speech is used in ‘Ego Death’ appearing at 1:43. The original clip can be heard at 0:43 in Kanye’s video

6. ‘Work’ by Rihanna feat. Drake sampled ‘Sail Away (Riddim)’ by Richie Stephens and Mikey 2000

Rihanna’s fourteenth number one single interpolates a main instrumental riff and beat from ‘Sail Away (Riddim)’ which can be heard throughout ‘Work’, helping to make it the great dancehall anthem it is.

Sample appears at 0:50 and plays throughout

Sample appears at 0:13

7. ‘Come Together’ by The Beatles sampled Chuck Berry’s ‘You Can’t Catch Me

In 1969, ‘Come Together’ was the subject of a copyright infringement claim against Lennon by Big Seven Music, the publisher of Chuck Berry’s ‘You Can’t Catch Me’. Lennon sang: ‘Here come ol’ flattop, he come groovin’ up slowly’ which is very similar to Berry’s: ‘Here come a flattop, he was movin’ up with me’. Before recording, Lennon and McCartney slowed the song tempo and added a bass riff to make the song more original.

Sample appears at 0:13

Sample appears at 0:48

8. ‘Hit Me Like A Man’ by The Pretty Reckless sampled ‘Bloody Well Right’ by Supertramp.

The prominent main guitar riff from ‘Hit Me Like A Man’ is a direct sample of the riff that appears in ‘Bloody Well Right’, only it’s much heavier than the groovy Supertramp version.

Sample appears at 0:13 and throughout

Sample appears at 2:34

9. Bjork’s ‘Human Behaviour’ sampled ‘Go Down Dying’ by the Ray Brown Orchestra.

Bjork’s song and music video were inspired by British naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough and features multiple elements of the main melody that plays at the beginning of ‘Go Down Dying’, forming a highly recognisable percussive rhythm.

Sample appears at 0:15 and throughout

Sample appears at 0:04

10. ‘Body Bag’ by Machine Gun Kelly feat Yungblud and Bert McCracken sampled Fall Out Boy’s ‘Dance, Dance

MGK’s interpolation of the famous Fall Out Boy riff and drum beat was cleared last minute thanks to Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump, with MGK personally thanking them on Twitter and stating that the whole song was very much inspired by ‘Dance, Dance’.

Sample appears at 0:09 and throughout

Sample appears at 0:57

How do I request a licence to use a song sample?

These are just a handful of songs which contain samples from other famous tunes. It’s important to remember that every sample needs to be cleared in order for it to be legally used in another song, requiring the user to seek permission for both the song and the master recording. This requires tracking down the copyright owner(s). The master recording is usually owned by a record label whereas the song copyright will be owned by the original songwriter(s) of the song, or more likely their music publisher. If a song is only being interpolated, then the user only needs to request permission from the copyright owner of the underlying composition as it is only the underlying composition being featured and not the recording.

A fee needs to be offered for use of the song and will vary depending on the song, the use of the song, duration etc. This fee can then be negotiated with the rightsholders. Check out our Music Licensing 101 blog for more info on proposing a fee and the general licensing process.

As you can imagine, things can get pretty difficult tracking down all the relevant parties and to get their permission, plus if one copyright holder does not grant permission for use of the song, then it’s ‘game over’ for that particular sample, even if the rest of the copyright holders have given permission. Now imagine the scenario of gaining permission for all the songs in ‘Ego Death’ from all the relevant parties…that can’t have been fun!


To simplify this process, at Blokur we’ve created the Licensing Messenger feature which helps music users identify publishers and enables them to instantly request a licence from all the stakeholders involved in a song in a single click to clear the rights on the song side*. Our music copyright database also contains data for 10 million plus songs from more than 500,000 songwriters and 25,000 music publishers, making it easy to identify those hard-to-find copyright owners to clear rights faster and more easily.

*Please note that we currently don’t offer the master side although this is a feature which we hope to implement in the future. Users therefore need to also request a licence for the recording from a record label

sampling licensing messenger

Blokur’s Licensing Messenger

As you can see from just the small handful of songs mentioned above, sampling is very common. It’s also interesting finding out the DNA of your favourite songs and the inspiration (or samples!) behind them. Were you surprised by any of the samples above?


Interested in requesting a licence? Sign up for free HERE to access the Licensing Messenger. Have any questions? Feel free to reach out to us.