Ray-Ban and Boiler Room kick off RBxBR 2016 with a night curated by Soulection, the Los Angeles-based purveyors of dance-friendly music — RSVP while you can. Ahead of our session that features Jhene Aiko, BJ The Chicago Kid, Kali Uchis and Soulection themselves, Jesse Bernard explores how the imprint is breathing new life into R&B classics in particular.
In the autumn of 1994, a relatively unknown 15 year-old from Carson, California released her debut single “I Wanna Be Down”. Of course, Brandy had no idea that she’d have such a major hit on her hands. The single would end up spending four weeks on top of the US Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart, reaching number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and grazing the top 20 in Australia and New Zealand. The gravity of that track weighs much heavier than just commercial success though. A quick search on whosampled.com reveals that the track has been sampled umpteen times. One of those rejigs was produced by Soulection’s ESTA, whose mid-2014 flip rejuvenated Brandy’s vocal acrobatics once more.
The 90s proved to be a goldmine era for R&B; a time when the Bad Boy Records and Roc-A-Fella dynasties were born ushering in a more commercially-driven sound.Sampling is an outlet for producers for many different reasons. Most importantly, it’s a chance to explore an artform that is boundless and relies solely on the intuition and creative genius of the producer. It requires a certain degree of understanding about how sounds compliment and blend with one another. In the early years of Bad Boy, the label’s producers turned to 80s disco and funk knowing that it would juxtapose the rough-edged lyricism, for instance. The 90s also saw R&B and hip-hop become regular bedfellows. “I Wanna Be Down”, for instance, came packed with a remix featuring vocals from MC Lyte, Yo-Yo and Queen Latifah.
As a result of these high profile crossovers, hip-hop found itself in the top ten much more frequently. A Tribe Called Quest, The Notorious B.I.G. and Timbaland & Missy Elliot found ways to harness a relationship that seemed organic. A Tribe Called Quest’s collaboration with Faith Evans on” Stressed Out” is arguably one of the most memorable collaborations from this time, largely because at the time Faith Evans had already become well known for her catchy choruses but also because they were a smooth compliment to the soul-inspired hip-hop beats. The chorus provided the space for vocalists to exercise their skills, whilst the verse reserved for the rapper to lay his or her rhymes. In a sense, this provides a catalyst for sampling as the chorus, for the most part, as it’s the most memorable component of a song.
“Sampling has a unique ability to bridge generational gaps within music, and can bring little-known songs to light.”
Hip-hop, R&B and now dance music continue to rub shoulders in 2016. Producers continue to look to the past for inspiration, and for good reason. Sampling has a unique ability to bridge generational gaps within music, and can bring little-known songs to light. Labels like Soulection are a fine example of the sampler’s ability to shepherd fans into previously unheard territories.
In an interview with The FADER back in 2014, Esta spoke of his sampling philosophy. “I like to bring back things I thought were overlooked or slept on. Or if not that, a famous song that I’ll put my touch on and make it more modern, so that the younger people or the people not into it get a different look on it.” Esta sampled Sade’s “Is It A Crime” on his own “Skyscrape” reimagining the original’s jazz-like sounds and maintaining the synths in keeping with a staple ‘80s sound. In essence, samplers act as musical archaeologists.
Surely there’s more to the art though; merely finding a sample isn’t enough. Unfortunately — and much to the detriment of the original sounds — electronic music has had a hard time integrating R&B samples at times. Electronic producers often dip into the archives hoping that it will make their samples more palatable to mainstream audiences. Although some do successfully provide a fresh take, mismatched sounds are also a regular issue.
Last year, little encapsulated Soulection’s identity as a brand and roster quite like the Love Is King compilation project. An ode to British soul pioneer Sade, the project celebrated the collective reaching 200,000 followers on SoundCloud and featured the likes of J-Louis, PYRMDPLAZA and AbJo. There’s no doubt that while many of the artists who featured on the project may not have been present during Sade’s heyday, they witnessed the effect her music had on their parents.
“Soulection has undeniably been beats-focused, but more importantly, it’s a product of a generation of kids who grew up on ‘90s R&B.”
Soulection has undeniably been beats-focused, but more importantly, it’s a product of a generation of kids who grew up on ‘90s R&B.
Women have provided the foundation for some of hip-hop’s most loved songs. Two of Wu-Tang Clan’s most well known songs, “Tearz” and “Can It All Be So Simple” featured samples from Wendy Rene and Gladys Knight respectively. This trend continued well beyond the millennium, with Kanye West turning to soul samples on “Through The Wire”, “Overnight Celebrity” and “Lucifer”. Soul music will remain a destination for sample-hungry, hip-hop producers as the vocals often convey an emotion that can’t be found in a rapper’s hook or verse.
It’s difficult to predict how sampling in R&B will manifest in a decade’s time, given the heavy use of it in today’s music. R&B is becoming increasingly blended with alternative and electronic sounds and whether that has an impact on the future of sampling within the genre remains to be seen. Sampling can sometimes divide opinion within the world of music, but within the realms of R&B and hip-hop, it remains an ever-important resource for creativity and innovation.
