Sample this! 10 house tracks with hip hop samples

Over the next couple of weeks we’re going to look at how different music has helped to influence and shape the world of dance music. This week we’re looking at the impact of hip hop and rap on house and techno. Artists featured include Dusky, Maceo Plex and Sidney Charles representing house, and 2Pac, Snoop, Biggie and Nas reppin’ hip hop.

The arrival of the Roland Tr-808 is seen as the dawn of both hip hop and dance music and throughout the last four decades the two genres have shared common features and sounds that have kept two seemingly far apart disciplines interconnected – siblings in the family of music.

In house at the moment we’re currently seeing a trend where hip hop is as influential as ever. Thanks to producers like Kolombo, Amine Edge, Sharam Jey and Sidney Charles, ‘G-House’ or ‘Gangsta House’ has become refined and distinct enough to be afforded its own status as a new sub-genre itself. An off-shoot of mainly deep house and tech, G-house lends heavily to its influences in rap, hip-hop and R&B, with sounds and vocal samples (often pitched-down) borrowed from West Coast rappers in particular.

Not that G-house is the only side of the scene to borrow from hip hop. All kinds of techno, indie dance, deep house and tech house are at it. So here’s 10 house tracks that we know and love alongside the 10 hip hop tracks they sampled:

 

Number 1 is an artist that has made waves in the industry in the last year or so and this track is among his best. With his favourite partner in crime Dance, Amine Edge’s ‘Going to Heaven with the Goodie-Goodies’ features a sample off arguably one of the most iconic and influential hip hop albums of all time, The Notorious B.I.G.’s ‘Ready to Die’. Check out ‘Going to Heaven with the Goodie-Goodies’ and Biggie’s 1994 original ‘Suicidal Thoughts’.

 

 

Number 2 comes from Amine Edge past collaborator and fellow Francophone, the Belgian producer Kolombo. His track ‘Whatever You Like’ features a sample from ‘Get It In’ by Tyrese (releasing here under the Black Ty moniker) and legendary Wu-Tang Clansmen Method Man.

 

 

This is one you probably got straight off, if not then get ready a pleasant surprise.

In at 3 is a collaboration between a couple of Hamburgers in Doctor Dru and Adana Twins. Their track ‘Anymore’ features soulful sounds from singer/rapper/goddess Lauren Hill’s ‘Doo Wop (That Thing)’.

 

 

Another massive 2013 track was our number 4, Dansson and Marlon Hoffstadt’s ‘Shake That’. You may or may not have guessed the sample from this one, the voice, though pitched-down is familiar, iconic even to anyone who’s ever liked rap music ever. The late, great, Nate Dogg and Eve 2002 track ‘Get Up’.

 

 

Next up, number 5 is a double whammy. The track itself is perhaps more R&B but features a guest appearance from arguably one of the greatest emcees of all time, the stillmatic Nas. The self-proclaimed ‘God’s Son’ cameos on a track by Allure titled ‘Head Over Heels’ which has been sampled by deep house heavyweights Dusky and Finnebassen with their hits ‘Nobody Else’ and ‘Touching Me’ respectively.

 

 

For number 6 we feature not so much a hip hop sample, more a sample of an interview by a hip hop luminary. Mos Def, now known as Yasiin Bey, features in a self-titled track from underground deep house brute Jobe. ‘Mos Def’ contains a sample from an interview Yasiin did where he talks about New Orleans jazz. This highlights the impact of hip hop not just musically but also culturally on a generation of house lovers.

Unfortunately we couldn’t source the original mix so in its place is the DJ Le Roi remix.

 

 

Up at 7 is another interview. This one’s an even more abstract bit of choppin’ n’ screwin’ in that it’s an interview with revolutionary rap god 2Pac where he sings the hook of one of his songs. An interview of his was sampled by Solomun for his track ‘Something We All Adore’.

Skip to around 3:10 to put a quick smile on ya face.

 

 

Staying with 2Pac, track 8 on the list features samples taken from an unreleased 2Pac track called ‘I Saw Your Girl’ recorded by the Outlawz star, incredibly, in 1988! Waifs & Strays, big movers in the deep house scene used the snippets in their 2013 track ‘I Saw Yo Girl’.

 

 

Track 9 is a real hype, tech house banger from another Hamburg-born producer in Sidney Charles. He teamed up with Tapesh for ‘Street Love’ which features the lyrical licks of Gang Starr’s frontman Guru. Following in DJ Premier’s footsteps is never easy but this re-imagination of the 2003 original ‘Skills’ is the perfect translation from one musical language to another.

 

 

Last on the list is a subtle but certain recycling of probably the Fugee’s most popular song. Track 10 is ‘Under the Sheets’ by man of the moment Maceo Plex and contains a sample of Lauren Hill et al’s ‘Ready or Not’. It’s low-key but unmistakable and sums up our look at the hip hop tracks that have shaped house music.

 

 

To finish off the list though we need to show that it’s not all a one way street. The bonus track on this week’s voyage through the musical vaults is a hip hop track that sampled a classic yet relatively obscure Detroit techno track from the ‘80s.

If you don’t know the original, you’re sure to know the remake. Sir Mix a Lot’s ‘Baby Got Back’ otherwise known by its hook ‘I like big butts and I cannot lie!’. The sample was taken from Channel One’s 1989 track ‘Technicolour’.