The five best Michael Jackson samples in hip-hop
No pop catalogue has nourished hip-hop more than Michael Jackson.
His songs have been chopped, sliced and looped, scraping the velvet of Off the Wall infused with the bubblegum snap of the Jackson 5 records into new classics. His music is now rhythms, his exhaled air has become a drum beat, his lines have become verses that extend throughout New York boom-bap to Atlanta gloss, with each decade, manufacturers coming across another part of the universe of MJ and turning it into something that bangs.
As rappers and producers put their hands on his work, they run the risk of comparison to one of the most meticulous craftsmen of pop. But the finest of these flips do not attempt to shine as brightly as the original; they stand next to it, and transfer its spirit to the language of hip-hop, confirming that the genius of Michael is indefinitely renewable.
The fingerprints of Jackson have appeared on recordings that extend the genre and calibre of hard-edged street narratives to radio hits of joy. Whether they are Kanye and his chipmunk gospel or Nas and his poetic realism, every sample unveils some new fragment of the ‘King of Pop’ legacy. The following are the five best instances of such transformation, as original grooves were turned into hip-hop scripture.
Five best Michael Jackson samples in rap history
Nas – ‘It Ain’t Hard to Tell’ (1994)
Sample: Michael Jackson – ‘Human Nature’ (1983)
Large Professor reached into the dreamy lustre of ‘Human Nature’ and reconstructed it into a hard-edged New York beat, cutting the synths into smoked pieces, dropping the pitch and sending them to drift sonically underneath the debut of Nas. The comparison is simply astounding: MJ started to cry, and the music became the lamenting that grounds Illmatic, as though poetry is being spoken through a broken pavement.
The beauty of the flip is in tension, where that Thriller familiarity does not make the cold-eyed verses of Nas any softer. Large Professor subsequently said that such a decision was intentional, as one method being to provide Nas with something that was “pretty yet raw”. Now one of the most quoted in rap, it is an ideal marriage of vulnerability and grit.
Jay-Z – ‘Izzo (HOVA)’ (2001)
Sample: Jackson 5 – ‘I Want You Back’ (1969)
Kanye West cut the classic of the Jackson 5 into a jubilant loop, which saw his chipmunk-soul period come to life. The scratching of the drums and the squeaky vocals make innocence swaggish and provide a golden carpet on which Jay-Z can win the lap with The Blueprint. On its release, it was his first solo top-ten record, reaching number eight on the Billboard Hot 100, and deservedly so.
Kanye was a light and confident sampler who was wise to keep the Motown sparkle intact and at the same time make it seem fresh in 2001. ‘Izzo’ is the sound of sunshine on Brooklyn rooftops, a nice mixture of nostalgia and bravado, which places it among the most joyful beats in hip-hop, and one of the first masterpieces by Ye.
Naughty by Nature – ‘OPP’ (1991)
Sample: The Jackson 5 – ‘ABC’ (1970)
No song has ever dared to connect playgrounds and nightclubs as ‘OPP’, which saw Treach and the crew turn the ‘ABC’ hook of the Jackson 5 into a school playground song to hide one of the winkiest acronyms of rap. It topped the Hot 100 and was a cultural phenomenon, offering definitive evidence that hip-hop could be naughty and mainstream at the same time.
The brilliance of this sample is its simplicity; people were already familiar with ‘ABC’, and the track was an immediate hit; however, Naughty by Nature used its veneer to sneak adult humour into pop radio. It was the voice of hip-hop finding its crossover appeal without losing its commercial and mainstream foothold.
De La Soul – ‘Breakadawn’ (1993)
Sample: Michael Jackson – ‘I Can’t Help It’ (1979)
Prince Paul and De La Soul transformed this Off the Wall ballad by MJ into a misty and late-night groove by taking the intro of it as the loop mixed over Smokey Robinson and the Quiet Storm for a beat that slightly reminds of the afterglow of a long night out. It is soft yet confident, and the type of song that one can ponder upon and not boast.
‘Breakadawn’ entered very softly and yet with a mighty presence, topping European dance charts and making it into the UK Top 40. It demonstrated that MJ’s music could be turned inside out without obtrusion and heavy-handedness. De La found grace, instead of grandeur, and it is the echo of soul, most apt to their philosophy of mellow, that grounds this cut.
Kanye West featuring T-Pain – ‘Good Life’ (2007)
Sample: Michael Jackson – ‘PYT (Pretty Young Thing)’ (1982)
When Kanye and DJ Toomp sliced up ‘PYT’, they made this flirtation with MJ a champagne affair. The synth pops, and the handclaps and robotic croon of T-Pain made Graduation a euphoric world tour that saw ‘Good Life’ reach number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and be awarded a Grammy for ‘Best Rap Song’.
MJ’s childish tone is used to pure victory in the hands of Kanye, while the harmoniser slides used by T-Pain resemble the falsetto flutters of the pop icon to great effect, and Ye’s rapping like a man who has made it justifies the title for a cohesive piece shining light on the efforts of all involved. Good Life demonstrates that Michael and his grooves can conquer the airwaves even 30 years after Thriller, just through the voice of a different generation.