Good god, you can’t turn on a hip hop station or listen to a streaming service without hearing a sample of a hit song from back in the day. It’s not new or anything. Diddy was notorious (pun intended) for sampling R&B music with Bad Boy Records artists Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige. Even before him, The Sugarhill Gang sampled “Good Times” by Chic for their radio hit “Rapper’s Delight” in 1979. So, it’s been an ongoing part of the creative process for hip hop.
Yet, in 2021, it has become increasingly annoying. Certain rappers — that I plan to call out — lean so heavily on No. 1 songs to sample that it’s starting to feel like a con, a scam, and a scandal. Rappers have become so shameless that they don’t even attempt to make sure producers be a little bit more clever with disguising the original song. Nah, we get the entire track nearly untouched from its original composition with new (some argue, trash) lyrics to confuse the babies coming up into thinking that their rap idol is some kind of innovative genius.
But, what more can we expect from a generation that wears their weave tracks and lace front glue on front street for everybody to see? That’s not what I’m griping about though.
This is what I’m griping about…
From Saweetie doing back to back samples on nearly every radio hit she has (I still love you girl), to Latto sampling Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy” for her song “Big Energy” and then, having the nerve to say publicly that she barely knows the song she sampled, clearly, it’s time for an intervention.
Now, for those who just come to be entertained and don’t care about the semantics and politics, keep supporting the music and more of the same will come. But, for those who proclaim to be hip hop heads, music lovers, true fans, and are in the music industry, it ought to be a crying shame that a person can’t trigger their lazy fingers to go to Google to do a little research.
Latto got some much needed publicity when she went on Hot 97’s Nessa On Air and made some contradicting statements regarding her single “Big Energy.” First, she said that she was too young to remember the song “Fantasy” by Carey, featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard.
Nothing wrong with that. We’re not born with a lexicon of music from the past. But, then, she misstepped by saying she was a superfan of Mariah’s and begged her mother to buy her music…
Latto wasn’t finished there. She turned around and said that people often say she looks like Mariah Carey… In the voice of Porsha Williams from the Real Housewives of Atlanta, “Who said that?!” It reminds me of the time Kenya Moore from the same reality show said that people often think she looks like Beyonce.
Or the movie Shallow Hal when the main character’s vision was distorted to see people for their hearts and not their actual looks.
Latto is indeed a sight for sore eyes, a beauty to behold, but the darling doesn’t look like Mariah Carey! The delusion is real. Not just with her, with a lot of these new money celebs that don’t have the space for humbleness or grace to acknowledge those they borrow (or steal) from. It’s not a reason to “cancel” the rising music stars, it’s just a learning moment.
Just like they have etiquette classes and used to have artist development at record labels, it’s time to bring that old thing back and get these newborn babes some education.
