Sampling

"In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or element of a new recording. This is typically done with a sampler, which can be a piece of hardware or a computer program on a digital computer"... (Wikipedia)

Here is a classic example:

It Was a Good Day by Ice Cube		Footsteps in the Dark by The Isley Brothers

The song on the left, released in 1993, contains a sample of the 1977 song on the right. When you listen to both, you can notice that the intro of the original was sampled and looped, and then re-used as the backing track of the new song.

Sampling is an artform that has spawned many musical genres and underlies a flurry of endless musical creativity. On WhoSampled, we have set out the goal of documenting this incredible activity while making it accessible and fun for everyone to discover.

Some would think that sampling started with the Hip-Hop tracks of the early 80’s, but in its broader sense it goes way back, further than even the Beatles borrowing a piece of French national anthem La Marseillaise for “All You Need is Love” in 1967. That is why we do not only list direct samples on the site, but also interpolations, i.e. when an element from one song is replayed or re-sung in another. For some examples of the best samples ever as ranked by our community, head to our Top Rated Samples chart.

The following is our current chart of the most sampled artists in the database, and the most active sampling artists.

	Most Sampled Artists		Top Sampling Artists
1 James Brown Sampled in 2855 songs 2 Public Enemy Sampled in 1158 songs 3 Beside Sampled in 942 songs 4 Run-DMC Sampled in 938 songs 5 The Winstons Sampled in 803 songs 6 Lyn Collins Sampled in 727 songs 7 The Notorious B.I.G. Sampled in 713 songs 8 Slick Rick Sampled in 690 songs 9 Michael Jackson Sampled in 657 songs 10 Eric B. & Rakim Sampled in 651 songs		1 DJ Premier Sampled 1280 songs 2 Girl Talk Sampled 1008 songs 3 DJ Shadow Sampled 803 songs 4 Madlib Sampled 743 songs 5 Dr. Dre Sampled 731 songs 6 Pete Rock Sampled 700 songs 7 J Dilla Sampled 631 songs 8 Marley Marl Sampled 605 songs 9 9th Wonder Sampled 566 songs 10 The Alchemist Sampled 553 songs