Which artist is responsible for the most sampled song of all-time?
The music trivia gurus among you might pick the Incredible Bongo Band or The Winstons given that their deathless drum breaks – ‘Apache’ and ‘Amen Brother’ respectively – have formed the basis for countless hip hop tracks – but nope.
What about the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, and his much-sampled funk workouts? Getting closer.
Still stumped? That may be because it’s actually a little-known collaboration by the name of Fab 5 Freddy, but the collective’s 1982 electro single takes the honour of being the most sampled song of all time, featured in a jaw-dropping nearly 1,300 tracks, as InTheMix reports.
Fab 5 Freddy’s ‘Change The Beat’ has the distinction of being sampled in 1295 times, beginning with being the record that’s scratched through Herbie Hancock’s signature 80s electro-hit ‘Rockit’ and as recently by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and even Justin Bieber, according to music database WhoSampled.com after compiling a list of the Top 10 most-sampled tracks in hip-hop. The 1982 electro single takes the honour of being the most sampled song of all time, featured in a jaw-dropping nearly 1,300 tracks.
Change The Beat’ was originally – according to a recent BBC Radio program based on the WhoSampled list – the result of combined efforts between French producer Jean Caracas and New York rapper Fab 5 Freddy, but it’s actually a remix of the track by female French rapper Beside (who fittingly appears on the B-side) that is the version that’s been sampled numerous times over three decades.
What’s even more curious is that it’s not even the music that’s sampled so frequently from the 1982 single, but the closing five seconds of the track – in which Fab 5 Freddy declares in vocoder-enhanced tones: “Aaaahhh, this stuff is really fresh.”
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As WhoSampled points out: “The ‘Aah’ and ‘Fresh’ with their clean, sharp sound have become the industry standard in scratch samples for the world’s turntablist community – the standard sound with which novices learn and the advanced create new techniques.”
Following Herbie Hancock first using the track for his 1983 single ‘Rockit’, ‘Change The Beat’ has been sampled in hundreds of famous rap hits since; including Eric B & Rakim (on ‘Paid In Full’), MC Hammer (‘U Can’t Touch This’), Mantronix (‘Needle To The Groove’), MARRS (‘Pump Up The Volume’), Eminem (‘So Far’), and as recently as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ ‘Thrift Shop’.
It’s also cropped up on tracks by Beastie Boys, Outkast, DJ Shadow, Linkin park, Nine Inch Nails, Chromeo, and many, many more (check the exhaustive list and listen to samples here).
In the words of BBC DJ Roger Jonson, ‘Change The Beat’ has “almost become the authentic rap seasoning – just add it to your track for instant cool.” Something that Bieber obviously cottoned onto when he used the Fab 5 Freddy sample in his collaboration with fellow Canadian act, Drake.
