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On Yes’“ Owner of a Lonely Heart,” there’ s a drum breakdown that uses a short snippet from“ Kool Is Back” by Funk Incorporated. They were covering the Kool & The Gang song“ Kool Is Back.” I didn’ t know it at the time, but that was one of the first times I heard a breakbeat being used, something old to create something different. Marley Marl pushed the idea forward when he realized he could use a snare drum from one record and a kick drum from another to create something new. Then Paul C got his hands on the SP 1200 and took it further. He became a mentor to what would later be known as a renaissance era of hip-hop production: Large Professor, Q-Tip, A Tribe Called Quest, DJ Premier, Pete Rock, and others. It was a slow domino effect. Sampling is the idea of capturing human synergy and energy to create magic.
Flashmag! Issue 177 October 2026
When did sampling become democratized beyond the very expensive Fairlight and become a more common part of music production?
For me, the eureka moment was the June 1988 release of Public Enemy’ s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. It was the Back to the Future flux capacitor moment. Every song was crammed with samples. Some had seven, some had twenty. When I heard it, the dopamine effect was immediate. Wait, my dad has that record. My dad has that record. My very boring father’ s record collection suddenly came alive.
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