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There are many who loathe the thought of sampling. Something to do with ripping off another's creation, defiling the sacred, lacking originality, blah, blah, blah. Personally, I find none of those issues interesting. My apologies for getting overly academic, but I consider sampling a lively dialogue between the sampled and the sampler, which isolates a moment, a bar, a verse, a whatever, and constructs a reply around the sampled song. Many producers who sample choose songs they loved in the past. Rather than pump out a straight cover of the tune, they address the sample with their own ideas and instincts of what it may say and what it may mean. The additional lyrics, melodies, chords, and musical flourishes that collaborate with the sample are like the producer's own retelling of the sample's story. Consider it aural history.

One production team that executes this quite well is the Flyte Tyme duo, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Think back to Janet Jackson's "If. …