It occurred to me the other day, while listening to that looped Meters break in Amerie’s “1 Thing,” that quite a few of 2005’s best hip-hop tracks are sample-based, especially in contrast to the original beat productions of the last few years. I’m always interested in how samples can work to recontextualize a song, so I was curious to go back to the original source material for some of these recent hits. Here, then, are three of this year’s inspirations, all of which I quite like:

Cybotron - Clear

Sampled in: Missy Elliott, “Lose Control.” This 1982 electro number, produced by legendary Detroit DJ Juan Atkins and associate Richard Davis, is sometimes cited as the first techno track. Whether or not that’s true, its Kraftwerk-influenced sequenced synths, trickling like a row of dominoes, conjure an icy, robotic dystopia better than almost anything else of its time.

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Talking Heads - Sugar on My Tongue

Sampled in: Trick Daddy, “Sugar.” This is, of course, an unlikely song to be sampled by a major hip-hop artist — not just because it’s by an anxious white art-rock band, but because it’s an early demo that was unreleased for sixteen years. And yet when I listen to David Byrne quaver on the chorus now, I sorely miss Cee-Lo’s soft counterpoint, “sweet sweet, lover lover.” Go figure.

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Shirley Bassey - Diamonds Are Forever

Sampled in: Kanye West, “Diamonds.” Shirley Bassey, one of the UK’s top jazz vocalists of the last century, was perhaps best known for her performances of James Bond film themes. On “Diamonds Are Forever,” from the 1971 picture of the same name, she drops her clear, classy voice above John Barry’s sinister orchestra to create a perfect sense of opulence; the surprisingly propulsive rhythm only kicks up the intrigue.

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