Editorial – Hip Hop has been a colorful cornucopia of different genres since inception and samples have always been its essential building blocks. A producer finds a track they like, reuse of a portion (or sample) of a sound recording in another recording and make it their own.
Still, veteran producer Timbaland found himself a trending Twitter topic on Monday (January 18) after he was accused of “stealing” samples for some of his biggest hits, begging the question, “Do some people
still not understand how Hip Hop works?”
A young woman by the name of Nooriyah kicked off the chatter after she shared a video of herself playing three Middle Eastern songs used in Timbaland’s work. The songs included the 1957 single “Khosara” by Egyptian singer Abdel Halim Hafez (and later, Hossam Ramzy who released “Khosara Khosara” in 1994), which was heavily sampled for JAY-Z’s 2000 hit “Big Pimpin.”