2Pac, Kanye West & Jay-Z Sample Prince's Funk
Samples of History: Inheriting Prince’s Funk
On the extended version of his 1988 single “I Wish U Heaven,” Prince sang “Take this beat / I don’t mind / Got plenty others / and they’re so fine!”
Apparently a few hip-hop producers got the message and began mining Prince’s catalog for samples!
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Here are a few of our favorites!
Kanye West “Big Brother”
DJ Toomp produced Kanye West’s ode to his “big brother,” Jay-Z. The song replays a riff from Prince’s “It’s Gonna Be Lonely” from his 1979 self-titled album.
2Pac “Heartz Of Men”
Taken from the last album Tupac released before he was murdered, “Heartz Of Men” samples the end of Prince’s “Darling Nikki,” that creepy backwards bit that probably scared Christian parents all over the country.
2Pac “What’z Ya Phone #”
The raunchy closing song on disc 1 of 2Pac’s All Eyez On Me album is built off of a loop from The Time’s “777-9311.” The Time was formed by Prince as an outlet for his funkier material. Prince produced, wrote, and performed most of The Time’s material with his friend Morris Day handling vocals.
Jay-Z & Beyoncé “’03 Bonnie & Clyde”
The Jiggaman launched The Blueprint 2 album with this Kanye West produced single featuring his then-girlfriend Beyoncé. The song features Beyoncé singing lyrics from Prince’s 1987 classic “If I Was Your Girlfriend.”
MC Lyte “Paper Thin”
MC Lyte’s classic “Paper Thin” features a sample from Prince & The Revolution’s “17 Days” which was the b-side of “When Doves Cry.”
