Inspiration, imitation, interpolation: Sampling soca subtleties

Have you ever heard a song and said, “I’ve heard that before, but I can’t remember from where”?

You may be right.

Borrowed music, lyrics and remixes have been a feature of many hit songs, and there have been many times when the “do-overs” or sampled music did much better than the original. Some have even won the Road March title for Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival.

There are cases, too, involving TT’s as well as regional musicians, when such acts ended up in court or reaching legal settlement for copyright infringement or for using music without explicit permission.

Some notable examples come to mind, including the Andrews Sisters of the US, whose version of Lord Invader’s calypso Rum and Coca-Cola in the last century (1945) was number one for ten weeks on the Billboard charts; and Anslem Douglas’s Who Let the Dogs Out, sung by Baha Men.

Some hit soca songs have been sampled, inspired by others or interpolated.

Interpolation involves taking part of an existing musical work (as opposed to part of the actual recording) and incorporating it into new work. It does not include using any of the actual audio sounds contained in a pre-existing recording. Kevin Lyttle’s Turn Me On, for instance, interpolates the work of 112 – All My Love.

Sampling, on the other hand, involves taking a section of audio from an existing song and reworking it into the creation of a new track.

The best known example this Carnival season of sampling, inspiration and/or interpolation is the controversy between the producers of the Big Links Riddim (BLR) and Trinidad Killa. The BLR features Machel Montano, Kes, Yung Bredda and producer/writer Full Blown Entertainment. The controversy started when, without explicit permission, entertainer Trinidad Killa wrote, sang, recorded and released for public consumption, the song Eskimo on the same riddim.

Number 23 on the list below seems to be where the original drum patterns originated. Tell us what you think.

Sampling

Commenting on the use of samples in the local music industry, veteran producer Carl “Beaver” Henderson said, “Sampling isn’t even a headache any more. With AI, I can go onto some songs and pull out a guitar lick. Then go beyond and convert MIDI to MID and let another instrument play it. Anybody sampling in the traditional sense is lazy.”

(MIDI is a musical instrument digital interface used to play, edit, and record music; MID is the midrange, or the middle range of frequencies in a sound).

Beaver added, “Many do it (without permission), because the song most times doesn’t get big. But when it does get big, then the lawyers come in.”

Music producer/manager David Millien of MillBeatz Entertainment isn’t too fond of sampling.

“I never sample.

“Wait, hold on. Actually, one riddim, when I just started, I took the horns from a Mighty Bomber calypso.

“(But) most of my hits were created from scratch and I play out the chords. For example, Lyrikal, Patrice Roberts and Millbeatz, Criminal Wine, and Drupatee and Machel Montano, Indian Gyal, were from scratch.

“Everything is always inspired by chord progressions, because there are only a certain (number) of scales. That is why you would hear some similarities. In soca the Ionian scale is used very often. What makes it unique is how you put your tones and different things around it.

“As a producer, I’m okay with people sampling, to be honest – once you get the permission and do it the right way. A group from Guyana reached out to us to sample one of our productions. We permitted them, and it will continue our legacy.”

28 soca songs/tunes that have sampled, inspired and or interpolated from others:

1. Machel & Xtatik – Hard Working Dog

Original: Cow Dog Song – Fred Wardenburg (produced for Sesame Street)

2. Swappi x Ultimate Rejects – Feeling It

Baron – Feeling It

3. Destra – Bonnie & Clyde

A-ha – Take On Me

4. Dawg E Slaughter – Carnival I Love You

Phil Collins – Another Day in Paradise

5. Bunji Garlin – The Struggle

Merchant – Um Ba Ya Oh

6. Nailah Blackman – Iron Love

Lord Shorty – Cory Iron

7. Biggie Irie – Nah Going Home

U2 – I Still Haven’t Found What I’m looking For

8. Patrice Roberts & Machel Montano: Band of The Year

Enya – Caribbean Blue

9. Nailah Blackman – Bam Bam Season

Jocelyne Beroard (Kassav’) – Siwo

10. Square One – Faluma

AiSaSi – Faluma

11. Destra featuring Machel Montano – It’s Carnival

Cyndi Lauper – Time After Time

12. Bunji Garlin: Savage

Maestro: Savage

13. Kevin Lyttle –Turn Me On

112 – All My Love

14. Bunji Garlin – Fiery

Maestro: Fiery

15 Ricky T – Freaky Girls ft Eempey Slicker

Lil Kesh – Gbese

16. Jambe An Riddim with Pternsky, Movado, Shurwayne Winchester, Charly Blacks and others

Paul Simon – You Can Call Me Al

17. Machel Montano & Xtatik ft Wayne Rodriguez – Footsteps

The Police – Every Breathe You Take

18. Problem Child, Party Animal and Ricky T – Put Your Hand

La Medicina – Zouk La Se Sel Medikaman Nou Ni

19. Skinny Fabulous – Party Start

b Gillo – Bois Bande

20 Machel Montano featuring Afro B – Slow Wine (contains a sample of The Hook)

Big Steve – Who Owns Lala

22. Ultimate Rejects: Full Extreme

Shadow: Bassman

23. Big Links Riddim and Trinidad Killa (drums)

Potential Kid – Jump Off

24. Kes Cocoa Tea

Mysta Lyon – Coco

The following picks were submitted by DJ Ultimate DJ Shane of 94.1FM:

25. Maximus Dan aka MX Prime – Soca Train

Gypsy – Soca Train

26. Benjai – Trini

Singing Dianne – You Gotta Give Away

27. Sugar Daddy featuring Dedi – Sweet Soca

Verve – Bitter Sweet Symphony

28. KMC – Carnival Rag

Little Jerry & the Monotones – Telephone Rock (composed for Sesame Street)