The Escorts I Can’t Stand To See You Cry J Dilla Don’t Cry

The Escorts I Can’t Stand To See You Cry J Dilla Don’t Cry

This track is from the legendary Donut’s album, a record that was mostly recorded while Dilla was in the hospital and released just before he passed away from a blood disorder.

While I’ve tried to cut up Don’t Cry as well as J Dilla, there’s no way I could have come close. There are books written and talks by Questlove given about his meticulous sampling technique.

I chose this sample because it’s relatively easy for you to compose with. Dilla selected segments from The Escorts, I Can’t Stand to See You Cry that are very interchangeable – you can hit keys randomly, and, for the most part, it sounds pretty OK. Darius Kazemi does an amazing job breaking down this technique in his essay on Don't Cry, where he describes all of the nuances in Dilla's sampling technique (if you're a J Dilla fan, I highly recommend reading it).

Each clip from Don't Cry precisely chosen and edited. Most producers will initially cut up a song into its 16th notes to form their palette for production. Except Dilla’s segments are off-beat and at seemingly random moments in the song.

For example, you might have noticed three different versions of an etherial “ouuu” sound on the keyboard sampler (keys “z”, “x”, and “c”). To re-create Dilla’s samples, I realized that he used one segment adjusted three times by thousandths of a second. This is incredibly rare, and speaks to how a slight change can dramatically change the melody of a beat.

Otis Redding Try a Little Tenderness Kanye Otis

Otis Redding Try a Little Tenderness Kanye Otis

Kanye’s beat is a few seconds from an Otis a cappella near the end of the song, slightly pitch-adjusted (press the “b” key vs. the “c” key on keyboard sampler above to see what I mean). Prior to hearing Kanye’s Otis, I’d heard Try a Little Tenderness hundreds of times, and I’d never paid much attention to the brilliance of this moment.

This is beauty of sampling: you can imagine Kanye slaving over this song, finding this moment and using it as the foundation for a beat.

Thankfully, there’s an amazing video of Kanye’s sampling technique. He cuts up a sample into small segments and arranges each clip onto a keyboard – each key triggers milliseconds of the song. The sample is essentially an instrument, played just as would use a sample of a Steinway piano.

The Impressions Sunshine 9th Wonder Impressknowssoul!!!!

The Impressions Sunshine 9th Wonder Impressknowssoul!!!!

The 9th Wonder sample is from his Tutankhamen album, full of 30 amazingly sampled beats. While quite a few tracks include additional kicks and snares to round out the beat, what I love about Impressknowsoul!!!! is that its entirely composed of the original sample. This means that he has to get the timing just right so that you have a drum-like sound hitting, at minimum, on the 1 and the 3.

Even more interesting is 9th Wonder composed the entire track from about 15 seconds of the sample’s first verse, using roughly 12 different sounds expertly layered on top of one another other.

Contrast that with the Otis sample, where each clip of the sample lasts for seconds rather than microseconds. Those 12 sounds come in at a such a fast pace that the original sample is barely recognizable.

@matthew_daniels

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