Is Sampling Dying?

Clearance agencies like Carr's began sprouting up in the early '90s to facilitate the proper licensing of samples and broker deals on a case-by-case basis. While there is no set formula, the length and prominence of a sample plays a major role in determining price. It also matters who is being sampled (e.g., Barry White is expensive; Stax Records artists like Wilson Pickett are more reasonable). One response to rising prices has been the increased use of interpolation, the practice of having a musician rerecord a sample to help reduce costs.

"Take the temperature of mainstream hip-hop and it's obvious that sampling just isn't a large part of it anymore," says indie rapper El-P, also label chief at Definitive Jux. "And the people that do sample [are the ones who] can afford to." The practice is, in many ways, a millionaire's game, populated by artists like Jay-Z or (until recently) West, who can pay to play -- and who can lean on fame as a bargaining chip. "When [Kanye] sampled Ray Charles for 'Gold Digger,' everybody was like, 'It's not going to get cleared,' " says A-Trak, West's former DJ. "But then he called whoever's in charge of [Charles'] estate, and it eventually got cleared."

"In the old days, samples were $2,500 or $1,500," says RZA. "I paid $2,000 for a Gladys Knight sample for 'Can It Be All So Simple' off Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). That was a big intro, and the hook was repetitious. Something like that nowadays would cost $10,000." The problem, RZA says, is that high prices are discouraging producers like him from using samples, which in turn impacts all parties' ability to make money.

"For Gladys Knight, even though [that sample] only cost $2,000, that was an advance," he says. "Enter the Wu-Tang went on to sell millions of copies. She probably made about $50,000 [from publishing]. The master owner probably made a good amount of money, too."

A sample must be cleared with two camps: those who own the master recording (typically the record company that released the song or whoever purchased the catalog) and those who own the publishing rights (usually the songwriter). "Generally, one side is going to cost about as much as the other," says Eothen Alapatt, general manager at Stones Throw Records. Sampling a major artist like James Brown would cost about $20,000 -- $10,000 for the master recording side and $10,000 for the publishing -- a figure that rivals the entire budget for an album released on Stones Throw. But to not clear the samples on an album poses a high risk. Though he wouldn't get specific, Alapatt says that Stones Throw has paid $25,000 to $35,000 to have samples cleared after the release of an album.

For a time, many producers believed that obscure artists -- one-hit wonders and lesser-known jazz and soul musicians -- were the gateway to cheaper samples. But as Alapatt explains, that wasn't to be. "That was false hope in a lot of ways, because you'd be surprised who's out there Googling themselves," he says. "People are using the Internet to search out information that my generation thought was only possible through a secret handshake."