If you love EDM music, chances are you’ve been feeling really left out in the past year. The genre that birthed artists such as Lady Saw, Sean Paul and Shaggy has been on a roll lately thanks to some new stars from across the pond like Stormzy and Fuse ODG taking it back to its old school roots. However, the genre that has been so dormant for the past few years has finally brought back some of its original stars.
Last month Skrillex dropped the first track off his new EP “Scary Monsters & Nice Sprites” and it was a maddeningly catchy song based on a sample from a great band called “XTC”. What caught the ear of many listeners was the intro and interlude of the track which was actually Lady Saw’s pop hit “No Man No Cry”. The original song is a sample-based track as well, but it featured reggae band Inner Circle. If you listen closely to both tracks you can hear how much they resemble one another.
But Skrillex isn’t the first artist to sample the legendary reggae icon. In fact, he is the latest, but there’s a long line that has been following this trend over the last few years. For example, just last year in September, Vybz Kartel made his long awaited return to the reggae scene with his new single featuring Popcaan called “Controlla”. When many people heard the song for the first time they were taken aback by how similar it sounded to another popular track by a different artist but with a similar title.
The track “Controlla” (make sure you’re singing it right) is a Jamiroquai song which was released in September of 2012. The track was originally titled “Cloud 9”, but the beats are really similar to Lady Saw’s hit. Even the lyrics have a few references to “Controlla” by Vybz Kartel.
Let me get up, get into a zone
Flyin’ through the air like a Jamaican plane…
Picture you and me, on an island alone…
Some of these songs that have been sampled aren’t just samples. Some of these tracks are actually remixes of an original song. The most recent track to drop from Skrillex is one that showcases this idea perfectly. Before Skrillex’s latest riddim release called “You’re Gonna Love Again” he dropped the remix of his old single “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites (Cats & Dogs)”. The remix was originally released as a free download in April, but it had a heavy direction from the original song.
