“Uh-huh, honey”: Country Samples in Hip-Hop
How a little bit of country has gone a long way in rap production.
by Ryan Reed
Country music and hip-hop tend to exist at extremes of taste and songwriting inspiration, and most attempts to find a middle ground have been clumsy at best.
There have been some notable exceptions: Take Lil Nas X’s chart-topping remix of “Old Town Road,” which paired a banjo sample and Billy Ray Cyrus hook with minimalist rapping and trap drums. But some of the most interesting rap-country marriages have come through sampling, with producers forming twangy fragments — a guitar lick here, a vocal melody there — into building blocks for beats.
Still, it’s tricky to pull off, and there aren’t too many quality examples. Beastie Boys and the Dust Brothers, amid the sample-dense collage of 1989’s Paul’s Boutique, lifted a portion of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” to close the “Hello Brooklyn” movement of the epic “B-Boy Bouillabaisse.” Meanwhile, that same year, De La Soul nodded to the singer-songwriter’s “Five Feet High and Rising” in the dust-blown single “The Magic Number.” (Their corresponding album, 3 Feet High and Rising, is also a play on that Cash title.)
When this juxtaposition works, the effect can be uniquely jarring — like a cowboy hat spinning on a DJ’s turntables. Below, we highlight a handful of the most unique country samples and interpolations in hip-hop history.
Wu-Tang Clan
“Cash Still Rules/Scary Hours (still don’t nothing move but the money)” (1997)
(samples Skeeter Davis’ “The End of the World”)
Country-pop singer Skeeter Davis scored a genuine crossover hit with 1962’s “The End of the World,” which went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart, No. 2 on the country chart and No. 2 on the Hot 100. Clearly this lonesome waltz was versatile enough to anchor a rap song — a fact recognized by producer 4th Disciple for Wu-Tang Clan’s second LP, Wu-Tang Forever. It’s only a snippet — a morsel of an extended vocal note and a nylon-string guitar. But it’s a plenty gripping backdrop for the rap crew’s tag-teamed, cinematic rhymes.
Pras (feat. Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Mýa)
“Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)” (1998)
(interpolates Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton’s “Islands in the Stream”)
Interpolation can be lazy: There’s nothing more cringe-worthy than a pop star recycling an old hook without adding their own flair. But Pras’ Grammy-nominated hit, co-written and co-produced by Wyclef Jean, is a rare exception to that rule. They take the basic chord structure and chorus from Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton’s 1983 country-pop smash “Islands in the Stream,” written by the Bee Gees, tweaking the lyrics and shifting the groove to bass-heavy soul-funk — a perfect framework for Mýa’s sweet vocal.
Axes Aka Sexy Loops
“Scriu in Nopțile Albe” (feat. Butch & DJ Undoo) (2010)
(samples Alan Jackson’s “I’ll Go on Loving You”)
Most of the great country-to-rap samples are plucked from the classic canon — Johnny Cash songs have stood the test of time for a reason. You don’t hear a lot of hip-hop tunes tapping ’90s twang, but this eerie track suggests more producers should give it a shot. Romanian artist Axes Aka Sexy Loops takes two key elements from Alan Jackson’s tear-jerking ballad “I’ll Go on Loving You” — the title croon and central fingerpicked acoustic riff — and pitches them up into the heavens, with a booming kick-snare beat pulling them back down to Earth.
Canibus
“Gold & Bronze Magik” (2010)
(samples Bonnie Dobson’s “Milk and Honey”)
“Milk and Honey,” the centerpiece from country-folk singer Bonnie Dobson’s 1970 LP Good Morning Rain, was born to be a hypnotic hip-hop loop — just slap on a simple kick-snare beat and you’re all set. Producer Krohme samples liberally from the original track, contrasting Canibus’ raspy snarl with Dobson’s twangy vocal and snippets of flute, fingerpicked guitar and a harpsichord-like arpeggio. (This ghostly ballad has become a favorite among sample-loving producers. Most notably, it became the foundation of Limp Bizkit’s 2003 track “Take It Home.”)
Karriem Riggins
“Cheap Suite 4” (2017)
(samples Johnny Cash’s live version of “Folsom Prison Blues”)
On his second LP, 2017’s Headnod Suite, jazz drummer and hip-hop producer Karriem Riggins stitched together Donuts-like instrumentals that feel capable of sprawling just about anywhere — from synth-stacked electronic grooves to sample-laced head trips. One of the album’s wildest, most chaotic moments is “Cheap Suite 4,” which starts in a much different place than it ends: The first 50 seconds stick to a computerized keyboard pulse, but after a dreamlike radio intermission, it briefly beams into the sweaty instrumental section from Johnny Cash’s famous 1968 live version of “Folsom Prison Blues.”
Kanye West
“Bound 2” (2013)
(samples Brenda Lee’s “Sweet Nothin’s”)
“Uh-huh, honey — alright.” A true sampling genius knows how to recontextualize some seemingly small element, instantly magnifying a mood. The massive production team behind Kanye West’s “Bound 2” — Che Pope, Eric Danchick, Noah Goldstein, No I.D., Mike Dean and Ye himself — did exactly that with “Bound 2,” the bittersweet closer from his largely abrasive sixth LP, Yeezus. The core hook is sampled from the obscure soul group Ponderosa Twins Plus One, but the cherry on top is Brenda Lee’s vocal snippet: a few comforting words taken from a 1959 country-rockabilly tune. It’s somehow both out of place and exactly where it should be.
