15 Best Samples of Quincy Jones’ Music, From Kanye West to the Weeknd to Harry Styles
With his death Nov. 4 at age 91, late composer, performer, bandleader and producer Quincy Jones leaves behind an enormous body of work — over 70 years of albums, film scores and other collaborations. Unsurprisingly, that work was heavily sampled in the last four decades of his life, providing a spectacular variety of cues, melodies and more that songwriters and producers interpolated into next-generation classics. Among the more than 3,600 samples that website Whosampled reports were taken from his compositions, Variety has assembled 15 of the most memorable songs sampling Quincy Jones’ music.
The Pharcyde, “Passin’ Me By” (1993)
More from Variety
This Southern California quartet certainly wasn’t the first rap group to be vulnerable on wax, but this lead single from 1994’s “Bizarre Ryde II the Pharcyde” helped amplify the more introspective paths forged by Native Tongues predecessors like De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest with four depressingly relatable chronicles of love lost. Pairing Jones’ cover of “Summer In the City” with the backward percussion from Jimi Hendrix’s “Are You Experienced?,” producer J-Swift created a timeless heartbreak anthem that was used as the hook for Joe’s remix of “Stutter,” featuring Mystikal, seven years later.
Bjork, “Human Behaviour” (1993)
This breakthrough single co-written and produced by longtime collaborator Nellee Hooper is anchored by a chugging, syncopated beat borrowed from Ray Brown Orchestra’s “Go Down Dying,” from the soundtrack to Lewis Gilbert’s 1970 film “The Adventurers.” West Coast rap conglomerate Hieroglyphics would later sample it just as memorably for their 2003 song “Let It Roll.”
Nas, “It Ain’t Hard To Tell” (1994)
The final track on Nas’ 1994 debut album “Illmatic,” producer Large Professor rearranged the cascading vocals of Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature” to create a pillowy backdrop for the rapper’s Day One mastery of street stories told with a poet’s flair. Though it was the second prominent sample of the song (after SWV’s 1993 “Right Here (Human Nature Remix)”), Nas’ song showcased the adaptability of even Jones’ most beautiful work to virtually any musical context.
Mobb Deep, “Shook Ones Pt. II” (1995)
Quincy Jones’ seemingly indefatigable series of crime movie scores have offered hip-hop producers a cornucopia of samples. The menacing strings of Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones, Part II” were lifted from the 1971 “Dollars” cue “Kitty With the Bent Frame,” creating the perfectly unsettling atmosphere needed for what would become one of the group’s signature portraits of street life.
LL Cool J feat. Boyz II Men, “Hey Lover” (1996)
If LL Cool J’s “I Need Love” marked rap’s breakthrough song that showed b-boys have feelings too, much of James Todd Smith’s subsequent career struck gold with songs that leveraged his reputation as a ladies’ man. Sampling the velvety tones of Michael Jackson’s “Lady in My Life,” LL delivered one of his most seductive jams on his 1996 album “Mr. Smith,” aided by Boyz II Men with a hook that feels like next-generation Jackson.
2Pac, “How Do You Want It” (1996)
One of 2Pac’s best-known songs borrows its melody from the title track of Jones’ 1974 album “Body Heat.” Its release as a single would prove to be one of the most incendiary moments of the rapper’s volatile career: not only did both of its b-sides, “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted” and “Hit ‘Em Up,” go on to become hits in their own right (the latter as one of the most vicious diss tracks ever recorded), but it led to a lawsuit by civil rights activist C. Dolores Tucker after he mentioned her in the song.
Ludacris, “Number One Spot” (2004)
Though Ludacris is preceded on this sample by Dream Warriors’ wildly underappreciated 1990 track “My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style,” the Dirty South icon enlists DJ Green Lantern to chop up Jones’ “Soul Bossa Nova” for a song that, perhaps unsurprisingly, liberally references Austin Powers — it was instantly catapulted back in into popular culture thanks to its use over the opening credits of the first of Mike Myers’ series about the ‘60s superspy. Ludacris manages to pack almost as many punch lines into the four-and-a-half-minute track as Myers does in all three of his films, with the flute from Jones’ composition working overtime beneath them.
The Prodigy, “The Way It Is” (2004)
Jones’ production work with Michael Jackson has become so ubiquitous in popular culture that it’s hard to really recontextualize it in a new way. Electronic producer Liam Howlett managed that feat in 2004 with this track that samples the percolating bassline of “Thriller” then heaps jagged keyboards on top of it. In 2007, Herve went the other way on “Cheap Thrills” and gobbled up the tidal wave of synthesizers that announce the song’s chorus, added a ton of reverb and then fed it into a four-four dancefloor destroyer.
M.I.A., “U.R.A.Q.T.” (2005)
Diplo was far from the first person to sample Jones’ “The Streetbeater” from “Sanford & Son” for a song, but on M.I.A.’s debut album, he layers lightning-fast samples of the song over a Miami-bass beat for one of the most infectious cuts of her then-early career. (RZA had sampled “Streetbeater” slightly more traditionally a year earlier for “Old Man” featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard,” and the juxtaposition between the two only showcases how Jones’ capacity for inventive, sometimes slightly left-of-center rhythms offered producers a musical playground of endless possibilities.)
Rihanna, “Don’t Stop the Music” (2007)
Produced by Norwegian songwriting duo StarGate, this 2007 single briefly landed the Barbadian singer in legal hot water for borrowing the “mama-say mama-sah ma-ma-coo-sa” coda at the end of Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.” Cameroonian singer Manu Dibango had previously successfully sued Jackson for using lyrics from his 1972 song “Soul Makossa,” and attempted to do the same with Rihanna, before an earlier case ruled his claim inadmissible.
Kanye West feat. T-Pain, “Good Life” (2007)
West drew from the well of Jones’ genius on a few occasions, but never so memorable as on “Good Life,” from his 2007 album “Graduation.” Collaborating with T-Pain, West uses a slowed-down sample from Michael Jackson’s “PYT” for a wonderfully unhurried celebration anthem.
Justice, “Canon” (2011)
Justice took four years to record “Audio, Video, Disco,” a follow-up to their smash debut LP “Cross. ” It took the electronic group further into over-amped electronica, albeit with a slightly more subdued, less anthemic sound. “Canon” borrows the waterfall guitars of the Jones-produced Brothers Johnson’s “Strawberry Letter 23,” a cover of Shuggie Otis’ signature song, for an elaborate breakdown towards the end of the track.
Fred Falke, “Aurora” (2012)
The French continue to be some of the most imaginative samplers of Jones’ work. Fred Falke, a contemporary of Daft Punk whose singles with Alan Braxe were released on the duo’s Virgin Records imprint Roulé, borrowed a synthesizer arrangement from “Grace (Gymnastics Theme),” Jones’ music for the 1984 Olympic Games, to make this pulsing dance track.
The Weekend, “Hurt You” (2018)
Quincy Jones’ siren-forward theme for the TV series “Ironside” has been used for countless projects over the years, including the Bride’s murder music in “Kill Bill.” The Weeknd’s end-of-the-world sex jams seem a perfect place to lodge those sirens, and thanks to Cirkut, Gessafelstein and Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homo-Christo, they’re layered into “Hurt You” from his 2018 EP “My Dear Melancholy” as a distant, echoing sign of danger that accompanies his promises that he doesn’t want to hurt a woman he’ll also fuck “on sight.”
Harry Styles, “Daydreaming” (2022)
Though it wasn’t one the four singles released to promote “Harry’s House,” Styles went just as hard on this album track from his Japanese City Pop-inspired 2022 album, deploying a sample of the Brothers Johnson’s “Ain’t We Funkin’ Now” for this appropriately dreamy dance track.
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.