Jay Z’s Musical Samples
This interactive visualization illustrates the extent to which Jay-Z draws on vocal and instrumental samples throughout his entire body of music. Clicking on a particular album reveals the type of sample the album contains in the bottom left hand corner. On the right side, the name of the sampled artist is highlighted. By hovering over the name, you can see the particular song on Jay-Z’s album, the sample song and release year as well as the sample artist
On one hand, Jay-Z’s music corresponds to and departs from discussions of figures who have worked through the challenges and opportunities negotiating life as black men in America. On the other hand, Jay-Z incorporates hundreds of lyrical and instrumental samples into his body of work. Across Jay-Z’s entire body of work, he draws on lyrics from various rappers.
Visualizing Jay-Z’s musical samples creates all types of opportunities to understand the extent to which he draws on other compositions in his body of work. For instance, Jay-Z samples approximately 22.7 compositions on each album. Reasonable Doubt, The Blueprint, The Blueprint 2, and The Black Album are among his albums that contain at least 26 samples. Kingdom Come, on the other hand, contains only 12 samples, the least of any Jay-Z album.
Jay-Z has worked with producers who have an in-depth knowledge of black music history as they incorporate sound effects, drum patterns, chords, and other lush samples from the 1960s – 1990s. For instance, Reasonable Doubt is one of Jay-Z’s most diverse albums in terms of instrumentation and musical compositions. The album samples 9 songs from various artists such as Lonnie Liston Smith, Isaac Hayes, the Ohio Players, the Four Tops, and others. In addition, the Brooklyn rapper tends to sample gangster films in his intros like Goodfellas, Scarface, Carlito’s Way, and American Gangster.
By drawing on a range of lyrics, sounds, and rhythms from other artists, Jay-Z's body of work is characterized by its depth and attentiveness to the histories of hip hop and music in general.
