Kanye Samples Feist On Twista's "Well It's Time"
Pretty sure we used "What's he gonna sample next, Feist?!" as an LOL punchline at some point, but as we saw at the Emmys, Kanye's good at bringing himself in on the joke. This particular cool points quest isn't Graduation-related, though: Twista got West to cook up beats for his just-released Adrenaline Rush 2007 LP, but ended up using the Kanye cut as a bonus track. Pretty lazy sample 'n' paste job on West's part, but here it is: Kanye sampling Feist's "Gatekeeper" from Let It Die on Twista's "Well It's Time."
So, we readjust: What's he gonna sample next, Grizzly Bear?! LOL. (And if that happens, insert the National. One step ahead.)
Thanks to Reggie for the heads up.
Posted at 2:05 PM
Tags: Feist | Kanye West | Twista
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what the hell?
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You're out of your element, Kanye!
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Man, I'm sick of Kanye. This reeks of trying too hard, while at the same time it's like he's just phoning it in at this point. It's just plain lazy sampling. The daft punk thing is the same BS. He's not as hip as he thinks he is...
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was it even necessary to use feist or was it just so that people would say "Kanye's sampling feist!" Beacause it really seems thrown in there for no other reason...
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makes no sense. such a good song made into incongruous sonic wallpaper.
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Kanye West doesn't care about black people.
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it must be real hard for you people, what with taking yourselves SO DAMN SERIOUSLY all the time. god forbid a hip-hop producer appreciates and samples your sacred and precious feist. honestly, get over yourselves.
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Shockingly terrible.
It sounds like those terrible "mashups" you find on Limewire.
Pitiful use of a beautiful song. And terrible mixing too.
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"god forbid a hip-hop producer appreciates and samples your sacred and precious feist. honestly, get over yourselves."
sampling isn't taking an entire verse as the hook. that's just being a bad (and lazy) producer...sounds similar to another song of his...*cough*...Stronger...*cough*
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ehh...it's a little weak.
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KT- From what I see, it's less about being 'so damn serious,' and it's more about the superfluous nature at which Kanye is sampling "Gatekeeper" here. It just feels like Twista asked Kanye to find a song to toss under his lyrics, they plopped Feist in there, added some ray-gun zaps and bass hits and called it a song. Just picture them sitting in the studio. How long did this track take (including recording Twista rap, which probably took about 4.8 seconds) while the two of them faded from one track to the other? What's lacking is some kind of weaving between "Gatekeeper" and "Well It's Time" (haddta scroll up to even remember the name of this waste of time). So I feel your 'so damn seriously' argument applies to about 85-90% of the discussions that go on here but I think on this one you may be wrong (so far, at least. It's still early...)
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"god forbid a hip-hop producer appreciates and samples your sacred and precious feist."
can we just call it what it is? it isn't "sampling" it's more like hook-jacking. And i would really like to know what part of that he "produced". If by producing all your doing is taking other peoples stuff, then what exactly is it you are producing? Which reminds me of another song of his...*cough*...stronger...*cough*
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It isn't that uncommon for producers to give throwaway tracks to rappers with waning careers... I think most people would agree this is a bad track but it's like judging an artist on their b-sides.
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Thanks KT, I'm with you. People seem to forget how mind-boggling it is that a Feist sample is even showing up on a Twista album, albeit a bonus track. Sure, we know the sample, and the bulk of you act like you're getting taste-raped by hearing this, but let's break it down. Your average Twista album buyer isn't going to know what song is being sample. Lighten up. Look at the big picture. Maybe everyone doesn't feel this way, but I think it's pretty cool that hip-hop people are making songs sampling or collaborating with talented people outside of their genres. Isn't this better than the days of Limp Bizkit/Redman/Method Man/DMX collabs?
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steve- perhaps i am being overly reflexive. reading through the comments, sure seems like the normal blatant "kanye sucks" sentiment, not an astute analysis of whether the sample is well-utilized, your comment excepted. my main problem is everyone assuming kanye sampled this track as a gimmick, and i am OVER the indie snob bullshit game of "my music appreciation cock is bigger/better than yours." maybe he heard/liked/looped the song. who cares? if you don't like it, don't buy it. or, more accurately since we're discussing the stereogum comment crew, don't illegally download it. to "ryan97ou," the portion of the verse he looped for the hook is no longer or shorter than a hundred other examples of sampling since this whole game began. i understand if you don't like it, but don't hate cuz of some imagined subjective standard you've placed on sampling time limits. and i know it's kanye, and he talks too much, but at least he listens to and appreciates good music. isn't everyone always pissing and moaning about hip-hop heads liking and working with crap artists like john mayer and linkin park? at least kanye makes an effort (albeit with a press release, as with everything he does) to seek out and listen to quality stuff that isn't popping of clear channel. and i'm pretty sure miss Top-40 single herself (check Billboard) got paid, as well. and i'm not even defending the track. i thought it was okay, for what it was. my annoyance with the hipster hoi poloi just happened to get unleashed on this here post.
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... and thanks, stafford. that's what i'm talkin bout.
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kingoffresno's comment nails it!
Incongruous sonic wallpaper it is!
Kanye's recent m.o. is to latch onto hip contemporary artist in an attempt to have their coolness/popularity rub off on him. One week it's Daft Punk, another week it's Takashi Murakami, another week it's Zach Galifianakis. This week it's Feist's turn. It's the I'm-cool-by-association approach. Not a bad way to market yourself, but I would like to think that most people will see right through it.
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"as aN LOL punchline"
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To me...this just seems like a lure to hook all of those Jackie-O wearing "Chic Chicks", that's pretty much all I've got on this one.
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Stronger was an amazing sample if you actually listen and compare it to Daft Punk's original, but this is definitely lazy. You can't really blame them though, since they were wise enough to leave this on the cutting room floor and not put it on the album. Someone probably leaked it after seeing Feist's apple commercial...
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Stafford, Is it really that mind boggling to hear Feist mixed into a hip hop track? Really?
There's been plenty of quality mash-ups in the last 5+ years to dispel that notion. I'm a fan of the Girltalk Gizzly Bear-Knife/Clipse-Wamp Wamp track. Listen to it. IT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND STAFFORD!
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mf McNutt - I understand what you're saying but do you really think Kanye needs Feist's popularity to rub off on him? Let's be honest, he is above and beyond (currently of course) pretty much every sampled artist we've discussed in terms of popularity. I agree that a lot of it is smart marketing (the alternate Can't Tell Me Nothing video) but I think it's more a case of Kanye consuming all the art/music/whatever he likes and digesting it to fit into some form of his brand. It's not to make him "cool", it's just to make his music and work stand out above everyone else. See the 'Good Life' video for a perfect example.
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I personally love it when people sample music no matter what they're sampling. However there is good jobs of sampling and bad jobs. I would say this is a marginal job. Personally i just think the tone and mood of the Feist song doesn't really fit well. However I do agree that it's great that Kanye chose Feist instead of Linkin Park. This can only help her career.
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I can't wait to see the indie crowd's reaction when Kanye starts sampling Xiu Xiu/OOIOO/The Microphones/Merzbow next.
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i know someone sampled the first two seconds of mushaboom. i think that would sound cool.
this sounds shitty and half assed.
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@KT - I'm sure my earlier comment is one of the one's inspiring your 'hipster hoi poloi' sort of comments. Let me assure you, it's not about that in the slightest. At least from me. To tell you the truth, I haven't even heard any Feist other than maybe a portion of the (one?) single that they overplay at the mall. I couldn't care less about any 'sacred and precious Feist', or some kind of 'indie cred'.
I'm coming simply from the standpoint of a musician who has used samplers/sampling as part of my work for over 15 years. There's creative ways of doing it that don't involve (as others have mentioned here) snagging entire hooks and putting a simple drum machine beat with it. It's a cheesy attempt at 'crossover' or whatever you wanna call it, and probably cost him a pretty penny to get the rights. It just sounds like a bad mash-up that probably took 20 minutes in the studio. It's not creative, it's lazy, and anyone who has the dough to pay an artist to clear such an outright sample can do it.
That is all.
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I don't have a problem with Kanye sampling Feist. What I have a problem with is Kanye being a shitty producer. This could be cool if it were done right, but it just sounds incongruous and forced.
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Kanye West = Poseur !
All his recent stuff is tres boring.
ca ca ca can someone pls wipe him off the face of the earth
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Sean - His brand is "cool" and he will associate himself with whatever he think makes him cool. I agree he is above and beyond popularity of the artists I listed, but being popular doesn't make you cool which I believe is major part of his end goal. The artists I listed may not have his popularity but they have cool cache that he is tapping into. I don't mean this as a slam against Kanye, but Daft Punk and Feist are arguably superior artists when it comes to originality and talent. Considering his first week record sales dropped off by more than 70% in the second week I think he could use Fiest's popularity to rub off on him.
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It's not as terrible as everyone's saying.
If you like Twista it's a good song, it's on his level.
But who likes Twista?
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When you go platinum in the first week, what sort of drop off do you expect to happen fucktard? Kanye's far more original than Feist could ever be. I doubt he needs anyone's popularity, when hes the champion of the music world right now. Feist would kill if she could sell that many records, but instead she'll whore herself to apple to get her fame while maintaining her fucking indie cred that you faggoty scenesters buy into.
Feist - 1,2,3,4 is a fucking hook for her. That's really original there. Her music is truly life changing. (Hey, look at me, I'm making comments on an artist based on a single song too!)
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what is it that kanye's doing that makes him the champion of the music world?
not this i hope...my ears are bleeding :(
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"what is it that kanye's doing that makes him the champion of the music world?"
Um,... I think it has something to do, uh... with these...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOJ1TsBE5wY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpwgYsYWwdc
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"what is it that kanye's doing that makes him the champion of the music world?"
I wouldn't go that far, but having every post concerning your activities reach the top 10 most commented posts on a popular indie blog... and selling 1 mil first week may have something to do with it.
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Did I just read "faggoty scenesters"? Seriously? Maybe the days of Linkin Park/Limp Bizkit/Hoobastank haven't passed like we thought...
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kanye west sounds like a pepsi commercial.
and the word 'fucktard' is sooper gay.
'faggoty scenesters' is okay.
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I love that someone who so clearly has a hard-on for Kanye will call someone else a faggoty scenester.
Kanye would gladly shove his slow witted tongue up Steve Jobs' ass and give it a few twirls to get the exposure Feist is getting.
My comments are not based on a single song. There is a reason why he is considered derisively as the P Diddy of the 00's. Selling a million records doesn't validate the quality of his music. McDonalds (I use the this reference cause the dude compared himself to McD's) has probably sold a million hamburgers in the time it takes to write this, but it doesn't mean what they serve is good. Like McDonalds, what Kanye serves up contains alot of fecal matter.
Hate to break it to you, but Reba McEntire replaced Kanye as number one on the billboard charts the following week. Bow down to your "champion of the music world"
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mcnutt, ha! how's the soundtrack to high school musical 2 doing?
popularity and quality are obviously not even correlated. (duh.)
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I thought only 30 year old preggers women listed to Feist.
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"hook-jacking." i like that.
this is a decent hook-jack.
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kanye west is the leslie feist of hip-hop
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People seem to forget how mind boggling it would be to hear a hip hop "producer" playing an actual instrument and writing his or her own hook. Not to say the sampler isn't an instrument, but it is just a box of circuitry as much as a guitar is a just piece of wood in the wrong hands.
Dr. Dre knows how to work a synth well enough to get a nice whiny lead line. When does his new record come out?
Why is it that recontextualisation (or blatant lifting) is seen as creative and those in the trenches using their fingers for more than mouse clicks only receive second hand recognition?
I find it insulting to the mass intelligence that Kanye can't be bothered to work on being a songwriter and can just get by on cheating. I find it even more insulting that he thinks enough people are willing to pay $18.00 for it.
And they did, which is the worst part.
This country is fucked.
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Kanye blows. This shit sucks.
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Kanye blows. This shit sucks.
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sure the song sucks ass, but what's even to discuss? it's obviously retarded but who cares? just let feist get her royalties kids.
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whatever i liked it
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Hahha, this reminds me of when Bubba SParxx sampled yonder mountain string band
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well...4 those dem haters ... just try to be more open minded and try to like more things...
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All your bitching won't make this song go away.
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