Dark Sky Paradise dropped earlier this week, with Big Sean set to move just under 150,000 copies, and now comes time to break it down on "Samples Of The Week." Although the album is a bit darker and more modern-sounding than Hall Of Fame and Finally Famous, it still makes use of some dope samples, with producers Kanye West and Key Wane digging some gold out of the crates. We already covered Drake's George Strait-referencing lyrics on "Blessings" and Mr. West's flip of D.J. Rogers' "Say You Love Me, One More Time" on "IDFWU" in previous weeks, so now it's time to get into the deeper cuts.
Read on to get the scoop on the source material for some of Dark Sky Paradise's finest beats.
DSP
A sure highlight of DSP, "All Your Fault" sees Kanye getting back to his chipmunk soul and rappity-rap beginnings. Although still sounding trendy and featuring some robotic vocals from Travi$ Scott, the song is built around a 1978 song by the group Ambrosia. "How Much I Feel" is the sample here, and it's one of the best we've heard from Kanye in quite some time.
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For the sultry Chris Brown/Ty Dolla $ign collab, "Play No Games," Key Wane copped a bit of '80s R&B to provide a nice backdrop for the retro-sounding track. Sampling a 1988 song called "Piece Of My Love" by the trio Guy (who counted Teddy Riley as a member), Wane does an amazing job of synthesizing the old with the new.
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More so than any other track on the album, "Outro" saw Sean returning to his more boom-bap-driven roots. Fittingly enough, it's also the song with the most samples. The most prominent is that of Darondo's 1973 jam "Didn't I," which provides guitar and vocals; the drums come from Tom Scott & The L.A. Express' "Sneakin' In The Back;" some lyrics are interpolated from Janet Jackson and Q-Tip's "Got 'Til It's Gone;" the last additional sample is taken from Nipsey Hussle's "Crenshaw And Slausen (True Story)." United together by DJ Dahi, all of these seemingly disparate elements form a smooth, undeniably fun beat.
