Code of the Beats: No Sample Snitching Spotify

Words by Matthew Spence:

Plaintiff: Hip Hop

A genre and cultural movement. After an outstanding bomb-ass year in quality music and noise in pop culture (making Mama proud), it done got switched up on, evolution style, and has been getting jumped in music discourse for a decent portion of 2025 and is looking for “40 acres and a mule” in rewards for damages or at least “peace of mind in a Band-Aid like Goddamn.”

Defendant: The People

Consumers who, when the chips are down, decide to try to make the plaintiff live in Dante’s Inferno by unleashing verbal ass kickings and cultural decisions that can deeply reshape the plaintiff’s appearance, like Vanilla Sky. Its defense: “Man… I was FUCKED UP.”

Defending the people: DaBaby’s Lawyer

Representing the plaintiff is the last-minute lawyer hired because Young Thug’s lawyer was too expensive… Who’s not here yet…?

[5 Mins Later]

 

OK! I’M HERE… Sorry, I’m late; this is like my 5th case today, and I may or may not have been a defendant for three of the other four cases. No matter, I’m here. Let me fix up my tie. <clears throat>

Now my client here has been tunneling through the sewers of slander and defamation for a good chunk of 2025, and now more than ever, we need more defendants standing on the front line taking all the eggs and water balloons thrown their way. Panic at the Billboard charts because all of a sudden people give a f*** about the Billboard charts; annoyance of aftershocks from the Drake versus Kendrick discourse; and last but not least, the dreaded “Hip Hop Is Dead” convo is being reignited once a-fucking-gain. Every decade it comes back like IT. However, in the spree of annoyances thrown in the way, 2025 is closing out the year with shite news and opening the doors for a new and improved way to f****** Hip Hop next year by implementing, increasing, and signaling the Hip Hop Police.

Hootie hoo all the homies while you can; [fuck] Spotify and WhoSampled are getting ready to raid your basement, not for dope but for AKAI MPCs and vinyl crates.

 

 

[Fuck] Spotify announced in November of 2025 that it has acquired the website we love to hate but hate to love. The infamous sample-sharing website “WhoSampled.” Acquiring with plans to launch a new feature called “SongDNA,” which will “grayscale and centralize samples and covers of songs based on the WhoSampled database.”

 

Now you’re wondering, why the digital panic? AM I PANICKING?!?!? Eh, I’m chilling with an edge. But with justifiable reasoning. As this deal seems mundane for some, inoffensive to others, and in fact neat for the rest, I, like a good percentage of rap fans out there, see this as a summoning of danger to and for the creatives in hip hop, trip hop, and so on. The backbone. Beat makers and producers. Conjuring up the spirits of unfulfilled lawyers within the Ouija board and giving an invitation to the uninvited. This deal between the two companies can lead to a code of conduct violation in hip-hop. Sample snitching.

Cherrian Dictionary
Word of the day: Sample Snitchin’

Now, many people have a couple of interpretations of the word; however, I define it as “publicly disclosing the original source of a sample without permission of the producer, leaving possibilities of a lawsuit/legal action over said sample”.

No one likes a Sample Snitch

 

 

Since the day of inception, hip hop has always faced adversities just as much as the people who partake in it and pioneered it; however, sample snitching and sample issues are some of the OG problems hip hop has dealt with, and it seems it’s going to be peddling that bike a bit faster now as WhoSampled goes under the [fuck] Spotify umbrella. An unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

A long time ago, in a decade filled with the burdened Reagan, Crack, and AIDS, the ’80s also offered some great artistic output, with hip hop solely getting its first steps, and by the late ’80s, it was an Olympic track star in terms of beats and rappers they were birthing at the time.

Sampling laws weren’t stuck in a vice grip; therefore, it was a free fall, and shit was up for grabs. Already, there was a war on sampling, let alone hip hop, as many, and I mean MANY, saw the emerging genre as a hack of a genre that doesn’t originate but just steals other artists’ work (Does hating offer overtime?). However, everyone within it knew it was an artistic expression that took transformity and being resourceful and presented them as superpowers. From James Brown to disco breaks to Led Zeppelin drum loops, hip hop producers took their favorite records and ultimately showed the world an unlocked music skillset, all without needing to go to institutions and knowing dick about music theory (well, for the most part).

What the pioneers were doing in the early stages was very important, but by the late ’80s, they set the tone of dopeness. New innovative tech came along, and samplers came along, and producers like Prince Paul, the Bomb Squad, the Dust Brothers, and Dr. Dre revolutionized and artistically pushed back what was deemed to be the bottom of the barrel of art. Creating what can be labeled as sampadelia, albums like Paul’s Boutique by the Beastie Boys and De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising are not only genre-defining and pioneering albums but also epitomize what hip-hop can accomplish with free range and more leverage and access to samples, as these two albums contain 300 to 400 samples combined. From the Beatles to Otis Redding to Cheech and Chong, the Dust B. and Prince Paul highlight that it’s not just picking random songs out of thin air and hoping shit will stick, but solving an audio puzzle quicker that only a small percentage can solve.

 

 

88 to 90 will be the peak of experimentation, but what goes up, all falls down; they fucked up, and the industry was getting its get-back. Producers/artists were getting a little carried away and met a Scarface ending. As for those landmark artists and albums, such as 3 Feet High and Biz Markie, they would be hit with lawsuits in 1991 for uncleared samples that would forever alter the trajectory of the sample clearances, marking a permanent end to sampling all willy-nilly. Now don’t get it twisted; even back then, samples had to be cleared, but at least you had a better shot of getting them cleared. For the most part.

The price of sampling was way more in one’s price range and affordable vs. these present times, making albums like 3 Feet High and Rising and Paul’s Boutique less possible than winning the lottery and getting struck by lightning at the same damn time. No matter how many people a label has on payroll to clear samples, it could be a million people.

Post-1991 lawsuit, Biz was fucked out of $200,000, but hip-hop learned how to work smarter, not harder.

Over the course of time, hip-hop has had its fair share of sampling fiascos and inconveniences and downright sadness; however, generally by the 2010s and up, with the independent circuit getting more prominent, sample snitching became just an unspoken rule. However, with [fuck] Spotify’s latest endeavor, it can lead to more bugs on people’s backs. A billion-dollar music streaming company that has ties and connections to damn near every major music entity has implemented a system to highlight samples of records for artists who may not be racking in Drake-level money… sounds like a rap nerd’s hell next to arguing with a Kanye stan.

 

We’ve reached critical mode. A main issue here is with sample snitching, and exposing the samples of hip hop songs can lead to a floodgate of lawsuits that border between opportunistic and unfair, especially regarding the underground and indie hip hop artists/producers, which sparks the contrast between those who “don’t clear a sample” versus those “who can’t.” If Jay-Z has an uncleared sample, it’s not because he can’t; it’s because he didn’t. Like, dawg, he has the money. Now, if MIKE or AKAI SOLO have uncleared samples, that’s not because they don’t want to clear them, but they probably can’t for a few reasons.

Often in these times of abstract and obscure crate digging, hip hop producers and beat makers find and sample records of artists that are a little too unknown in the grand scheme of music culture. Perhaps these artists are dead, or these labels they were released under are defunct after decades and didn’t get transferred over to another label, and they’re unable to contact the estate of said artists. Factors like these aren’t so uncommon as to why some may not clear a sample. Because who the f*** do I call, Ghostbusters? Usher? Colin Farrell?

On the latter, there’s the price tag Jessie J always talked about. A major point of contention is that the original creator of the sample—as much as we respect their art and what they’ve created, we give them a side eye for how they may treat the creators. Instead of meeting halfway, there are plenty of situations where producers and labels have had to pay an extreme fee, even if it’s an itty-bitty two-second piece of music.

 

 

 

And we haven’t even scratched the surface of every instance of artists who have straight-up lost songwriter credits and royalties due to the originators not wanting to clear the sample in any other circumstance or agreement. A Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I Kick It?” might as well have been a charity song because, according to member Phife Dawg, they never made a single dime off it because the label mistakenly didn’t clear the sample before release. So Lou Reed did clear it, but only as long as he gets all the royalties. Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz wrote an NY anthem, just for Steely Dan to get all the royalties and songwriting credits in order to clear the sample. And let’s not even get started with The Verve vs. Rolling Stone with “Bittersweet Symphony.” While not a hip hop act or trip hop group or anything of that nature, this is still an infamous story nonetheless, regarding sampling in the industry, but many others have told that story and tell it better. I’ll just leave it at fuck Allen Klein.

Now, obviously, people can do whatever they want with their art, give it whatever value they please, and gatekeep to only Cameron Crowe, like Led Zeppelin. Maybe the song was trash, or they don’t agree with the song or the artist’s viewpoints within and outside the music. Would you let Kanye sample you these days?

Nonetheless, not every person can afford big upfront payments, lawsuits, and big payouts, so best believe people are going to chop and manipulate samples enough to unrecognizable lengths. Not only due to pure creative talent, but also not trying to get sued for $500,000. When in doubt, keep it on the low.

So once WhoSampled is under [Fuck] Spotify, industry folks in entities are going to be searching harder than Reagan during Watergate; all they need is one person to get caught lacking. Ultimately, it will lead to just another uphill battle of having to prove that sample-based producers aren’t just thieves in the night but ear-trained creatives who perfected the talent of sonic patchwork.

<Dramatic Exhale> Ok, let’s not really make it seem there’s a Butch Cassidy and Sundance Duo (even though it kind of is); there’s one villain, Spotify. Fuck Spotify. The anti-hero WhoSampled. The latter isn’t inherently a bad site; in fact, it really is for the sample nerds, beat lovers, and music connoisseurs. Now, sure, it is the main instigator in sample snitching; however, that’s not its main intention, much like sample shares to begin with.

They’ve gone on record to clarify what their mission statement is and take on the task of making sure their site isn’t used for legal action or used to cause legal trouble. Just like the creators of the site and the visitors, sample nerds are generally the main culprits but yet genuine ones, which leads to this double-edged sword. The general act of sample sharing is rarely ever malicious or intended to cause trouble for said producers; in fact, it is supposed to be a communal act giving undivided love and attention to the craft of sample flipping/chopping and sample picking. We just love music, yo. Open up a new fandom to the original artist/source that starts the family tree, and leave people in a hyperfixation loop of comprehending how they spliced all those samples together. A space for fans to just express their geek.

 

Enter the trouble: Niggas are dry snitching basically. And no one likes a tattletale.

Ultimately, directing slight issues to the sample-based artists, like air traffic controllers

 

Q-Tip taught industry caution; we’ve seen thousands of episodes of Behind the Music, 400 artist crashouts, and [fuck] Spotify screwing artists with just a fraction of a penny. By now, 2025, we know the music industry is shady and f**** over plenty, and I mean PLENTY. Physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially. But let’s not take that route. Sample-based artists aren’t foreigners to that, however, as time goes on, and now we’re witnessing the New Gen take charge, having grown up with or on hip hop and musically stretching from two different sides of sound. It’s comforting knowing years from now the samplers sampling the samplers will not need to worry too hard, as those who know what it is and respect and appreciate the craft. The revolution will not be denied.