Pitchfork writer Alphonse Pierre’s rap column covers songs, mixtapes, albums, Instagram freestyles, memes, weird tweets, fashion trends—and anything else that catches his attention.
The good, the bad, and the completely shameless of sample drill, New York’s most popping rap trend
For years, from Chicago to London to Brooklyn, drill music production has been characterized by its blunt force—sputtering drums and gliding 808s and not much else. But in New York, all that is changing, and a style that’s been lazily branded “sample drill” is the sound of the moment. Over the last several months, an overwhelming amount of New York drill singles have featured easily detectable samples, including B Lovee’s “IYKYK” (which flips Wayne Wonder’s “No Letting Go”) and Kay Flock’s “Being Honest” (XXXTenatacion’s “Changes”). Yes, it’s a silly trend, but it’s also a Hail Mary for a scene that was running on fumes.
Following the murder of Pop Smoke in early 2020, Brooklyn’s drill scene went into a rut: The UK drill-influenced beats popularized by Pop and his producer 808 Melo were played out, and the scene was so desperate for Pop’s rumbling voice that people started looking to imitators like Quelly Woo and Dusty Locane. Around the same time, Sleepy Hallow’s “Deep End Freestyle” went viral on TikTok, where the subgenre is incredibly present. Produced by Sleepy’s in-house beatmaker Great John, the beat loops a vocal snippet of the singer Foushée that the producer found on a pack of free samples on the music platform Splice. The song’s appeal on TikTok had less to do with Sleepy’s raps than the way the feathery sample lingered before a thunderous drop. It became one of Brooklyn drill’s biggest rap songs before it even had an official release, and it set a blueprint in the process.
In the summer of 2020 a pair of catchy A Lau-produced Brooklyn drill records that incorporated manipulated vocal samples hit the web in Tazzo B’s “Bang Bang” and Bizzy Banks’ “Extra Sturdy.” Then Staten Island rapper CJ almost killed the trend before it really got started with the embarrassingly bad “Whoopty,” which rode a sample of Arijit Singh and Mithoon’s Bollywood track “Sanam Re” into the Top 10.
Meanwhile over in Queens, Shawny Binladen, YTB, and their producers—most importantly the Bronx’s Cash Cobain—twisted the trend by using samples that were immediately recognizable, copyright be damned. Shawny’s 2020 mixtape Merry Wickmas features instrumentals that smoothly rework JAY-Z’s “Can I Live,” Snoop Dogg’s “Gin & Juice,” Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day,” and more. The deluxe edition is even better, as Shawny and company tap into their New York roots by slicing up soul samples and reimagining songs from the past in a way that fits into their drill-leaning sound (check the Barbra Streisand-sampling “Memories”). It began as a gimmick, but in the process Shawny figured out a balance that made his best-executed tracks more than a novelty: The song had to have appeal beyond the sample, and they often did because of his punishing delivery, slick punchlines, and replayably short runtimes.
Shawny, Cash, and crew would establish a foundation that led to the South Bronx’s drill explosion this past summer. Leading the charge are B Lovee and Kay Flock, who have been laying down ruthless diss tracks on flips of reggae, R&B, and pop hits for months. It’s been hit-and-miss. On tracks like “IYKYK” and “Being Honest,” B Lovee and Kay Flock have the energy and personality to give the song punch beyond the sample. Others haven’t been as successful: C Blu’s “Irreplaceable” (sample: Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable”) and Dthang’s “Talk Facts” (Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know”) are lazy, not looped as cleanly as Great John’s “Deep End Freestyle” and without the vision of the beats Cash often gives to Shawny.