Via Billboard.com
James Brown returned to a Billboard chart thanks to a prominent sample. Luther Vandross and Cheryl Lynn did not. When it comes to samples, "everything is negotiable."
James Brown performs onstage at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 6, 1969 in Newport, Rhode Island. Tom Copi/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
In early March, a new James Brown recording strutted onto a Billboard chart for the first time in more than three decades. But Brown, the incendiary funk pioneer who died in 2006, wasn’t going viral on TikTok or putting out albums of previously unreleased material. Instead, he had been sampled by the rapper 310babii, who credited the Godfather of Soul as a featured artist on the new track, titled “Bad.” When the single subsequently hit the Rhythmic Airplay chart, Brown came along for the ride.
A prominent credit for a sampled act has the potential to propel an older name back into the conversation for “a whole new, young audience of fans,” says Karla Redding–Andrews, daughter of Otis Redding. For legacy acts or artist estates, getting such exposure is more valuable than ever: It can frictionlessly translate into consumption at a time when listening to catalog tracks on streaming platforms is as easy as pulling up last week’s releases. And now that artists’ name and likeness rights have become a more desirable commodity for the investor class, a new wave of listeners raises the value of those rights.
Getting a credit for a sampled vocalist isn’t easy, though. “Most people don’t want to credit samples [in that way],” says Rob Sevier, co-founder of Numero Group, which gets about three sample requests a week.
To prevail in clearance negotiations, the sampled artist needs leverage and a good lawyer. And negotiations can be charged. “All clearances are emotional,” explains Deborah Mannis-Gardner, president of DMG Clearances. “Someone either wrote this song or they recorded it — it’s their baby. [In many cases,] it’s up to them to decide, do they want it altered by it being incorporated into another song?”
They can benefit by saying yes. Sampled artists who get co-billing raise their profile on streaming services. On Spotify, if an act is credited as a collaborator on both the “product level” (where the artists are listed under the title of the single) and the “track level” (where the artists are listed below and to the right of the “play” button), any plays count towards their “monthly listener” number. For an estate that no longer puts out previously unreleased music, this is a way to pump up an often-cited metric on a popular platform
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