I Challenge You to Find the Eddie Bo Sample on “Run This Town” Posted by Nathan S. on 11/07/13 | Filed under Jay-Z, Rap Nerdery, Production Breakdown

Sweet baby jesus I'm not a DJ, producer or crate digger - I have far too much respect for those who are to claim that title - but I would call identifying samples a hobby. An absurdly rap nerd hobby, but a hobby. Figuring out a sample in a song brings with it the same (nerdy) rush of excitement and pride as solving a Rubik's cube. 

So when I saw a story on Pigeons and Planes that Jay Z (and company) are currently being sued over allegedly using an uncleared sample in his Grammy winning hit "Run This Town", I had to take a listen. 

The lawsuit, brought by TufAmerica Inc., alleges that Jay used dozens of samples from New Orleans singer Eddie Bo's 1969 song "The Hook and Sling". Now, you'd think that if there are so many uses of the sample in "Run This Town" I'd at least be able to place one, but nope. Even with my headphones pressed into my ears like that's somehow the extra 4 centimeters closer the speaker is to my eardrum is going to make my brain work better, I just can't find anything. 

So what's going on here? Is TunAmerica's suit just completely bogus and there's no "Hook and Sling" in "Run This Town"? Did Jay used the song, but it's so more changed and distorted than my rookie ears can hear? A little bit of both? According to WhoSampled, it's the vocal "oh!" at the 0:03 second mark of "Hook & Sling" that appears at the 1:01 mark of "Run This Town" but...I don't know...it still sounds really iffy to me. And even if you were Eddie Bo himself (who passed away in '09, rest in peace), how would you possibly be able to tell that's yours?   

Well since my powers of detection are so limited, I thought it'd only be right to turn to RefinedHype Nation. You people never fail to prove how much more you know than me about basically everything. So my people - can you hear the samples? Is TufAmerica right? 

* Related note, according to WhoSampled, "Run This Town" also samples "Someday in Athens" by 4 Levels of Existence. Now that sample I can hear.  

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