Friday Flips: The Sample History Behind R.F.C.‘s ‘Royal Burn” Posted by Nathan S. on 03/22/13 | Filed under Opinion, Production Breakdown, Friday Flips

Every week a new dope beat drops containing a sample 98% of the non-rap-nerd listening public would never recognize. So it was only right that I teamed up with my fellow rap nerds Takin Mines for our new "Friday Flips" series.

Every Friday we'll break down the production history of one of the week's "biggest" tracks, this week tackling 183rd's grab of some classic Jerry Rivera for his new "Royal Burn" joint:



Nathan S. (Refined Hype):

We’ve all been there…ok, maybe we ALL haven’t been there, but Hip-Hop heads old enough to actually remember the Reagan presidency have all been there. You’re in the spot when you hear that horn line – you know, that horn line. The one that sounds like a cavalry of trumpets announcing the arrival of a Central American dictator. Oh shit, you think. The DJs about to play some Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz “Déjà vu (Uptown Baby)”! And then the horn section fades and…in steps Shakira’s “Hip’s Don’t Lie”.



In retrospect it’s not hard to imagine where Wyclef got the idea to flip Rivera’s classic horn intro into a pop hit. As someone who lived in NYC in the late ‘90s, it would have been essentially impossible for Clef to have avoided “Déjà Vu”, especially with the almighty Diddy coming through for the remix.

Now I know a lot of my rap nerd brethren throw up in their mouth a little bit every time they hear Shakira’s version, but I’m not nearly so hostile. (Although if anyone ever heard “Uptown Baby” and said, “They stole that horn section from Shakira” I’d probably have a Harbaugh-level meltdown.)

Wyclef using the Rivera horns for a Latina singer feels like it completes the sample circle of life, a circle that now includes everyone from Smoke DZA to Shakira. Plus, it gives us all a chance to watch the “Hips Don’t Lie” video again, even if on mute. So, you know, we’ve got that going for us.

Steez (Takin’ Mines)
Nathan, I for one have definitely fallen for that okie doke, where I’ll be all up in the club sippin’ on some bub, and alas, I’ll here those epically delightful Rivera horns, where 99.9% of the time (unless I’m at Sutra on a Tuesday night) Shakira comes to crash the party on some straight ‘bitch, don’t kill my vibe’ type shit.. word to K.Dot. I'm like a Pavlovian dog that salivates to the sound of the bell, only to be brought some bullshit ass Alpo when I've brought up on that good ol' Iams.

As for completing the sample circle of life, I doubt that KNS, the production duo responsible for "Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)" ever would have thought that there sampling sensibilities would be reincarnated (well.. partly) eight years later by Wyclef. However, what makes this circle even smaller is that Wyclef is in fact connected directly with "Deja Vu," where the the carnival frontman can be seen in the video introducing the uptown duo at Yankee Stadium for the song's intro. Although the connection here I would imagine stems through their affiliation to Columbia Records at the time, them dudes definitely got Yéle'd by Clef who thought, "let me make a hit record for Shakira, by using the intro from another hit record, that was originally a hit record." Look, I'm all about sampling samples that have been sampled, by why you gotta throw a lifelong Jedi mind trick on my ass.. you're fuckin' up my late adolescent memories dick! You could've at least used a pitch bend or some shit.

Sidenote.. did you know there was an Ayatollah Remix to "Deja Vu" - not sure if it was on the vinyl as the pair I got were some bootlegs. Word to Rock and Soul.

In summation, I'm more mad at Wyclef for the perpetual mind fuck than I am for 183rd for flipping "Amores Como El Nuestro" into a trap beat, it's ironic, and people like irony. And on that shameless plug, I'm out.. enjoy your weekend sportsfans, go Hoosiers!

See Also:  Friday Flips: The Sample History Behind J. Cole’s “Crunch Time”
See Also:  Friday Flips: The Sample History Behind French Montana’s “Freaks”