Production Breakdown: Rap’s Newfound Love Affair With English Samples

First and foremost, as you've already noticed, the homey Richard is out this week so I'm picking up "Production Breakdown". Replacing Richard's knowledge of samples and production with mine is like replacing Dwight Howard with Greg Ostertag, but I did have one subject on my mind I wanted to touch on; rap's growing love affair with English pop and R&B.

While American rappers still refuse to truly except any English rappers, they are falling all over themselves to include other English artists on their records. For example, as odd as it may seem at first, Adele has become hands down the new favorite singer for producers to sample, probably because she sings American soul better than any American soul singer. Her "Hometown" has been sampled by everyone from Big Sean to Big K.R.I.T., and you can't turn around without hitting a "Rolling in the Deep" remix.







Now that Adele samples are becoming so standard they're losing their "unexpected" appeal and producer are digging a little deeper. If I were a betting man, and I am, I've got money that says Florence and the Machine becomes the next Adele.




And of course Noah "40" Shebib opened the door to a host of new samples of electro/pop/etc. artist Jai Paul by including him on Drake's "Dreams Money Can Buy".




I know Richard would have included 700 more examples, including a complete breakdown of British soul, but that's about as deep as my meager sample knowledge goes. Anyone else got some more examples of rap records with British samples? Show off your production breakdown skills in the comments below.