Photo by Aaron J. Thornton/WireImage
If you log onto the website promoting Tory Lanez’s 2019 release, Chixtape 5, it feels like being launched into a MySpace time capsule. The site is decked out with an airbrushed layout, and Tory’s “friend space”—boasting the likes of Mya, Fabolous, and Ashanti—looks like the names off a tracklist for a Now That’s What I Call Music compilation from another era. The site’s aesthetic reflects the album’s, which contains 30 to 40 samples of hip-hop and R&B hits from the early 2000s reimagined into Lanez’s own style. On each track, he enlists the sampled artist to join in on the throwback fun.
A majority of the samples on Chixtape 5 are taken from hits from the early 2000s. On “Best of You//Busted (Skit),” Lanez is joined by Mya to flip her 2000 track “Best of Me.” Later on, cover darling Ashanti graces “A Fools Tale (Running Back),” which samples her 2002 song “Foolish.” He revamps classic songs with a contemporary take across 18 tracks, impressively wrangling up over a dozen free features for a commercial homage to a bygone era.
Tory isn’t the only one looking to the early 2000s for inspiration. In 2019, a variety of artists helped bring back the sound and style of early-2000s hip-hop and R&B. This trend is likely to continue in 2020—Pop Smoke recently sampled both Joe Budden’s “Pump It Up” and 50 Cent’s “Window Shopper.” Along with 2000s fashion and technology, some of the new millennium’s biggest hits are back via new artists who grew up with those songs.
Two years after her Khia-sampling debut single, “ICY GRL,” Bay Area favorite Saweetie hit the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time with 2019’s “My Type.” The song flipped Petey Pablo’s 2003 hit, “Freek-A-Leek,” and reached No. 21 on the chart. She later joined forces with Pablo and “Freek-A-Leek” producer Lil Jon for a mash-up performance of “My Type” at the 2019 BET Hip-Hop Awards. Similar girl-power braggadocio premiered at the beginning of 2019 on the Cardi B-assisted City Girls’ single “Twerk.” Just months ahead of Spring Break, Yung Miami and Cardi B hit the beach for an all-out twerk contest set to a sample of 2002 New Orleans classic, “Choppa Style.”
The influence of the 2000s also appeared in lyrics last year. Smino named his 2019 track, “Trina,” after the Miami stalwart. He referenced the Florida rapper, her Slip-N-Slide Records copilot Trick Daddy, and tracks like “Pull Over” and “Take It to Da House,” with lines like:
That was my first time in Miami
Shawty played the Trina, like “Bitch, I’m da baddest” (Woo, woo)
Pull over, that ass too fat, baby
Gold in my mouth like Trick Daddy (Oh)
Slipp slidin', might take you to the house
Put it down, she don’t know none, nigga
Trina isn’t the only 2000s rapper who younger artists have referenced by name. Three 6 Mafia is already recognized as one of the most influential groups on the sound of hip-hop today, and in 2019 Denzel Curry name dropped the Memphis legends on his single “RICKY.” Meanwhile, Megan Thee Stallion’s 2019 project, Fever, was executive produced by Three Six Mafia member Juicy J. She wore the influence proudly, sampling Three 6’s “Weak Ass Bitch” for her own song “W.A.B.”
The influence of the aughts doesn’t just appear with obvious homages like musical samples or lyrical shoutouts either; sometimes it’s a bit more subtle. Rico Nasty made waves with her most recent EP, Anger Management, where she flipped JAY-Z’s 2003 track “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” on “Hatin.” Much like Nasty’s repurpose of N.O.R.E.’s “Superthug” on “Countin’ Up” from her debut album, Nasty, she mimics Jay-Z rhyme scheme, showcasing how early 200s flows are finding their way into new music, too:
If you feelin' like a boss bitch, go'n
Go to the club, leave that nigga at home
If you got your own shit, you ain’t ever gotta listen to him, girl
Niggas be hatin' on bitches
Feminist anthems with early-2000s resonance aren’t solely reserved for hip-hop, either; they’ve also appeared on R&B cuts in 2019. Launching her official debut as a solo act, former Fifth Harmony member Normani made a splash with “Motivation,” complete with references to early-2000s pop videos like Ciara’s 2004 song, “Goodies,” and Beyoncé’s 2003 hit, “Crazy in Love.” With the co-writer Ariana Grande in tow, “Motivation” entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 33.
Artists didn’t just draw from their own genre. Last year we saw old R&B hits flipped into rap songs, and old rap hits flipped into R&B songs. Following controversy over similarities between “7 rings” and his 2011 song “Spend It,” 2 Chainz smoothed things over with Ariana Grande and later recruited her for “Rule the World” from his 2019 album, Rap or Go to the League. The song samples Amerie’s 2002 single “Why Don’t We Fall in Love.”
In one crucial way, 2 Chainz is an outlier in this trend. At 42-years-old he’s by far the oldest artist to engage in 2000s nostalgia. Every single other artist on this list was born in the ’90s. Chainz’ collaborator Ariana is only 26, and artists like Denzel Curry and Rico Nasty are under 25—barely old enough to remember dial-up internet, the Clinton impeachment, or 9/11.
The youngest person to pick up the 2000s mantle is British songstress Mahalia. The 21-years-old joined forces with Ella Mai on “What You Did,” which samples Cam'ron and Juelz Santana’s 2002 smash “Oh Boy.” Considering that Mahalia was roughly 4-years-old when Cam’Ron’s song hit No. 4 on the Hot 100 in 2002, it’s unlikely she remembers the song’s commercial peak. Nevertheless, the track’s distinctive hook makes an appearance during the song’s outro:
I would never, I would never do it, baby
(After all, you’ve had your fun; oh boy)
(Don’t try/change my mind, please)
Don’t try change my mind
(Baby, me and you are done)
Me and you are done
(Boy, oh boy)
Much like Tory Lanez tagging early-2000s features on Chixtape 5, Kehlani’s surprise mixtape, While We Wait, reintroduced neo-soul balladeer Musiq Soulchild to the masses on opener “Footsteps.” Kehlani is adept at blending R&B classics into new-age territory, and while B2K heartthrob Omarion wasn’t featured on “Footsteps,” Kehlani sang a subtle interpolation of his 2006 single, “Ice Box” when she sang:
And I really wanna work this out ‘cause I’m tired of fightin’
And I really hope you still want me the way I want you
What does it mean that 2000s nostalgia is taking hold now? If anything, it’s mostly just a reflection of demographics. Just like the 2010s were spent freaking out about how millennials were destroying everything, Gen X sold out, and boomers destroyed the world, the 2020s are poised to be the era of reactions to the rise of Gen Z. The ’90s babies are all grown up and staking out their own legacies, so it’s only natural their rises are indebted to the music and culture they grew up with. Studies show that our musical tastes set in the most from ages 10-15, so it’s no surprise that many of the artists cited in this piece were kids when the songs they’re now sampling were released.
For a certain percentage of the older audience, the hits of yesteryear coming back in rotation may feel lazy, but sampling has always been an essential part of hip-hop music. If you’re old enough to actually remember the ’90s, it’s like déjà vu all over again.
In the late ’90s—before Yung Miami knew how to twerk or Denzel Curry had grown dreadlocks—Diddy was in his late-20s. Back then his moniker was Puff Daddy, and he arguably took hip-hop nostalgia to its commercial apex. Puffy, and the talented roster on Bad Boy, ran the charts by repurposing ’70s and ’80s hits like The Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance,” and Diana Ross’ “I’m Coming Out.” The formula became so predictable, Ma$e even boasted about it when they sampled Miami Sound Machine’s 1985 track “Bad Boy” on “Feel So Good,” rapping:
Do Mase got the ladies? (Yeah, yeah)
Do Puff drive Mercedes? (Yeah, yeah)
Take hits from the ‘80s? (Yeah, yeah)
But do it sound so crazy? (Yeah, yeah)
Another ’80s track Puffy flipped was DeBarge’s 1983 song “Stay With Me,” which he sampled for the 1994 remix of The Notorious B.I.G.’s “One More Chance.” Biggie’s song would later serve as inspiration for Ashanti’s 2002 song “Foolish”—the very song Tory Lanez sampled in 2019. As the cycle continues, it’s important to remember Puffy had his time, just like Tory, Rico, and Megan are having theirs now. We’ll mint plenty of new stars this decade, so early 2000s samples and references are likely to continue to pop up. But don’t be surprised when a few years from now, 2010s songs show up in the hits of tomorrow. Some things are just timeless.
