Chance The Rapper's "All Night" will be the cause of many a summer hangover and "Angels" makes me feel like a new man, but truthfully, a song that didn’t even make it onto Coloring Book is my favorite.
That title belongs to “Grown Ass Kid,” an outstanding, Cam O'bi-produced effort featuring Mick Jenkins and Alex Wiley, which has received multiple spins on the daily since it leaked on the eve of the release of Coloring Book. It's bittersweet that the same thing I love about the song - the sample of Roberta Flack’s "If Only for One Night" - is also the reason why it couldn't be included on the final draft.
Though “Grown Ass Kid” is the latest example of a song that didn't make it onto an album due to sampling clearance it’s certainly not the first. In light of “Grown Ass Kid” and my conversation with Deborah Mannis-Gardner, one of the premiere sample clearance agents in music, I've been obsessed with sample clearance lately, and that obsession has now turned into me compiling a collection of songs that were forced off albums and into orphanages because someone didn't sign off on the sample.
When Nathan and I were discussing this idea, “Control” was one of the first sample casualties that came to mind.
Considering the political origins of the sampled chant - "¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!" ("The people united will never be defeated") - was written in support of Salvador Allende, a 1970’s Socialist Chilean politician, it's not at all surprising that it was a tough clear for a rapper who once said he had a “hundred inch
If Sean had been more patient, however, the No I.D.-produced effort could have had a home on Hall Of Fame
“I wanted it to be a part of the album, but unfortunately weak sh*t happens all the time. It happened on my first album and this is one of the songs I really made an effort to make good and I wanted to have a snapping ass song, eight-minute song on my album...they was like ‘Yo, basically it came down to you either gonna have to push your sh*t back to have this song or we gonna try and figure the sample out.’ Or you know I was like ‘fu*k it, I’ll hold it.’ But then I was like I can’t hold this song. It’s something special, so I just dropped it…I knew what it was for the culture of Hip Hop.” - (via HipHopDX)
Sometimes samples are straight up denied (see Prince) but in this instance it was a matter of timing. It’s interesting, given the significance of the song, and that Sean chose not to wait...maybe this was his out? Releasing "Control" early allowed him to unleash the song without having the best verse on his own album not be his. Regardless, while “Control” is without question one of the most recent, well known examples of a song not making an album due to a sample, it is far from alone.
Though tens of rappers tried their hand at a "Control" response, it was Big K.R.I.T.'s non-response, “Mt. Olympus,” that really turned heads. I love how K.R.I.T. called the Control beat “an ugly bi*ch that everybody done fu*ked raw” and, instead of rapping over it, made his own beat. Unfortunately, the original rendition of “Mt. Olympus” didn’t make Cadillactica - peculiar because it was given a visual treatment - but a Dahi-ized version made for a nice consolation prize. Crazy that the two bookends on the “Control” narrative both didn’t make albums due to the sample clearance snags.
Dahi redid the beat. I couldn’t clear the sample. Ya’ll know how this sh*t is. I gave it for free, I couldn’t clear that sample though.”- K.R.I.T. (CRWN interview)
Speaking of amazing, acclaimed and landmark songs that failed to find a home on an album, are you familiar with “Cartoon & Cereal?” Kendrick Lamar's major label debut Good Kid M.a.a.D. City is a damn near flawless body of work, and to think one of the best songs of his career could have also been on it?Damn. The absence of “Cartoon & Cereal” from GKMC is often attributed to the fact that it leaked early, but in an interview with Complex TDE's co-president Punch said it was due to sample clearance.
“[It didn’t make the album because of] basic sample issues. It’s simple as that. If we were to try and re-do the sample, it would take away the original feeling of it. We didn’t want to risk it. That’s just one of those records. That’s one of those b-sides that’s going to be around and ain’t really attached to nothing. If it wasn’t for [the sample issue], it would’ve been on there.”
On the one hand I wish “C&C” would have made GKMC, but on the other hand I think the song has done more for Kendrick as a mysterious loosie. Had it appeared on the album, the record would have lost the power of the "What If?" and it certainly wouldn't have made a cameo in the "Alright" video. Very simply, I doubt it would have the reputation, attached with the lore, that it does today. I’m still holding out hope Kendrick has bigger plans for the song, but only time will tell.
