Sample Breakdown: J. Dilla - Don’t Cry

Produced by J Dilla.

🔔 Subscribe and hit dat bell for weekly Sample Breakdowns

🤔 How does Tracklib’s service work?

🤝 Join the best community for sample-heads

🔍 How does sampling and sample clearance work?

👨‍⚖️ What is sample clearance and how does it work?

📈 Read our latest report on The State of Sampling

🐐 Discover how the greats sample

🚂 Jump on the Tracklib train

#samplebreakdown #jdilla #dontcry

[anthnybalba]

Jimi Hendrix had a guitar. John Coltrane had a saxophone. Giorgio Moroder had a synthesizer. J. Dilla had an MPC.

[alchemistrpm]

If this doesn't make you want to flip a sample, you have a cold heart

[Nigmatics]

and JD did it on an mpc 3000 with no wav visuals. all chopped by ear which makes it even more genius.

[DontTouchtheDoor]

J Dilla being a drummer really shows in this beat flip, he literally is drumming the samples and fills in the gaps with the rest of the song so his drums don't always fall on the same beat its pure fucking genius. Dude just wanted to drum.

[smashfam]

It breaks my heart that JD did this song to say don't cry for him to his brother and mom :'(

[noir]

probably the most impressive thing about this flip is that it don't just sound like random chops thrown together and it actually sounds melodic. If you put a low pass filter over it, you can hear a new bassline made from the sample chops with small bass notes under them. It's insane bro

[timsohn]

Old man here wanting to share something about this. I really feel I have to.

Its already nutty having these kind if channels breaking down samples in visual form. You can tell Dilla really saw things different.

But what blew my mind more was when I started to make beats, we didn’t have many references of youtube like this to learn about chopping etc. Heck, knowing what sample someone used was hard as hell.

When I finally found samples Dilla used during his Fantastic album and donuts, I put them in my MPC, and almost reversed engineerd his patterns.

I was floored, because by doing this you really start to understand what was going on in his head.

Tracklib is one of my fav channels which I wish was around when I started to love hip hop in the 90s.

But that being said, I implore all young beat makers: Really try to figure out yourself how guys like Premier, Dilla, Pete Rock, or even newer producers like Hit Boy, J Cole, and stereotypes etc flip their samples before you look up how they do it.

I had to do this because we didn’t have a choice back then, but looking back, not only was it fun, but you really start to understand what your favorite producers like to do!

[BLACKDISC]

My jaw dropped the first time I heard this and it dropped again seeing a visual... The fact that he did this with just an mpc 3000 blows my mind

[charliestaub]

Being alive when J dilla made donuts is like being around when the founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence

[RYz]

0:39 okay this is kinda scary how good of an ear and attention to detail JD was… are you kidding me?? I mean he samples little small bits of the song… my adhd is kicking my ash right now as I think about even trying to attempt this…

[yourlastfoe]

Tracklib, if Grammy's were awarded for youtube contributions to producers/music nerds/hip hop heads, you would be a lock. Keep doing what you're doing, you're a blessing to the music lover community.

[Rafa-fneq]

This is a great visual. Truly one of the greatest to ever flip samples

[yojimbo_]

ironic how a song called dont cry makes me damn near break out in tears. arguably the greatest sample flip of all time

[crazyinsanepenguin]

Sounds almost like he sampled the drum hits while ignoring everything else and it came together beautifully

[afw-xjqw]

Probably the greatest sample flip of all time to me

[siahwayd]

Having the ear to put different parts of one song together is truly amazing

[LovePierre]

The Way he Flipped Samples was so Advanced . I swear this man Mastered it . He was a Genius

[fakenames]

watching this gave me goosebumps. and that he did this without the luxuries of sophisticated DAWs and/or sample-centric applications.. truly ahead of his days. dilla could never get enough love—all praise!!

[themonomineestation]

0:24 In my opinion the best sample pileup ever!

[konnordonnelly]

This shits gives me the chills everytime but where’s that “little brother” by black star visual I NEED to see the microchops on that