Sample Breakdown: Mobb Deep - Shook Ones Pt II

🔔 Subscribe and hit dat bell for weekly Sample Breakdowns

🤔 How does Tracklib’s service work?

🤝 Join the best community for sample-heads

🔍 What is sampling and how does it 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 #mobbdeep #havoc #shookonespt2

[heythere]

There’s no doubt Havoc has a well secured spot in the pantheon of hip hop producers

[beefknuckles]

For a little history lesson: This main piano sample was the white whale of the entire beatmaking community for years and years and years until Bronco from The-Breaks finally found it. There were literally hundreds of other purported samples through the years that people were fully chopping up note by note and getting SO CLOSE but never quite right. I was one of those kids... I tried on and off for probably 5 years. The real sample is such a simpler flip which kind of makes it ingenious in how he did it. Thank you Bronco, I remember you :)

[christopherone]

0:12 The sound always gives me goosebumps

[thewyattact]

no matter how many times i see this sample broken down i’m still in awe of it. this is probably my favorite beat of all time.

[RGS_]

It’s insane to me how people managed to do this back in the 90’s with less equipment than we have today. This flip is legendary!

EDIT: I should’ve clarified way earlier but oh well. 1) I know we still use some of the same equipment for sampling but it *has* evolved throughout the years, letting us create music with laptops and iPads. plus this sample chop was pretty complex for the time.
2) 90’s hip hop isn’t inherently better or worse than current hip hop or its sampling, so I don’t want to dismiss either era. There is a lot of great hip hop being released today, so quit it with the whole “back in my day”.

[MDCJ]

I get chills when they go from the samples to the actual song.

[spce]

yo im so glad that u did this bc a lot of people have been asking for it and I understand why. I personally think this has to be one of the best samples ever made

[theoriginal]

This man used the exact same loop and made it sound like two different things, what a fuckin legend

[OuterSpace]

One of greatest and most recognizable beats in hip hop history!

[HotRatsAndTheStooges]

Mobb Deep have some of the best samples. They flip them so well that even when you hear the original, it's hard to believe. That sample of Barry Harris's Skylark they use on Survival of the Fittest is mind blowing. It's just top level musicianship to hear that song and create one of the darkest beats ever made from it.

[Baggydawg]

the herbie hancock sample is actually unbelievable. Sounds so weird when it's slowed down, then it's slowed down even more.

To the point that the ultra-slowed version matches the same triplet beat from the original slowed version. Absolute masterpiece

[knziejay]

And that's what I call a sample masterpiece ✨

[wordlifejohn]

This might be the sickest beat in the hip-hop history. Props to Havoc for having such a good ear.

[The_Only_StixMan]

And that my friend is how you sample a song beyond recognition

[goobert]

Crazy ass beat, havoc sampled Herbie, Quincy, a big band breakbeat and his damn stove starting up

[unlisted]

Goosebumps when that piano sample is slowed...

[the_fragrant_vagrant]

I grew up very far-removed from hip-hop. Punk rock instructed me to ignore it altogether. But in my early teens I came across the instrumental for Shook Ones Pt. II, and it literally flipped my whole worldview. I listened to that instrumental over and over again, found a copy of The Infamous, and realized very quickly that I should be paying attention to hip-hop. As a result, I’ve connected with so many incredible humans that I wouldn’t have met without this music. So thank you to Havoc and thank you to hip-hop. 🙏🏻

[Dara-podd]

Fun fact: The 'Dirty Feet' sample was also used by Nujabes in Luv(sic) pt. 1

[desmond-hawkins]

Someone told me once that the music you keep listening to your entire life is often the music you loved growing up. This is certainly true for me, I was 11 when this album came out and it's still one of my absolute favorite. I've been listening to it for 27 years now (likely first on cassette in my Walkman), and I don't think I'll ever get tired of it.

[GoodxJ]

Havoc is wild for this one. One of the greatest sample flips ever! The way he put this beat together is genius. Much respect 🙏🏻