Earlier this year, Heems, Riz MC, and Redinho released a quintessential telling of the brown immigrant story in the form of Cashmere, their debut record as Swet Shop Boys. They’re the rap group of Donald Trump and Nigel Farage’s nightmares: Their songs are peppered with South Asian (Hindi and Urdu) slang, rapped by an American with roots in the Punjab region of India (Heems, formerly of Das Racist) and a Brit whose family emigrated from modern-day Pakistan (Riz MC, aka actor/rapper Riz Ahmed).
If songs about being hassled by airport security don’t make Cashmere’s point of view clear enough, the album’s instrumentation and samples throw pieces of Pakistani and Indian history in your face—and right at a crucial time, as border tension between India and Pakistan have run particularly high. Sampled on the record are Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai (on “No Fly List”), slain women’s rights activist Qandeel Baloch (on “Aaja”), Punjabi poet Shiv Kumar Batalvi (on “Shoes off”), and one of Pakistan's most famous Qawwali singers, Aziz Mian (on “Zayn Malik”), all helping to make Cashmere a more accurate representation of the current South Asian climate than American listeners almost ever hear (outside of M.I.A. albums, of course).
American pop music’s embrace of South Asian culture typically focuses on the repurposing of mainstream Hindi film music, as well as folk and devotional songs from the regions. The multitude of timbres, born out of different percussion instruments, and varied spread of vocal talent across South Asian music have proven to be a treasure-trove for hip-hop and pop producers over the last two decades particularly. Producers like Just Blaze, Madlib, J Dilla, Dan the Automator, Kanye West, Timbaland, and the Alchemist have used these sounds to create loops and beats that move in unexpected patterns. These samples often stem from traditional South Asian percussive instruments such as the dholak, tabla, and mridangam, and plucked string instruments such as the the sitar and tumbi.
In the past, it was difficult to find official South Asian sampling credits on Western records; sometimes, those sampled were not even made aware of these cultural exchanges. In 2002, a landmark, $500 million case launched by Indian composer Bappi Lahiri became the first legal battle between a South Asian composer and a Western producer, following the release of Truth Hurts’ DJ Quik-produced single “Addictive,” which didn’t have sample clearance for a 15-year-old Hindi song. (Lahiri, who called the unauthorized sampling "cultural imperialism," was ultimately awarded an injunction that gave him credit.)
Lahiri’s case ultimately set a precedent for producers and record labels regarding clearances when sampling South Asian music. (In 2014, famed Indian composer A.R. Rahman even rewrote one of his greatest hits with will.i.am, for the Black Eyed Peas leader’s “It’s My Birthday.”) We're also in an internet age where it’s a little easier to identify elements of a song, especially if you've heard music from across cultures and continents. Still, some songs’ South Asian samples still slide under the radar, whether they’re officially credited or not—here are ten examples.
GZA’s “4th Chamber” samples Kalyanji-Anandji’s “Dharmatma Theme Music (sad)”
Produced by the Abbot himself, RZA uses composer duo Kalyanji-Anandji’s sad theme from the 1975 Indian thriller Dharmatma on this cut off cousin GZA’s 1995 classic, Liquid Swords. South Asian sounds are not all that common across RZA’s productions, so this is a rare find in Wu’s collected discography.
Jaylib’s “Survival Test” samples Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s “Poorab Disa Se Pardesi Aya”
Madlib and J Dilla had been digging through Indian vinyl crates for years by the time collaborative album, Champion Sound, arrived in 2003. Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s opening melodic hook is given an off-time syncopated edit in “Survival Test,” as Jaylib use it as a bed throughout the entire track. Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar and Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma composed Indian movie scores for more than three decades, and this track represents the majority of what Hindi film music is: cheesy love ballads.
DJ Shadow and Zack De La Rocha’s “March of Death” samples Ravi Shankar’s “Lust (Rāga Chandrakauns)”
Released in 2005 as a statement condemning the American invasion of Iraq, “March of Death” samples sitar master Ravi Shankar’s ensemble band circa 1974, just a handful of years after George Harrison’s helped introduce Shankar to the Western world. DJ Shadow chops and speeds up the original beat and adds heavier bass frequencies to its basic structure, so De La Rocha can rap over it.
J Dilla’s “People” samples Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s “Mujhe Maar Dalo”
Another Dilla joint, another Hindi film sample. On 2006’s Donuts, his parting gift to the world, Dilla uses singer Asha Bhosle’s voice, from a Laxmikant-Pyarelal composition, and sneaks it in underneath a blanket of hand drums. Laxmikant-Pyarelal composed the original for the 1974 film Geeta Mera Naam, a story about young siblings who get lost in a world of crime.
Flying Lotus’ “GNG BNG” samples Vijaya T. Rajendar’s “Indralogathu”
“GNG BNG,” off 2008’s Los Angeles, opens with a tune from the 1983 Tamil flick Uyirullavarai Usha. FlyLo lets the sample run unedited for about 20 seconds before he picks up the pace and doubles up the percussion, but he still retains the sounds set by the Rajendar sample.
J Rocc’s “Party” samples Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s “Yeh Dhuan Kahan”
Following in the footsteps of his Stones Throw compatriots Dilla and Madlib, J Rocc sampled vocals from Indian sisters Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar (on yet another ’70s Laxmikant-Pyarelal composition) under a groovy bassline on “Party,” off 2011’s Some Cold Rock Stuff. Bhosle and Mangeshkar represent the popular side of Hindi film music; the two have recorded more than 20,000 songs, in careers spanning more than five decades.
Pusha T’s “Pain” ft. Future samples Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s “My Name is Anthony Gonsalves”
Produced by Kanye West and No I.D., “Pain,” from 2013’s My Name Is My Name, features a recurring melodic repetition that tweaks its sample just enough to remain fairly unrecognizable. The original, a comedy track from the 1977 film Amar Akbar Anthony, is steeped with jazz influences that were ruling Bollywood at the time.
Kanye West’s “I Am A God” samples R.D. Burman’s “Are Zindagi Ka Khel”
Kanye’s ambitious crate-digging led him to one of Indian film great R.D. Burman’s ’80s synth escapades, for the opening trigger on Yeezus standout “I Am A God.” And Burman shares official production credits with an eclectic bunch: West, Hudson Mohawke, Daft Punk, Mike Dean, Noah Goldstein, Che Pope, and Travis Scott.
Junglepussy’s “Satisfaction Guaranteed” samples Ilaiyaraaja’s “Chittu Kuruvi”
Produced by Shy Guy, the title track off Junglepussy’s 2014 debut mixtape samples the initial few seconds of South Indian composer and auteur Ilaiyaraaja’s “Chittu Kuruvi.” The sampled sound comes from the 1985 Tamil movie Chinna Veedu, as the sound effect played during a kiss on the forehead. While Junglepussy uses it almost like a metronome beep, beginning her track with it, the original represents the absurdity of romance depicted in Indian cinema.
Tinashe’s “Wrong” samples Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s “Bol Na Halke Halke”
For “Wrong,” off 2015’s Amethyst, Tinashe recruited Canadian producer Ryan Hemsworth, a former Swet Shop Boys collaborator who’s no stranger to sampling South Asian sounds. Hemsworth’s beat for “Wrong” begins with a chopped up edit of the opening of this Bollywood original, from 2007’s Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. The original is sung by Pakistani Qawwali musician Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, whose work over the last decade in Pakistani and Indian film music has made him one of the most recognized voices across the sub-continent.