Every creative is a thief, says ID Cabassa on music sampling

Olumide Ogunade, the music producer better known as ID Cabasa, has shared his opinion on music sampling.

On The Echo Room podcast, the producer argued that every artiste is a “thief” and has, one way or another, sampled another’s song.

Music sampling extracts a segment or “sample” of sound from a pre-existing musical recording and reuses it in a new composition.

It is widely practised across hip-hop and pop music, allowing artistes to pay homage to, reinterpret, or innovate upon existing works.

The practice, while it fosters creativity, often raises litigious copyright disputes and necessitates proper clearance/licensing as a result.

ID Cabassa said any person in the music industry claiming to create something entirely new might be a “psychopath”.

The music producer advised artistes to sample songs more creatively or give due credit to the owner of the source composition.

“Every creative person is a thief. We are all stealing. But creativity itself is to hide where you are stealing from,” ID Cabassa said.

“If you give me a piano, I will play a tune and song on it. And if I tell you where I got the inspiration from you, will be surprised.

“Let me give you an example. The progression on ‘Walking Away’ by David Craig was the original progression that I used for ‘Photocopy’, the instrumental with 9ice.

“So any creative that is telling you he is creating something out of nothing might become a psychopath because, at the end of the day, the music keys are defined. We know the melodies and progressions that sell.

“I can sample your song and you will not know I did in such a way that I will listen to your song and start to improvise on what you have done and create something new from it.

“At the end of the day, there is nothing new. The new is taken from the old.

“You can also go to the person who owns the song, take the right, and do that. It is when you want to get greedy that you do not give.”