I must agree with the writer. My biggest problem with sampling. Hearing the same old music over and over again and wondering how the artist (it is JLO so I use this word loosely) makes any money with 11 writers getting paid.
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Jennifer Lopez's new single should really be called "It's the Same Old Song" — or rather, "Songs."

"Get Right" is not exactly new stuff. Like most everything else in hip-hop, it's cobbled together from bits and pieces of existing music, rap lyrics and a shrill horn section that sounds amazing, just like an Usher record from last year.

Frankly, I don't want to be around 20 years from now when all the so-called songwriters listed on hip-hop records come looking for their royalties. But that's another story. Lopez's "Get Right" is actually borrowed from a rap record by Fabolous, aka John David Jackson.

I can't quote any part of the original "Get Right," because it's one of the most offensive rap lyrics I've ever seen on a piece of paper. Lennon and McCartney, Ashford and Simpson, Cole Porter, it ain't.

Lopez's recording, which debuted on MTV a couple of days ago, has an alternate version with a rap by Fabolous, so you know Jackson got his money. But also credited in writing this song is a disparate group of people, including famous (and very much alive) Motown/Moonglows singer Harvey Fuqua and the very deceased rap legend Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace .

The latter's publishing rights, by the way, go to Justin Combs Publishing, which is owned by Sean "P. Diddy" Combs — Justin is his son.

The rest of "Get Right" is an enigma wrapped in a riddle. Trying to figure this part out is harder than following a plot on "Alias."

It would seem that the melody line in Lopez's "Get Right" comes from an old R&B song written by Fuqua and his partner Lottie Woods from the early '70s, when they were working with a group called New Birth .

And where does that Biggie Smalls part come in? It's possible that the Fuqua-Woods song was already used as a sample for another hip-hop record, called "Players Anthem," by the Junior M.A.F.I.A., and that the whole thing got grandfathered into Lopez's new pastiche.

The horn part is the real mystery here. It sounds like it's taken directly from an Usher record, featuring Bad Seed, called "Ride." Whoever played the horn on that track should be calling his entertainment lawyer right about now.

The only name not listed on the "Get Right" credits (yet) so far is Lopez, which is something of a surprise. Her credit is usually attached to her hit records so that she gets a cut of the royalties.

On the 31 songs credited to Lopez on the BMI Broadcast Music database, not one has fewer than three co-authors. Her hit "Jenny From the Block" has an astounding eleven co-writers listed.

Fuqua, who taught the whole gang at Motown how to act and dress, who sang with the Moonglows and wrote hits with Marvin Gaye, should get a boatload of money for this, and he didn't have to do a thing. God bless.

Luckily, the new "Get Right" will not be getting any Best Song nominations at the 2006 Grammy Awards. If so, there would be a collision on stage. I wonder if Lopez has any idea where this "song" came from, or if she even knows who wrote it.

The same might have been asked last year of Beyoncé Knowles, whose "Crazy in Love" was actually a Chi-Lites record from 1969 written by the legendary Eugene Record.

The new "Get Right" might set a record for the longest intro ever. In fact, the whole "song" is an intro. Lopez repeats the chorus (with that shrill Usher horn riff playing behind her) for a full two minutes before she hits the "song" part. And that's where the problem lies.

Unadorned by her usual phalanx of backup singers, Lopez then starts shrieking, or talk-singing, for the remaining one-minute, 45-second melody. It's a frightening moment in pop-music history, but a delicious one to imagine being recreated on TV shows when the inevitable publicity deluge begins for Lopez's new album, due in March.

CinisterCee already told us where the horn is from - and it sure as hell goes further back than Usher, I'll tell you that.

Oh, and if memory serves correct it isn't even a horn, either.
[Edited 1/7/05 4:38am]

VoicesCarry said:

the squeal from escape-ism?..

cus they got the shit wrong... players anthem was lifted from "Memory Lane" by Minnie Ripperton..

This is exactly the problem with today's R&B and hip-hop...


Too much damn sampling! It's a crime what these current "producers" are doing to old songs that were written and played by real artists and musicians.

TheRealFiness said:

Here's what he said:

The horn sample is actually a truncated alto saxophone solo by Maceo Parker from the song:

"Soul Power `74" by Maceo & The Macks.

VoicesCarry said:

ok soul power 74 is from Maceo's album "US" i have the original vinyl...i havent heard this hot garbage J-hoe has put out yet..

TheRealFiness said:

If you just listen to the first few seconds, you'll hear it - the sample is repeated ad nauseam in the first two minutes.

VoicesCarry said:

lol... gawd dayum what happened to the days when cats would take 2 copies.. and use thier fuckin hands to keep a beat goin'.. lazy fucks LOL..

This is ridiculous.

Not that I'm a Jennifer Lopez fan, but just about everything Fox writes on J. Lo or any female pop star is scathing! You'd think J. Lo ate their baby!