Recently, whilst mindlessly listening to WKNC as I was working on a project for a class, I heard the sample that one of our classmates did their listening party presentation on, Shigeo Sekito’s The Word II. I kept listening, waiting for Mac DeMarco’s familiar lyrics from Chamber of Reflection to be heard, but they never came. This caused me to wonder if there were any other songs influential to their genre that had samples that are largely unknown due to their Eastern origin being unknown to Western audiences. By chance, whilst listening to a throwback playlist, I came across a song that was largely comical and dismissed at the time of its release but led to a revolution in its field.
The song, “Ginseng Strip 2002,” released in 2013 by Yung Lean, was the beginning of a subgenre known as “emo rap.” Thanks to media-sharing websites such as Soundcloud and Tumblr, this new sound blended the traditional trap beats and blown-out bass of rap and hip-hop but mixed it with slow melodies and instrumentals to complement the dark humor and self-deprecating lyrics popular with Generation Z. The song and genre is based on a DIY ethos of home creation, with the majority of the artists reaching their final song through experimentation and spitballing with their friends and collaborators. “Ginseng Strip 2002” was actually a soundcheck that was recorded and released online!
But how does this relate to sampling? For years, many people tried to figure out the origin of the sample used. It was regarded as one of the most mysterious samples in recent history because it was largely unidentifiable by listeners in the West. Whilst South Asian fans immediately recognized its relation to tribal melody and chants, there was seemingly no trace of the sample. In fact, despite the song being almost a decade old, it was not discovered until last year! Turns out that the sample has an interesting history, with Yung Lean getting it from his producer Yung Gud, whom Lean met through a mutual friend, who then got it from a “random Japanese man” who turned out to be J-pop and EDM artist De De Mouse. Known for his sampling, the original sample was a product of a project on looping that wasn’t meant to be used for any musical endeavors. The sample, which has since been released on Spotify reads, “Mixing tribal music from Tibet, Indonesia, and children’s voices with a touch of soul, De De Mouse chips them into single sounds and edits them to create significant melodies.” The multiple vocal tracks are altered in pitch and speed and then layered on top of an instrumental before being time-stretched to become the backtrack that went viral back in the mid-2010s. It’s a cool case study in plunderphonics and artist networking that is truly a product of its time, especially considering that it would’ve been impossible to make without the platforms in which the collaborators connected online. Take a listen to the original sample below:
References:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Samplehunters/comments/o02obm/yung_lean_ginseng_strip_2002_a_deeper_dive/