10 Hit Songs You Had No Idea Used Samples

8. Bad Guy - Billie Eilish

Speaking of teens that Drake loves to text, Billie Eilish is one of the most exciting artists to enter the mainstream in recent years and probably shouldn't be defined by the fact that 33 year-old adult man Drake loves texting her.

Like M.I.A. before her, Eilish uses the braggadocio of hip-hop to lampoon toxic behaviour in her biggest hit, Bad Guy. Adopting the character of an ultra-tough and morally questionable show-off, she hits back at the posers and the phonies of the world by acting just as fake as they do.

That's far from the most surprising thing that Eilish adopts, however. Listen carefully to the hi-hat beat that plays through the main hook, and you might just recognise... the beeping noise that crosswalks make in Sydney.

Don't believe us? Just skip to the 6:30 mark in this Rolling Stone interview to see how Eilish and her producer-slash-brother Finneas made use of this strangest of samples (as well as how they took inspiration from Plants Vs. Zombies and Wizards of Waverly Place).

In this post: 
the clash
 
First Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Jimmy Kavanagh is an Irish writer and co-founder of Club Valentine Comedy, a Dublin-based comedy collective. You can hear him talk to his favourite comedians about their favourite comics on his podcast, Comics Swapping Comics.