10 Rap Songs That Sampled Classical Music

It's weird how nowadays, classical music is considered a genre, when for the vast majority of Western music’s history it was simply considered music, as there was not really much else (Obviously that is in the sense of professional music, as traditional folk music and orally transmitted ditties always existed).

Yet, not only is classical music a genre in today’s musical landscape, it’s not a very popular one at that.

How many people do you know that actually blast Handel or Chopin on the daily, for their own personal pleasure (and not to give themselves airs) ? It may be biased to use the this metric given that the most known classical composers aren’t likely to release a new EP anytime soon, but it’s still telling that statistically, classical music accounted for only 1% of all album sales in the US in 2018.

Given the virtual infinity of its catalogue, both in quantity and diversity, we can genuinely ask the question of why hip hop DJ’s and producers so rarely use classical music for samples. It's all-the-more surprising considering how good the final product always is when they do.

Sample: Pavane (Vocalise) by Barbara Streisand (cover of Gabriel Fauré's Pavane)

Producer: Thayod Ausar

Thayod Ausar produced four tracks of Xzibit's 1996 debut work At The Speed of Life and Paparazzi, the album's lead single, is his masterstroke. At first glance, sampling Pavane is the weirdest of choices. A slow, mellow composition from 1887, rooted in court dance music and whose author originally intended to be played at a "series of light summer concerts", it doesn't scream West Coast gangsta rap.

And that's what makes this track stand out: the contrast between the soft melody and X's aggressive style. Deploring the state of the game is a common trope for rappers, but that beat, paired with Streisand's choir and a clip that features an orchestra playing on a cliff, gives it that extra ceremonious (and frankly, grandiloquent) vibe.

It's songs like this that turned X into one of the biggest names in the West Coast rap scene at the turn of the century. Sadly, his impact on the game has been minimum ever since, and it seems his earlier works will remain what he's best known for.