10 Songs You Didn't Realise Sample Other Songs
4. Paper Planes - M.I.A
The sample featured in M.I.A's 2008 hit Paper Planes is perhaps more synonymous with the rapper than it is with the artist who first coined it...
…and that artist is punk rock royalty, The Clash.
Featured in the marketing of Far Cry 3 and reaching number 19 on the UK Singles chart, M.I.A's hit song samples the group's tune, Straight To Hell, recorded some 26 years earlier.
While both artists began their careers in London, and Paper Planes and Straight to Hell wield alarmingly similar melodies, that's where their similarities end. This makes it all the more impressive that M.I.A was able to produce a song that feels so very contemporary using elements from one that was released decades ago, and by a punk band no less.
The original was punchy, and featured fiddly, click-y drums that maintains throughout, whereas M.I.A ditches the now outdated percussion in favour of a more current snap track and trap beat. It compliments the sample well, and gives the tune a layer of authenticity as well as giving it an entirely new life.
Straight to Hell was yet another superb song in The Clash's already extensive catalogue. As such, it faded in with the rest, whereas Paper Planes stands tall as a defining moment of the 2000s.