大象传媒

Your favourite tracks don't always start off as blank canvases. Some of the biggest bangers out there began life borrowing snippets from other songs, re-working them, serving them up with lashings of newness and unleashing them upon the world for a second lease of life.

From the song ruling the charts right now (we're looking at you, DJ Khaled) to a song lauded one of 'The 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time' by Rolling Stone (hey, Eminem!), here are the samples behind those iconic songs...

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Sampled: DJ Khaled - Wild Thoughts ft. Rihanna & Bryson Tiller

You have Santana - an American Latin rock band fronted by guitarist, Carlos Santana - and hip-hop duo The Product G&B (David McRae, A.K.A. Sincere, and Marvin Moore-Hough, A.K.A. Money Harm) to thank for the song of the summer. Released way back in 2000, it's hardly surprising that the original tune bagged a Grammy and, eights year later, secured the 96th spot on Billboard's All-Time Hot 100 Top Songs. Not shabby, guys.

While DJ Khaled's re-working of the hit scored a No.1, Santana and The Product G&B peaked at No.6 in the UK but it's all good news as far as The Product G&B are concerned. Speaking to Billboard about the rebirth of their 00's hit, Moore said: "It's a blessing because now when you hear ['Wild Thoughts'] on the radio, you hear 'Maria.' It’s bringing awareness all around."

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Sampled: Duke Dumont - I Got U ft. Jax Jones

Who doesn't love a bit of Whitney Houston, amirite?! It's this deep-rooted love for all things Whitney, teamed with a catchy-as beat and stellar vocals, that bagged Duke Dumont (real name: Adam Dyment) his second No.1 and provided us all with a summer anthem for the ages.

You might be wondering 'what's the process behind sampling a universally loved Houston hit?' and, luckily for you, Dyment has the answers.

“It got to a point [during the recording process] where I thought maybe it might be worth bringing a singer in and changing it," he told MTV. "But I thought you know what, out of respect as [the track] started off working the song around My Love Is Your Love I kept it in.

What’s quite nice is Wyclef Jean was one of the writer’s of the song and obviously with things like that you need to seek permission to use the vocal and Wyclef is kind of quite tough with his music. He doesn’t let people use his music for a lot of things but he was willing for us to use the Whitney recording. That was quite nice getting a little bit of respect from his side. So that was a nice touch to it.”

(Fun fact: the track got its first airing on . The DJ loved it so much she paused it halfway through and started it again. True story.)

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Sampled: Bastille - Of The Night

Iconic. Club classic. Banger. Guaranteed crowd-pleaser. You could deploy all these words (and SO. MANY. MORE) to describe Snap's inimitable Rhythm is a Dancer. All things considered, it was sheer brilliance on the part of Bastille to sample the song in their 2013 hit 'Of The Night'.

A genius mash-up of Snap!'s 'Rhythm is a Dancer' and Corona's 'The Rhythm of the Night', Bastille's re-imagining of the dance juggernauts was more haunting than the originals but no less of a smash hit (Snap!'s song was the biggest selling record of 1992 in the UK with a whopping 582,700 copies sold).

But if you thought the sampling started with Bastille, think again. Rhythm is a Dancer actually samples 'Jam on Revenge' by Newcleus, released waaay back in 1984. You learn something new everyday, eh?

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Sampled: Eminem - Stan ft. Dido

Ever wondered where the slang word 'stan' (as in: "we stan for Beyonce") originates from? Enter: Eminem.

The story of a fan who gets progressively obsessive was released in late 2000 as the third single from The Marshall Mathers LP and, unsurprisingly, went straight to No.1 in 11 countries. The track opens to Dido singing the opening lines from her single 'Thank You' - a song first released on her debut album in 1999 - and the sampling ultimately secured Dido a spot in the Top 10.

Speaking to HuffPost in 2013 about the impact Stan had on her career, Dido has this to say: "I don't think it changed me as an artist but it definitely changed my career. I'd sort of been touring and doing really well and then Stan came out it was like stratospheric. Definitely had an impact. So many people got to hear my music and it was pretty amazing."

But Dido's days collaborating with rappers didn't end there, with the Brit singer most recently releasing a track featuring Kendrick Lamar. "Where I started was singing the hooks for hip-hop music and dance artists," she told HuffPost. "So for me it sort of feels very natural. And what I love about hip-hop is just, y'know, for me rappers tell the best stories. Sometimes I'll write a song and think 'this needs more' and it needs a story as well."

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Sampled: Jason Derulo - Whatcha Say

While Imogen Heap may have had The O.C. to thank for the buzz surrounding Hide and Seek's release in 2005 (the song featured in the show's Season 2 finale), it was Jason Derulo's unlikely sampling that saw the folktronica hit enjoy a new lease of life.

Taking to the stage at the 2010 Grammy Awards, the singer elaborated on Hide and Seek's 2009 revival: "This guy called Jason Derulo released a song called 'Whatcha Say' and it's a song that he samples from my song 'Hide and Seek' - a song that's very dear to me. It's strange how when you finish a song in the studio and release it out into the world, it doesn't feel like mine anymore. It just feels like it belongs to people in their ears and car - it doesn't feel like it's mine anymore - so I don't feel right to restrict its life as a song."

Turns out that Heap's music is pretty popular when it comes to being sampled, having been used by the likes of Kendrick Lamar and ASAP Rocky.

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Sampled: Madonna - Hung Up

What do you do when the biggest-selling female artist of all time begs you to let her sample your track? Well, if you're ABBA, you let her sweat for a bit.

Originally released in October 1979, 'Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)' went to No.1 in six countries and, much like everything ABBA touched, turned to gold. (Literally, it was certified Gold.) But when Madonna came knocking in 2005 to ask for permission to sample the track, Benny and Bjorn (the songwriters) had to really think about it.

In an interview with Attitude, Madge revealed more: “I had to send my emissary to Stockholm with a letter and the record begging them and imploring them and telling them how much I worship their music, telling them it was an homage to them, which is all true... They didn’t say yes straight away. They never let anyone sample their music. They could have said no. Thank God they didn’t.”

Having only previously allowed The Fugees to sample their music (the group used 'The Name of the Game' on 'Rumble In The Jungle') Benny admitted to The Daily Telegraph that the duo were reluctant: "We get so many requests from people wanting to use our tracks but we normally say 'no'. We said yes this time because we admire Madonna so much and always have done. She has got guts and has been around for 21 years. That is not bad going."

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Sampled: 99 Souls - The Girl Is Mine ft. Destiny's Child & Brandy

After forgetting how much of a tune 'Girl' was, the 2005 single was brought back into our lives and our earwaves via 99 Souls' musical mash-up.

Featuring both Destiny's Child and Brandy ('The Boy Is Mine', 1998), the funky house remix racked up 2.9 million streams in its first year of release but - without the permission of Brandy or Bey - the track got taken down. Fast forward a year later and, permission granted, the track was released commercially, with Brandy even re-recording her vocals.

Monica, however, wasn't so keen to lay down fresh vocals for the remix: "I feel like sometimes things that are a part of history and that are in history should be left as such so that it can be upheld with the respect that it was given even back then," she told HuffPost. "That’s the one song and the one time that [Brandy and I] both won a Grammy and experienced certain things. So I have a lot of memories and emotions connected to that record.”

But while Brandy, Bey, Kelly and Michelle were on board from the get-go, their manager - Bey's dad, Matthew Knowles - was harder to crack. 99 Souls spilled all to Official Charts:

"Way back right at the beginning of licensing the track, Matthew said no, so we got on the phone and asked him why, and he said it was because the song only featured Beyonce’s vocal and not the other girls, and he represented Destiny’s Child at the time as a whole... Over the months we kept in contact with him and built a rapport... Eventually we met him and convinced him to say yes."

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Sampled: T.I. - Why You Wanna

Sing it with us now: la da dee, la da da, la da dee, la da daaaaa. Crystal Waters' 1991 song had all the trappings of a house music classic and that's what it went on to become. And yet, despite the acclaim, singer-songwriter Crystal told Vice that she wasn't convinced of its impact:

"I never had any idea it’d have the impact that it did. I thought it’d just be a Washington record, a Baltimore record, maybe a New York one if I was lucky. I even kept my job for two years after it came out. I remember doing Top of the Pops and thinking, “Yep, maybe I can go part time now…” It took me a while to realize just how big that song was, and still is. I could never have foreseen it."

It's since been sampled 43 times, by everyone from Alicia Keys to Pitbull, G-Eazy to Trey Songz - and most notably by T.I. on 'Why You Wanna' - so we think it's safe to say that your song is pretty damn big, Crystal.