“It always surprised me when other people sampled my music,” Steve Miller once told American Songwriter. Despite the frontman’s shock that other artists, in a wide range of genres, would choose Steve Miller Band’s biggest hits to build their own creations, the rock outfit is one of the most heavily sampled groups of all time.
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Though Steve Miller Band samples have been a staple in all genres for decades, we’re looking at five hip-hop artists that have co-opted Miller-penned hits, below.
[RELATED: Behind the Meaning of the Classic Song: “The Joker” by Steve Miller Band]
1. “Star Wars” (Nas)
Sampled: “Fly Like an Eagle”
Nas, the king of the celebrity beef, penned “Star Wars” during the original sessions for his debut album, Illmatic—though it wasn’t released until the 10th anniversary of the album. As the title suggests, the song covers “wars” between the hip-hop stars of the era, which he was very much a part of. While Nas rattles off lines like Y’all n***** roll with any click that’s winnin’ any crew / Doin whatever’s trendy, even they leave me too, deep in the background is a tinge of Steve Miller Band’s “Fly Like an Eagle.” The song’s funky guitar riff is perfectly interpolated here, leaving it almost unrecognizable in the midst of Nas’ heavy drum fill.
2. “All That Matters” (Justin Bieber)
Sampled: “Space Intro”
Toward the end of Justin Beiber’s Journals cut, “All That Matters,” the pop singer brings in the ascending synth tone of Steve Miller Band’s “Space Intro.” “Space Intro” is a small interlude that comes prior to “Fly Like an Eagle” on their album of the same name. Despite its short runtime, the song has been sampled in more than 20 tracks since its release in 1976.
4. “Angel” (Shaggy feat. Rayvon)
Sampled: “The Joker“
“The Joker” is one of Steve Miller Band’s most sampled songs. Shaggy used elements of the song for his 2001 release “Angel (feat. Rayvon).” The song is built heavily around the bassline from “The Joker” encapsulating the same hazy nature of the 1973 hit.
5. “Praise You” (Fatboy Slim)
Sampled: “Lucky Man”
Fatboy Slim went ham on the samples in “Praise You.” The club hit credits elements from nine different songs, among which is Steve Miller Band’s “Lucky Man.” The sample comes around the two-minute mark. Underneath the DJ’s rich drum beat is the clavinet line from “Lucky Man.” Though Slim used a host of samples in “Praise You,” Miller’s melody played a large part in giving the song a very different feel from the rest of Slim’s offerings.
[RELATED: Top 10 Steve Miller Band Songs]
Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns
