What’s That Sample? is VIBE Staff Writer Marc Griffin’s analytical segment that decodes hit songs, fan-favorites deep cuts, and the songs that sample and, in some instances, cover them.
Solange Piaget Knowles has carved out a lane of her own with her soulful, yet smoky vocal harmonies.
The Houston, TX- born songstress is known for her palpable bravery on records, baring the richness of the Black experience for the world to hear. A soprano-styled songbird, Solange began writing music at 9 years old and served as a backup singer for Destiny’s Child as a child. But, “Sol-Angel” got her first shot at the solo limelight at age 16 when she dropped her debut album, Solo Star, on her father’s Music World Entertainment label, opening up her world to more bold, creative endeavors in the following years. 2008 would see Knowles deliver a Motown-inspired record, Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams, which, according to Billboard, would peak at No. 9 on the Billboard 100.
However, Solange would break new ground eight years later with A Seat At The Table. Upon release, her third LP was met with critical acclaim, becoming her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 100, and winning a GRAMMY award for her lead single, “Cranes in the Sky.” Her follow-up LP, When I Get Home, more experimental than ASATT, was also well received, landing on 15 end-of-the-year lists as one of the best albums of 2019.
To help honor the acclaimed songwriter on her birthday (June 24), VIBE explores some of the tracks Solange has repurposed for her eclectic discography.
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Thievery Corporation — “A Gentle Dissolve”
Image Credit: Gentner/Getty Images
Thievery Corporation‘s “A Gentle Dissolve” served as the musical skeleton for Solange‘s “God Given Name” from her sophomore album, Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams. TC’s original 2005 composition is an acid jazz production, kitted with saxophones, a harp, and sly-hitting drums—the perfect backdrop for Solange’s Motown aesthetic for Sol-Angel.Solange would leave the composition unchanged while adding lyrics and her vocals to the mix, creating a grappling narrative about rejecting labels and expectations. The intro helped set the tone for the rest of the Sol-Angel LP and Knowles’ illustrious career, with the musician leaning harder into her free-spirited nature.
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Kanye West — “Everything I Am”
Image Credit: Mainz/Getty Images Continuing her resistance to the mainstream gaze, Solange dug into the bag of a man who built his whole career on “going against the grain”: Kanye West. Solange would lift the entire instrumental from Ye’s Graduation era “Everything I Am” to create “F**k the Industry”— a scathing critique of her critics who wanted her to be like “picture-perfect Beyoncé,” Ashanti, Jennifer Lopez, and other beauties whose aesthetic doesn’t groove with her own.
The track was leaked online in 2008, ahead of Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams release, and was reportedly meant to be a part of a mixtape Solo was working on entitled I Can’t Get Clearance. “F**k the Industry” would receive an official release on her father’s imprint two years later. But, after being dropped from Geffen Records, the track received no promotion or authorized rollout. It eventually found a home on the 2015 deluxe version of Sol-Angel, serving as the album’s new outro.
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Alejandro Jodorowsky — “Rainbow Room”
Image Credit: Celotto/Getty Images Have you ever watched The Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowsky? Probably not, but Solange has. And “Rainbow Room,” one of the obscure movie’s most eerie songs, was repurposed for a cut off of When I Get Home, “Jerrod.”
Solange, John Key, and John Carroll Kirby sampled multiple elements from “Rainbow Room,” beginning at the 0:50 mark in the composition. The original features an unintelligible vocal performance that Solange transforms into a repetitious “call me” lyric, adding to its surrealist nature. Gongs from the OG version are also pitched down for “Jerrod”, and the chants in the background are now absent, creating a subtle but sexy atmosphere.
The When I Get Home cut also marks one of the few times Solo centered a whole song on sex. “We Deal With The Freek’n” serves as an interlude, inviting the listener into the intimate moment. “Jerrod” is reflective yet alluring, much like the aura of Jodorowsky’s original work.
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Luther Vandross — “So Amazing”
Image Credit: Harrison/Getty Images This next one is a bit of a throwback, as Solange and Lil’ Romeo connected for “True Love.” The pair’s 2002 track sampled the legendary Luther Vandross and his powerful performance on “So Amazing,” the fifth single from his 1986 album Give Me The Reason. Romeo Miller and Solange repurposed the track for a teen love song, capturing the wide-eyed prepubescent romance of falling in love for the first time. “True Love” served as a dual-single for both young stars, with the cut appearing on Miller’s Game Time and Solange’s Solo Star.
Speaking with Stereogum in 2016, the singer detailed her time working on the track, recalling the “incredible” experience and how Master P set up the studio session. “I remember him saying, ‘OK, this is the Luther Vandross song that you’re going to cover the hook for,’ and me being like, ‘Yeah, I know this song very well.’ He was like, ‘Oh, that’s kind of cool that you know the song.’
“I was a bratty, headstrong teenager, and I probably could’ve used the help,” she coontinued. “But I was adamant about producing my own vocals. He was trying to guide me throughout that process, and I was really headstrong about that. After a couple of takes, he was like, ‘You know what? You have it.’ And he’s still Master P to me. The whole experience was just incredible.”
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Aaliyah — “More Than A Woman”
Image Credit: Winter/Getty Images Aaliyah‘s “More Than A Woman” was on Solange‘s mind when recording “Borderline,” as she interpolated the chorus for her ode to self-love. The song, which was produced by the singer and A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip, is a track that explores the challenges of self-perseverance in a hostile world. Much like Babygirl’s pleas to her lover in the original song, Solange asserts that she will be better than any turmoil outside of their relationship, existing to them as “more than a woman.” Solange takes it a step further and links it to internal care, hoping that she can mend the relationship between herself and her lover.
“My husband and I share a lot in common in our yearning to see equality in this country,” she told W Magazine about the inspiration behind the track. “Sometimes throughout that, [self-care] becomes a mission within itself. That song was an ode to how our home becomes a safe space where we can just love and not deal with some of the intensities in these spaces. That means so much to me.”
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David Arnold — Solange
Image Credit: Green/Getty Images for EON Productions & Prime Video David Arnold’s “Solange” from 2006’s 007 Casino Royale soundtrack begins with a beautiful riff. The track enters with gorgeous orchestral strings, giving way to augmentation as the intervals of the violin increase. Truly a thing of beauty.
Solange seemingly stumbled upon this soundtrack gem, repurposing the track’s leading riff for “Rise”—the intro to her critically acclaimed A Seat At The Table. She performs a vocal interpolation of the song’s leading melody, baking it into the powerful opening chorus: “Fall in your ways, so you can crumble/ Fall in your ways, so you can sleep at night/Fall in your ways, so you can wake up and rise.”
Knowles began writing the track with just a piano four years before its release in 2016, but as the cut evolved, so did its production. The track was produced by Ray Angry, Solange, Questlove, Majical Cloudz, and Raphael Saadiq, featuring additional vocals from the latter.
The songstress posted to her website that “Rise” was meant to uplift and inspire people to stay true to themselves amid the world’s chaos through “healing and self-empowerment.”
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Janet Jackson — “He Doesn’t Even Know That I’m Alive”
Image Credit: Malafronte/Getty Images In 2011, Solange linked with Blood Orange to cover Janet Jackson‘s “He Doesn’t Even Know That I’m Alive.” The Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis-produced track originates from Janet’s seminal 1986 album, Control. “He Doesn’t Even Know That I’m Alive” finds Jackson exploring the dynamic of a relationship lacking intimacy and attention and her attempt to fix it.
Solange’s cover is found on BO’s 2011 Home Recordings Mixtape and follows the original’s subject matter but leans harder into its 80s aesthetic for a murky and druggier sonic palette. The Houston songbird’s vocal performance is drenched in reverb, echoing her satin-like runs throughout the track. Additionally, synthetic drums can be heard thumping along a grooving bassline, adding to the track’s atmosphere and tonally different structure.