One Song - Favorite Moments of 2024

Episode Date: December 26, 2024

This week on One Song, join hosts Diallo and LUXXURY as they revisit their favorite moments of the show in 2024. Get ready to relive the stems and samples that blew their minds, one-of-a-kind parodies that only the guys could make, revelations with special guests, and of course -- some surprising *INTERPOLATIONS.* Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So luxury. Yes, Dielo. What would you say was your favorite one song moment of 2024? Wait, you want me to pick just one moment? Just one. I don't know if I can do that. That's a little too hard. We did so much.

We did so, like 50 episodes. There's like 20, 30, 40 moments every episode. I can't do it. You're right. This is actually tougher than I thought. Wait, I got an idea. What if we just talked about all our favorite moments in one episode? That is a great idea.

I think there's a name for that. TV shows did this all the time like in the 90s, like a year in review, a recap maybe. Oh, oh, oh, you mean. like a clip show. Clip show. That's a great idea. It's time for the 2024 One Song Clip Show. I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ Dialla Riddell.

And I'm producer, DJ, songwriter, and musicologist, luxury, aka the guy who whispers, Interpolation. If you want to watch One Song, please go to our YouTube channel and watch this full episode. And while you're there, please like and subscribe. All right, let's get it going. Let's do it. One Song Nation. We've come to the end of a huge year in music.

We saw country rise to the top of the Billboard charts. TikTok. continue to influence what songs broke through the noise, and we lived through the year of Brett. We also witnessed one of the most epic rap beefs of all time, and that barely scratches the surface. Barely, indeed. I think, to be fair, the bratness only began halfway through the year,

so it was half of a brat year, but I did enjoy that second half, until towards the end when I enjoyed it a little bit less. On this episode, we want to reflect on the songs we broke down during the year. We got to talk about some of our all-time favorite songs with each other and with some of our all-time favorite guests. That's right, Diallo. On this show this year, we've had such a fun year.

We've done so many cool episodes and we've had so many amazing guests. We talked to Questlove. We talked to Warren G. We had H. John Benjamin and John Early. We had Danielle Smith. We had Estelle. We could spend hours just talking about all the episodes we've done and all the amazing guests we've had,

not to mention the moments that stuck with us weeks and even months after we broke down the songs on those episodes. But for the sake of time, we've curated a list of clips for you to revisit and enjoy So where do you think we should start? You know, I think let's start with a clip from our episode on D-Lights. Yes. Groove is in the heart. One of my favorites, yes. That's right.

This clip did amazingly on our social. It's like 10 million views across all the platforms, TikTok, Instagram, et cetera. Questlove came on the show and he had just seen it. He was like, I can't believe that this clip that we're about to show you. In fact, a fan sent a screenshot of a jeopardy clue, which apparently maybe coincidentally was after this clip aired. Maybe not. There you know.

It may have been inspired by this fact. This is from the D-Light episode back in February of this year. If you haven't listened to one of our favorites and the fan favorite, go check it out. So one of my favorite samples is, of course, we all know that I couldn't dance with another. Yeah, what is that? This is a really fun sample because it actually comes from this. This is the Green Acres theme from 1966. And that little moment is Eva Gabor right here.

and in the mix they've taken that and they've done a kind of classic early sampling thing where you just go, I, I, I, I. No, I love it. I love the stuff like that. It's a sampler. Yeah, that's awesome.

A Kai, the $500 that she found in the back of the cab It's made so many hits. Went to sampling Ava Gabor from Green Acres and doing and then more importantly, which is so like two of hearts, I need you, which had already come out. which by the way, I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-Need-you.

Wow. Wow. Right? I love it. I mean, there's something about a good sampler used as a percussive instrument that will never get old. Because Stacey. Right?

That I-I-I-I-I-Trope came from 1986's Stacey Q hit Two of Hearts. First of all, this just demonstrates the beauty of sampling as an art form, the creativity behind sampling. Yeah. There are a handful of people in the... the comments. By the way, most people are like, this is just plain cool. But a handful of people are like, why don't you just sing? I, like, why do you have to sample it? And my answer to that is that's part of the creative process of using sampling. Sampling just sounds cooler when you use the sampler to do.

It sounds different. It sounds unusual. It's also inspiring. It also, you sort of bake into it. There's something baked into that sample, the source. There's something kind of ineffable about the aura of this Green Acres, you know, 60s sound, which you really couldn't reproduce. The other thing that I think about is how that's very genuine that in the moment I was like, oh, this reminds me of Stacey Q2 of hearts that moment. But the thing, one thing to clarify is that's by no means, first of all, like, she was the first person ever to use that rhythm. It's also by no means a calling out of like they are ripping anything off.

And just one sort of blanket statement I want to say, I think it's important for people to understand the distinction we make on this show. When we think about where did something come from, it's never about, or almost never about, they definitely were not being original. And this first person to do it was original. And they were definitely the first person ever. It's never about that. It's about recognizing that inspiration and influence comes from so many sources.

And that nobody should be the owner of the rhythm. That's for everyone to use. Yeah, I can't agree more. We often use the phrase, that reminds me of on this show. It's not us. We always say we're not the music snitch, please. or something like that. Yeah.

Yeah, it's not a calling out of, oh, they ripped this off. They might have been inspired by this. And by the way, the thing that they were inspired by likely had an inspiration source as well. 100%. This next clip is actually from our episode on De La Sol's buddy, but we got into talking about a fellow member of the Native Tons Collective, a tribe called Quest,

and more specifically, a legendary verse on their song, scenario. Oh, my God, this one got us so amped. I'm about to get in. Yes, I'm about to get re-empt. Yeah. Roll the clip. You have one of the most important moments in hip hop history, if I may be so bold, when Buster Rhymes comes in, and in particular one line, which I'm going to cut to,

here we go. As I did the cry, I had to make your pardon. When I travel to the turn, I roll with the squads and grow, like a dungeon dragon, change your little towards to the powerful sagging. That is the most satisfying moment in life. In my head, every time I hear that line, like, his voice goes up in volume. Yeah, me too, actually. And, like, just now it's like, no, he's kind of like, he kind of stays right here.

kind of in the same energy zone. When you're when you're jumping up and down with friends, everybody screams row, row like a dungeon dragon. It's throwing beer at each other. It is insane. Insanity.

And it's insanity at one song. It's insanity in the room. I don't think that's the sound dungeon dragons make. They go row? It's factually inaccurate. And it's taking a long time for anyone to notice.

Again, don't overthink it folks. If in your brain, dragons go roo-row-row. It's a little bit. Go with it. Speaking of getting like amped and hyped and pumped, which I'm already hyped and amped and pumped. Remember the episode we did about Into the Groove, Madonna's Into the Groove. We had Guillermo Diaz, amazing guest on that episode.

And we got so amped when we listened to that isolated bass line. Oh, we love that. We love that. We got to hear that one. That's right. That's in the base. I want to hear your reaction first. And then we'll talk a little bit about the details. So good.

I have no idea what you guys were talking about all that DX. The drum machine stuff, the music, nerve production stuff. But as a listener and a listener and a little bit of the music, lover of the music. It's wild because you could hear just a tiny, like a second of that and know it's into the groove. Yeah. Do you know what I mean?

So distinctive. I have a question. I don't know. What instrument is generating that? So this is, again, the rabbit hole thing. I am 88% sure from my research that it's a Roland MKS 80, which is basically a Jupiter 8 synth, but as a rack mount. It is known for being digitally harsh.

If you listen to it again, I like the digital harshness. Right. The lofi thing that I was referring to, we heard it in the drums. You can hear this kind of like crunchiness a little bit. This is my favorite part of the song, I will admit. This is the heart. The heartbeat and the heart.

Yes, as a DJ, like, you know, you try not to do too much with the trouble and the baseline or whatever, but whenever I would get to certain parts of the song, especially the bridge, like I would do everything I could on my mixer to isolate this baseline. Because it is so, and I never even really noticed the like at the end of the end of the end of the This bar. That's weird little moment. It feels very daft punk. You know,

I know the Daft punk is trying to go for the sound, but like that harsh, that harsh synthlet, like that, that is, it's very marauder. It's very Georgian marauder in that moment with a da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

I like how crunchy it sounds, it's very crunchy. That's a good daft punk connection, too, because you'll hear that a lot in the daft, eight-bit crunchiness that they add as a filter, which at the time in the 80s is all they could do. It's so hard. I love it.

It actually taps it to a part of my soul. We'll bring it back. But I just want to talk a little bit for a minute about the baseline influences because it is this electro-funk kind of buggy moment. We talked a little bit about this with Jimmy Jam too, right? Because they're programming synths, these baselines, which means you can do things

that are very hard for a bass player to do. In particular, those 16th notes, but no, no, no, no, don't, don't, don't do-da. And it's precise, and every note sounds exactly the same. And that's very gratifying to the human brain on the dance floor, especially, right? it's you get into a groove if you will. That's both interesting and very sad.

That we're falling in love with the part that it would be very hard for a human to do. Right. Yeah. It's like, let the robots play the music. Well, it very much evokes to me, do you remember this song by the system?

You are in my system. This is one of my favorites. They also did, Don't disturb this groove. I'm sure you, Don't disturb this groove. Oh, yeah, of course. There's a way you say that I'm so into you.

Oh my God. So good. Great song, right? Yes. But this song. Well, are in my system. Not only a great song, but also on the soundtrack to

Grand Theft Auto by City. And so I used to steal cars and just be blasting. You are in my system. To this tune. But this baseline to me, it very much evokes this baseline, which is from 82, a few years earlier. So sick. The sickness of this, or maybe even

Wait, wait, can I just say. Yeah, yeah, please, please. That section you played, I just want to see Eddie Murphy and his Axel Foley jacket running down the street about to tackle a dude. Doing something, right? There's something about that sound as like screams 80s movie. The sound of that synths, programmed synths with the 16th notes and it's funky and syncopated. It also shows up.

And by the way, the same person programmed David Frank programmed this other song, which you all recognize, called I Feel for You by Shaka Khan. I just never get tired of hearing those little melodic 16th note runs on the synth. And by the way, to be clear, David Frank from the system is that the, the, connection I was making is that they just sound those three songs had a similar the 16th note on the same but David Frank actually performs that like with his fingers with the precision it's I don't believe he uses a sequencer at least in the songs we just heard that's part of what makes him so incredible I agree and you know one thing I like about our show is that I know that David Frank listens to our show I feel like there are a lot of people who have you know played a part

in creating these great songs who are actually listeners of the show yeah and at some point guys we'd love to have you on the show. We will reach out in 2025. We do love talking about some of the lesser-known members of the music community who make the music we all know and love, whose names are in the credits and in the liner notes, but aren't always heard. So we call them the unsung heroes on the show.

So David Frank, definitely an unsung hero of sick bass lines. Well, listen, here on one song, if you've listened long enough, you know we love paying homage in the form of parody songs. So we're going to revisit a few in this episode, starting with our rendition of Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie. One, two, three, four. What you've been waiting for. One song, the studios of Sirius.

This is one song. In a building downtown, we're a family of two. There are people on the streets. Here we go. It's the terror of knowing what this podcast is about. We're just two friends. Watch us work it out. It's Diallo and Blake's rubbing,

aka one song with luxury and diallo. Oh, that was awesome. And I do enjoy like, you know, it's our own unique form of karaoke, but we are really like trying to give some flowers, both to the song and sometimes to this podcast. I was playing bass and trying to Freddie Mercury in there. I mean, there was some moments of inaccuracy that I will cop to.

Well, another thing I really love about this show, show is when you play the isolated vocals from songs that, you know, I've heard and I played as a DJ so many times, but it gives you a completely different way of hearing it. You know, it's like you're hearing it for the first time. And this moment from our Empire of the Sun episode, Walking on a dream really cracks me up. It's so pouty. Will I see again? Right? You have to do that with your brain. It's very pouty. Totally. You can hit it. It's very cranky child. Walking on a dream.

It's very punk. I feel like Luke comes from like the punk school of singing. Yeah, of emoting with like But yeah, like there's a hard out of his song. It's not even teenage angst. It's like nine-year-old angst. It's like, wang!

Love that wang! We love Empire of the Sun. It's this thing where like, especially, as you said, when the vocals are isolated and not in the context where with music surrounding it, you just really hear the person performing it. And in the same way that in the room, like you have to kind of watch.

the video clip. If you're listening to the podcast, pause it for a second, go check out the video clip. Or go watch us on YouTube. Or go watch it on YouTube. There is something when you are, you actually had the pouty face. You can't get that sound out of your mouth without your face, the sides of your mouth going down in a poutty. It's so true. It's impossible. The other thing I like about that walking on a dream episode is that it was a reminder to us that it's so random the songs, mainly via TikTok, the songs that, you know, our kids get into. Because I recently saw a playlist that my oldest child had put together, he called it non-rap

playlist. Non-rap. Non-rap playlist. And walking on Dream was on there. I was just like... How did you even hear that? Yeah, the 20-year-old song. It had to be TikTok.

It had to be TikTok. Well, it is on the radio still. I mean, that's the other thing. Not on the radio. You don't listen to the radio. Yeah. I feel like kids nowadays. Where are they even getting it?

Where would they get radio? Fortnite, right? Gaming, TikTok. And I guess the cars that pass by when you're driving on the other cars? I don't even know. Hey man, come back. Where did that car back?

What were you playing in that car? Car Shazam. That's a billion dollar idea. Billion dollar idea. There you go. Sometimes on this show we break down songs from 60 years ago, and sometimes it's songs from Two weeks ago. Exactly.

So earlier this year, we had to break down. We just had to figure out the special sauce behind why did Miley Cyrus's 2023 smash it flowers? Why did it go to number one in 37 countries? And we did something on that show that I really, really love. One thing that I love that we do on this show is when we take. We basically make remixes live on air. Like we, you know, you'll play some stems. You'll be like, stop right there.

Wait, wait, wait, no, no, no, no. You hear something. Just do the vocals. You hear something. You hear something. You know, I remember on this episode in particular, not only do we break down flowers, but when we played Miley's isolated vocals with some drums, we made an interesting new version of the song that doesn't exist anywhere else.

Except this one 60 second clip. Except in this clip. Roll the tape. It's really cool how it's mirroring that. I hear a remix. I'll tell you what, do me a favor. Play what you just played, but give me the drum kick. Okay.

With the vocals or no vocals? The vocals. Okay. Am I bringing the bass? Here we go. No, no, no. This is what makes it the remix. But you know what I'm saying.

Like, if you take out the bass, bass and just leaving that guitar that I've never heard before because it's so covered up in the mix. Yeah. It's deep in the mix. And her vocal part too, that harmony is really, you wouldn't have no, it's awesome. Just say, Emily, if you want to pay us, we've got a killer remix. You could go number one in 38 countries. Just hire us. Yeah, I mean, like, that's, okay, first off, that's a remix that exists nowhere outside of our show. But also, because we have these stems, you know, I remember on the Al Green episode, we played a portion of him singing that happens after the fade out. So again, unless you like...

It's on the recording, but you've never heard it. You never heard it. Because the song fades out, but they're still playing. Yeah, one fun thing for me listening back too, with you in the room, especially, because we tape the show and then, of course, you know, we edit and it comes out. And then time goes by and watching it later on,

sometimes I'm struck by how, you know, in the room, I was sort of moving on to the next thing, but you were having such a moment, and I'm glad I caught it because sometimes, like, I listen back, I'm like, oh, no, do y'all, I wanted to say this thing. I talked over him. you were having this vision of the remix, and it was really cool.

And I was following your instructions, and you came up with this really cool moment because of it. Thanks, man. I think that I think it's very mutual. Sometimes I'll listen back to an episode. I'll be like, I didn't even hear him say that. That's amazing. Well, since we're on the topic of discoveries, Diallo, you found one in our episode about Holo says, I can't go for that.

No, can't do that. Very true. And it was actually when we talked about another song of theirs, you make my dreams come true, that I was a little bit like, oh, my gosh, am I the only person hearing this? Let's revisit that moment. quick. You make my dreams come true. Another huge hit of theirs that I didn't know when I was a kid. Sort of had its moment. Like, I know it's in the wedding singer and stepbrothers, but man, that sequence in 500 days of summer. That's the one that made that huge. That to me is the one that. It's their

biggest streaming song now. Is it really? It's got to be because of that. You made my dreams. Yeah. That can only be due to 500 days of summer because that song, it's a great song, but I don't think that was, you know, on anybody's short list for a very long time. Fair point. I mean, great song. Great song. Great song. You make a bad dreams coach. It's so happy. It's so to taping. Oh, wait. What other song sort of sounds like that? It might be this one. What is this? I don't know this. Oh, you don't know this? Oh, what's that? Listen to the chorus. It's definitely. Somebody was listening to hauling notes.

I mean the, when they wrote this song, yeah. And the, the, woo-hoo-hoo. Like, it's, I don't like to be the song-stitch. Okay. You're not the song-stitch. This is like 40 years going, and I'm like, do y'all not hear the, like, even, even started with the beginning of the song. Written sideways.

One more time. 100%. What I want, you got, you got, might be hard to handle. It's a, here, here, just to be clear, this is, this is the same tempo range. It's the same bass octave things. And it's the same. And kick and snare, boom, and that. So they brought all these elements in.

No one could accuse this song of ripping off the other because there's no melody. That's the same. It's not a sample. Yeah. It's not a cover. It is just they liked that song. And they're like, let's pick and choose a few of the parts that feel like it. And then we'll write a new one.

Absolutely. I think John and Daryl are going after Huey Dewey and Louie. I got to say. I see a lawsuit. I'm kidding. But, you know, I think that's one of those times where I'd love. love drawing the connective tissue. Like, we also found out on that episode that the horn section on The Ducktail's song

is the same horn section that's on Thriller. And that, you know, just to know that there's a connection there. Yeah. And I think as the show gets made across the year, I can say I've personally evolved my thinking increasingly in the direction of using language to explain that this phenomenon is, to normalize basically this language of inspiration, this normalize this process of creativity where there are elements, there are things that inspire you, but what you're doing is completely new and different and doesn't require giving up half the song so often.

Yes. Of course, this is a case-by-case thing, but this is a perfect example of like, these are two distinct songs. You hear the similarities, but there really isn't any reason for DuckTales to pay royalties to all in oath. There's no reason for the DuckTales theme song to be that jamming. That was amazing. I was a date of myself.

I said jamming. Ironically. To be clear, there wasn't any. lawsuit or anything. We're just talking in this sort of abstract about it. Yeah. We're just talking. It's a podcast. Too do it's talking. It's a podcast. Sometimes we take one song on the road. There's nothing quite like a live show. The Quest Love episode was a lot of fun. And when we went to Vegas this year, we got to break down Bell Bibb DeVose Poison with Tank, the amazing R&B singer and songwriter and co-host of the R&B Money podcast. Luxury. You and Tank got really nerdy at one point.

I was so fun. I freaking loved it. Love that guy. You guys had a moment where you broke down the snare sample from the beginning of poison. That's right. Yeah, no, that was so fun. Tank was such a great guest. He was so fun to have on the show.

And we were both in it in that moment. Like, our eyes were locked and we're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was sort of like a producer, producer, like vibe. We're on the same frequency. That was really fun. Let's listen to it. One thing I'm fairly sure about, though, is that snare is also sample from James Brown. This snare.

99% sure. What did they do to that last snare? Play it again. Yeah. So I'm going to slow that down for you. Check this out. There is probably a slap delay so that each snare has this kind of thing after it.

This is that same beat half time. You hear how every time there's a snare, there's a da-da-da. Because when it cut the sample... It could be cutting off the thing that comes next in the snare sample. It sounds like the piece is running throughout the first snare hits,

but then in the last hit, they shorten it. I think it's... And at that time, your ability to perfectly craft where the beginning and end of the samples is very limited. We couldn't see the waveforms. You couldn't see the waveforms. But here's where it's coming from. That's great. That's slowdown.

You, boy, you were a genius. I spent a lot of time. It's so fun, though. It was worth a rabbit hole. I like nothing more in life than to do this. Sad but true. And here is the James Brown song. I'm fairly sure that snare comes from.

This is escapism from Hot Pants, 1971. And that's your classic, there it is. That's your classic break. You know, it's not fair that. Somebody with his muscle index should be just as smart as us. I just feel like, you're either handsome or you're smart. That's the rule in life. Pick one.

This is all I got, Tank. Damn it. Tank. All right, time for another parody song. This is from our Miley Cyrus episode on the song Flowers. And here is Diallo and my take. And just to set this clip up a little bit, what you're about to hear,

what we talk about on the episode, and what we'll go to the mat for in a court of law, should we be hired as the forensic musicologist in the Bruno Mars court case that is currently happening, is that what all these songs have in common in our medley is that they all use the same chord changes. The circle of fifths, a big part of the episode is us breaking that down,

but just to explain what you're about to hear, and now let's listen. Let me do you live from the Sirius X-XM studios here in Hollywood. This is one song. I can buy myself flowers, write my name in the sand, talk to myself for hours. say things you don't understand

Oh, so go Walk out the door Turn around now Because you're not welcome anymore It's a beautiful life Oh oh It's a beautiful life Oh oh

I'm a Barbie girl In a Barbie world Life in plastic It's fantastic Fly me to the moon Let me play among the stars No, I I will survive

Oh, as long as I know how to live I know I'll stay alive I've got all my life to live And I've got all my love to give I will survive I will survive I can take myself dancing and even hold my own hand

and I can love me better than You can brush my hair And trust me anywhere Imagination Life is your creation Baby Welcome to one song Woo

No auto tune if you guys can believe it No auto tune in sight I don't remember that would be that good It was really good It was pretty decent Yeah Everybody in the studio is laughing at us Guys it was not that good

After the break We'll revisit more of our favorite one song moments from 2024. Will one of your favorite moments make the cut? Maybe. There's only one way to find out. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back to One Song, luxury.

Which clip should we play next? How about we go back to that Songs of Summer episode? And by the way, thinking back, that was a lot of fun episode. It was a good summer. It was a lot of good music. And let's face it, we kind of nailed it with some of our selections. Some of the stuff that made it to the top 10 at the end of the year. Oh, that's true.

And I also think that there was quite a bit of a passing of the torch, like, across the board, all the genres. Like, I feel like, you know, COVID got this decade off to a really weird start. But now we feel like I'm into a decade that is very well defined compared to, like, the 20 teens. Oh, it's interesting. What do you mean, like, in terms of the sound? Like, in other words, like, you know, there are obviously carryovers from the last decade. But like, now we have everybody from Charlie X, The X, X and Sabrina Carpenter to Tyler's, like, in a different place in his career now. And I just feel like overall, the music that's coming out now is defining the 2020s. Very cool. Well, let's start with Sabrina Carpenter. Everyone knows that she had a huge

2024. Espresso, the song Espresso was everywhere. Still takes me back to the spring. It's still, oh yeah, it feels like. Yeah, it really does. When I hear that song now, I do, I'm like, ah, man, the weather was so nice back then. When I was doing research on the song, I found something peculiar, peculiar. Peculiar. That's a funny word. Peculiar is a peculiar word. I found a peculiar fact about the sample that was used in the song. So let's check out the clip. Let's write it back. me every my old. I mean, just a catchy tune. So catchy.

Admittedly, I do find myself sometimes when, you know, packing up the kids to send them off to camp. You just be put on espresso by Sabrina Carpenter. I just in my head. I'm literally imagining this song playing out. This song plays in my head. I mean, I think we're going to see a lot more Sabrina Carpenter in the time to come. Oh, yeah. She's just getting started.

To me, she occupies a lane that, you know, 15 years ago would have been Katie Perry. Like, she's like sort of like the pop diva, but she's like kind of edgy. in her own little way, you know? And also, I think she's playing it really smart. First off, she has an espresso ice cream coming out. That is a brilliant collab. That's really smart. Here's something I didn't know.

She played the best friend on the reboot of Boy Meets World, which was a girl meets world. And she played the best friend, which I think is the new lane, if you want to become a pop. We all know Ariana Grande was not the star. Like, she was like the best friend. I think that that's the lane now. Like just play the best friend, you know? I know that we had Miley. I know that she was Hannah Montana, but I think nowadays, play the best friend. And you're on a way to pop super start. Before I say, which song this reminds me of quite a bit.

What can you tell us about espresso by Sabrina Carpenter? Well, one thing that I found really fun as I was investigating the songwriting process. So Sabrina is co-writer, along with Amy Allen, Julian Bonetta, and Steph Jones. But there's actually an unacknowledged fifth songwriter of this song. And I just love when I find little details like this. So I mentioned my friend, Mr. Von Oliver. of our on a previous episode. He is a producer. If you're a producer, you have definitely used his splice packs. And that's relevant because his splice packs, by the way, are called power tools. They're always, for five years or something, they've been in the top five most used splice packs. And by the way, I should back up and say, for those of you don't know, Splice is a place on the internet, splice.com, you can get them not being paid for this. But I use it all the time. It's a great place to

get legally cleared samples. So it's a great place to get song starters like you can get not just drumbees, and loops and one shots like kick drums and snares to build a drum kit. You can get entire eight-bar loops with chord changes and sound and everything. You can really start at splice and build a song. And I'm saying that now because that's how this song seems to have been written. I'm going to play for you now a splice sample from what I'm considering the unacknowledged fifth songwriter of Espresso, my buddy von Oliver, check out the splice loop they used. Now again, to be clear, what I just played for you is not the song, Espresso, but I will now I'll play for you the song Espresso, and you'll hear how the sample, which you can get on Splice,

and which these producers obviously used, is just in the song. And here it is. So again, that is how a lot of music is made these days. That is such a summer jam, isn't it? It really does. And to those who are watching on YouTube, we just showed the clip, like everything about the visuals and the sound, it's just, it takes me back. One of the things that's emerged as we've done this show to me, especially, is that there's often a discrepancy between what you hear, who made it, who got credited, and who got paid. These four things can often have nothing in common.

So this is a situation. And to be clear, Von Oliver is very happy with his contribution. He's been in interviews. He makes money doing lots of things. This is just one of them. And for him, it might just be a fun fact that I think he got paid. He supplied the spine for one of the biggest songs of the year. That's right.

So his splice loop, that thing he created, which musically is. the bedrock of the song. He's not considered a songwriter in terms of the credits and the forever IP money that comes from owning a portion of the copyright on a massive song. But he's compensated in other ways. He's very happy. It's not a complaint in any way. But it's interesting to think about how what you hear is not just the songwriter's credited in the credits, but musically it comes from these other sources as well. Absolutely. How much did they pay for the Splice sample? Well, that's the other funny thing. So just to clarify something, and by the way, I did meet with some members of Splice who took me to lunch just to be like, you guys want to maybe

clarify what the money thing is here. When you are a Splice subscriber, you pay 10 cents to use any individual sample, which means that the people in the room who made espresso, the four co-writers, spent a dime. Spent a dime to get that sample and to legally be able to use it forever. It's a cleared sample. They don't pay any other money for the rest of their lives. But thousands of people have downloaded that sample. Thousands of people have downloaded his other samples, Vaughn's power tools packs are some of the most popular year in, year out. So he's making lots and lots and lots of money in toto. If you're just using Vaughn Oliver's, that little loop.

And it's not called espresso, you don't use anything else from the Sabrina Carpenter's song. You can use that part of the song. I mean, listen, on social media, I made a follow video where I said, listen, anyone can use the same loop and make another song. And it's technically true. The thing is, you might still get the attention of Sabrina Carpenter's lawyers. just if it's too close to comfort. They might find something too close for comfort.

So I wouldn't advise doing it, but technically it is legal to go on splice and use that same loop for another song. That carpenter got some lawyers, y'all. She certainly does. I wouldn't do it. Don't take my advice. Well, before we move on from this,

I would have a question. Obviously, the dime that they pay to use that loop doesn't mean a whole lot to your friend. But as somebody who, I mean, you make these spliced loops as well. Right. So my question to you is, what is the financial and, for you. It's obviously not to make a penny on that dime. No, no, no. I've done, I have two

packs on Splice right now. I have luxury, dusty disco discoveries and a couple of, so I have a few hundred samples on Spice, which are, I made little hi-hats and drums and baselines and chord changes, and anyone can use them to build a song around. And I do, if any individual, it's kind of like voting where any individual vote, it's like, it doesn't matter if I don't vote. But across all the votes, you elect presidents. So you're making a lot of little dimes. I'm making a lot of little dimes. And over time I've made good money. It's a pretty good source of income for me over the years. That's often. When we go about

selecting guests for our show, we have sometimes a comedian or a musician or a producer. Sometimes it's the person who produced a song. This was actually the year that we, for the first time ever, had the actual artist, you know, basically playing, you know, their song for us.

And it was Warren G. And he came to the studio to break down his G-funk classic regulate. That's right. And there was something really special about Warren sharing his own stance. own stems from 30 years ago, especially when he explained how he wrote the lyrics. And the cold thing about it is we didn't even have a hook. Yeah, there's not really a chorus per se. There's no real hook.

No hook. You have, you do, to be fair, Nate's melody is kind of, it's kind of a hook. I don't know, is it, nice melody or is it the instrumental? You could argue what it is. Maybe the melody, that's true. We left it open for people's imagination. Like, after we told the story that we told, it would leave people like, damn. The storytelling.

They're thinking like what's going to happen next. You're so drawn into what's happened, the storytelling that you don't need regulate. There's no like chorus with the like that. Regulite, regulate. Everybody regulate. Oh, yeah. You're taking my wealth.

I'm bringing myself. Red Schneider here. B-52s, I hope you all are listening. The whole song for you right there. You're welcome. Warren, he's like, how do I end up next of these two times? I saw it. I love Warren G. humoring us.

I totally forgot we busted into that at that moment. And by the way, just to be clear, obviously the word hook has multiple meanings. In this case, we're talking about kind of a chorus. You could technically say that it's kind of a hook. You could also technically sing da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. That's definitely a hook. I think in the hip-hop community, in the hip-hop community, hook almost always just means chorus. We had a bunch of people in the comments, though.

sort of pointing those two things out. So it's one of those things where it's a term that can mean different things. You know, when we started this podcast, I only thought of riff as like a way that like, you know, basically singers would do their runs. Okay. And then, you know, is when I started talking to you that I was like, oh, wait, so guitars are riffs. Like that to me was like a foreign concept. Right.

No, it's true. Look. Riffs. Hooks. Right. These things mean different in different genres. I'll give you another one. The word bridge versus the word middle eight.

Like the word bridge to this day, if you're, talking to somebody from England, they might think of a bridge meaning something different than we do in America. Songwriters here, almost universally, the bridge will be eight bars after the second chorus and before the third chorus. But sometimes bridge can be the pre-chorus and they call the middle eight a section that happens there. So terminology can be very contextual and, you know, depends on the person you're talking to in their experience. Totally. Behind the scenes here at one song land, one of the fun things, one of the most fun conversations we can get into that takes longer than you expect is like figuring out the next song we should do because we have so much love for so many

songs. There was one case though where it was an instant yes to a degree that we needed two episodes to get everything out that we wanted to say. That's right. And that's when we did the daft punk episode. That's right. We couldn't contain all of our excitement to one daft punk episode. So that's right. We made a double feature and breaking down get lucky was so fun. We really went on like a deep dive into daft punk's origin story, especially their early days of sampling. First, Let's start with harder, better, faster, stronger from 2001. And the sample is from Edwin Birdsong's 1979 track, Cola Bottle Baby. First I'll play a little bit of that.

So here's how they chopped it up. That little bit right there and also this full loop. You sit that little bit that I said it was a little bit. So those two little bits are used kind of as a setup. The repetition is used before we get that big four bar loop. So here's how Daft Punk did it. And for our listeners, there is a little clam in there because that is me on my, in Ableton, I chopped up the song to recreate it.

So I am pushing buttons and I pushed the wrong button. You know, when I signed up to do this podcast, I thought you were DILA. So, you know, I'm little disappointed if you let these mistakes happen under my good name. I mean, one of the things I love about DAPT is also like if you go back and look at their early performances. Like they're doing some of the stuff live. Not to the degree that it would go on an album, but there's a lot of like, you know,

there's banks of equipment. In addition to like the turntables, they have samplers up there. They're doing a lot of this stuff. Yeah, no, it's true. It looks so fun. There is something kind of appropriate to the artists where, I mean, if you listen to early daft punk records before it get lucky, actually,

when everything changed, there's a lot of imperfection. There's a lot of, your homework is to listen to homework. Listening to that record again, there's a lot of stuff in the mix. It's sort of like we talk about with Prince. was not a sonic perfectionist. There's a lot of amazing. The songwriting is what's amazing. The performance is what's amazing.

And the sounds and the engineering and some of the, you know, EQ settings, et cetera, are not perfect by any means. Daft punk, same thing. So me getting something wrong is almost like daft punk being imperfect with their earlier work. You hear flams sometimes. You'll hear two samples on top of each other and the kick drums don't quite align. But it doesn't make you dislike the song. No, not at all.

The music is still amazing. So much gold in the stems for Get Lucky. It was a hard thing to choose the best. possible part. But in my humble opinion, nobody was even forcing us to choose it. No one was forcing it. But in my mind, I was like, the people need to know what I think the best part is. Well, you know, I think we found it. And let's roll the tape so that they know what we think is the best part of get lucky. I love that. It's a great chorus. Can you play for us when the robots come in? Oh, I'm glad you asked. We're up all night to get. That's when we get back to the repetitious robot voice that saying around the world.

One more time. Like, you know, it's that repetition that we love so much. I'd love to hear them saying, we're up all night to get. There is no doubt that this is the best part of the song, so you know I'm going to give it to you. We're up on nights again, lucky. We're up all night to get lucky. We're up all nights again lucky. That's the best part.

That part is so good. Which just proves that I'm a OG daft punk band. No, I remember the first time I heard Harder, better, faster, stronger. I was already loving the album. Yeah. But when they get into the Roger, Zab and Roger, of that song.

It didn't surprise me when Kanye sampled it. That to me was like, the talk box? Like, oh, my God, it's so good. Everyone loves to talkbox slash vocoder.

The line is thin in this track. I got to tell you. I hear vote coders, but I also hear stuff you can do with the talk box. I'm not really sure. I know they have a lot. I'm pretty sure it's vocoder.

But to our listeners, it's very talk box. It's not, guys, it's not auto tune. And one of these days we're going to do a segment called vote coder, talk box,

auto tune. And we're going to lay it out why you can tell the difference. D'allel, we've got just three more clips to go. No. I know, it seems cruel. But what else do you want to share before this episode is over? You know, I will say this.

We got to talk about one of the artists who's been on our list for ages ever since we started the show, Shaka Khan. Yes. So God we finally got. I'm Every Woman was a transformative experience for all of us, especially for our guest, journalist and author Danielle Smith. Let's revisit that moment. And then we do this modulation.

There comes. That's the best part right there. Yeah, now everybody knows that. Did she know she was going to do that before she did it? Let's just hear it by itself. That's a long note. She goes low with it. It's like a waterfall.

That is insane. And I feel like that is the one part where like, Whitney was like, I ain't touching that part. I'm doing that exactly like her. What else are you going to do? Descend chromatically into that final minute. Can I just say? the greatest outro because people forget

this is not technically the chorus anymore we're into the outro of the song but like she's just hitting you every single bar just every single bar just pure clean notes from the from the queen herself man that's such a good one that was such a good one

and I thought that for Danielle to open herself up emotionally to the incredible experience I mean like it's not horror when you have Shaka blasting in the studio like her voice the timber it just it hits Everything was infectious from Shaka to Danielle to us.

To be in that room was a really special episode. Yeah. And so fun, so funny, too. That's one of my favorites. But yeah, that shock episode is really emotional. And I think that sometimes, you know, our show helps me appreciate the emotion of music. You know, we actually had a moment during our Juice World episode. You know, Juice World being someone who left us way too soon.

And he pretty much, you know, put, you know, emo rap on the map. And I remember when I went back and listened to that episode, we were listening to his isolated vocals on lucid dreams and analyzing his lyrics. And the episode got kind of deep and heavy, you know, more so than we usually go. Let's play that clip for a second. I still see your shadows in my room. Can't take back the love that I gave you.

It's to the point why I love and I hate you and I cannot change you, so I must replace you. So packed with so much. Yes. I will say this. These lyrics that he's singing, he's singing them, obviously. I have to say that I almost felt like he was singing the words his girlfriend would sing to him upon his passing. Does that make sense?

Like, I know it's such a circular. Processing that. That's heavy. It's like, it blew my own mind. I was like, oh, shit. He's singing as his girlfriend. Oh, my God. That's really haunting.

And then if you think of it that way. I still see the shadows in my room. Yes. Can't take back the love. It's to the point where I love. And I hate you, emotion that you feel when you feels like somebody didn't do enough to stay here. I'm speech.

I love that analysis. I think that's really powerful. And by the way, fans of juice world might be like, yo, bra, you weigh off or whatever. No, no,

I'm going to support that. No one knows more than anyone else what was in Jared Higgins' mind as he's doing that. That seems very plausible. And all art is obviously open to the interpretation of the people who, you know, take in the art. But that was something that I took away.

And all the times I'd ever heard this song, I really did think that, like, you know, he might be singing in the voice of his girlfriend. You know, maybe it's the comedian in me. I don't always feel comfortable, like, you know, having heart, you know, injected into things too much. But, yeah, I feel like, again, you know, and I hear people in the comments say it, like, oh, this is like what I hang out with my friends. We listen to music and talk about it. I feel like this is organically just what you and I do. Absolutely. And not to get like too meta about it, one of my favorite things about making the show is the moments that are unplanned and unexpected. You know, we come to the show. We have some ideas of some of the things we want to talk about. We kind of set things up. It's a little bit of a map. But it's mostly a conversation. And sometimes the conversation goes in unexpected directions. And my favorite thing is moments like that. I mean, this is a therapy. Where it's where I got it from. But like it's a genuinely co-created show. Like nobody we combined, we're listening and reacting to each other and co-creating this thought. Actually, I should give you full credit. thought came from you. But I love the idea that this is all stuff that comes out of our discussion,

our conversation, our listening, our thinking, and our conversating leads to these insights and these moments, these real emotional moments. Totally. We have been talking about doing a Michael Jackson song for a long time. And Halloween just seemed like the right time to unleash Michael Jackson's mind-blowing stacked vocals. Oh, I love this episode. I mean, look, there isn't anything about the stems that's ever disappointing, but there's always these wonderful surprises. And you really feel it like the hair stands in the back of your neck. This is one of the same. This is one of the same. I love this those spintingly moments. Yeah.

So let's hear the incredible vocal stack on Michael Jackson's thriller. Geller, Della, Jella, Della here tonight. I mean, it makes sense. He used to sing in the Jackson 5. He used to have to like, you know, they said when he was on the set of The Wiz, he knew his lines, but he knew everybody else's lines. And I have to believe that in the Jackson 5, he knew his part, he knew Tito's part, he knew Marlins part, like he knew all the parts.

And here he's just singing all of the parts. through the studio magic of Quincy Jones at the board. Yes, it's insane. There's more to come. I know, there are more stacks. Let's go. There's the next one. There's actually four more.

I'll just give them to all at once, so we can get to all 14 voices on the jazziest stack in a pop record, I think, perhaps ever made. Oh, my God. This is one of those moments. This happens maybe not every episode, but certainly on a lot of them where we listen to something,

and I just don't have anything to say because it just renders me speechless. What could you say? To be clear, by the way, a couple of things. One, by the listening back, again, I am speechless in the room, just listening to that. The distinction between the first stack and the second stack is so subtle. It's just there's a few more voices that are in the second person. We're hearing the same thing mostly, but the richness is slightly more 3D, but it's very subtle.

But that's the subtlety is what matters, is what makes the difference. And just a very small note, the magic on the boards technically would have been Bruce Swardian, but Quincy and Bruce Swardian were both at the boards technically. Sometimes we don't have to address the commenters who are very literal. But yes, Quincy Jones, RIP passed this year. He was the producer of this record with his engineer, Bruce Swardian. And collectively, that was the team, along with the others we talk about on the episode, who made magic along with Michael in that song.

Absolutely. Well, listen, it's been a great year for one song. I'm already pumped for 2025, and speaking of which, what songs are you looking forward to breaking down in 2025? Oh, man, we have such a long list of songs yet to go. There's literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of episodes we can make. All right. And what's your message of hope for 2025?

Oh, there is no hope. Okay. Without one song. Listen, thanks so much to you, the One Song Nation for all your support. We really appreciate all your comments and your DMs, even the passive aggressive ones on each and every episode. Your love, passion, and support for our show means actually so social. so much to us. That's right. We couldn't have made it this far without you, the One Song Nation, and we've got so much more in store for you in 2025. More stems, more samples, and of course,

more interpolations. And more, one more songs. We're finding new artists all the time, and that makes it a lot of fun. That's right. So from us, the One Song Nation family to yours, happy holidays. See you in 2025. As always, you can find us on Instagram and TikTok. You can find me on Instagram at Diallo, DIA, LLO, and on TikTok at Diallo. And you can You can find me on Instagram at LUXXURY and on TikTok at Luxury XX. You can also watch full episodes of One Song on YouTube right now. Just search for One Song podcast. We'd love it if you like and subscribe.

And if you've made it this far, I think that means you like this podcast. So please don't forget to give us five stars. Leave a review and share it with someone you think would like it. It really helps keep the show going. All right, luxury. Help me on this thing. All right. Well, I'm producer, DJ, songwriter, and musicologist Luxury.

And I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ D. all a riddle. And this is one song. We will see you next time.