{"id":5571,"date":"2018-11-03T12:00:11","date_gmt":"2018-11-03T16:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?p=5571"},"modified":"2025-09-17T12:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T16:02:08","slug":"around-the-world-jay-dee-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/around-the-world-jay-dee-part-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Around the World with Jay Dee: Part 4 – Europe (continued)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Illustration: Jeremy Leung<\/a><\/h6>\n

Jay Dee (aka J Dilla) was no stranger to moving out of hip hop\u2019s comfort zone and into new sonic territory.<\/h1>\n

Whether it\u2019s short as a single vocal phrase or as left-field as a retro synth melody, anything is fair game from a sampling perspective as long as it captures something special. Flipping through Jay Dee\u2019s discography, it becomes clear that he felt no need to keep things ‘traditional.’ Rather, he embraced the distinct and pioneering elements of one musical style by re-imagining them in another.<\/p>\n

We continue our “Around the World with Jay Dee” series with somewhere you might not expect when it comes to hip hop – the Mediterranean. But Italy is home to Giorgio Moroder, one of the most influential composer-producers of the 20th century proclaimed the \u201cFather of Disco,\u201d if not modern electronic dance music as a whole. It turns out even hip hop was no exception to his influence.<\/p>\n

Our \u201cAround the World with Jay Dee\u201d series is powered in partnership with WhoSampled.com,<\/a> the world\u2019s largest community for fans of sampled music, cover songs, and remixes.<\/em><\/p>\n

Italy<\/h2>\n

J Dilla’s \u201cPhantom of the Synths\u201d samples Giorgio Moroder\u2019s “Theme From Midnight Express.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no shortage of hip hop producers with some Moroder in their beats – this sample alone appears on tracks by MF DOOM, Mobb Deep, Jay Electronica, and OutKast. The catchy synth melody is taken from the 1978 crime drama Midnight Express<\/em>, Moroder\u2019s first motion picture soundtrack, which coincidentally went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Score the following year. Jay Dee speeds up the pattern, thickens up the drums, and lets the original sample shine through with its lead organ line, layered synth stabs, bubbly effects, and underlying bed of strings.<\/p>\n