A number of news outlets have reported that Lil Nas X, known for the genre-bending (and solid controversy/dog whistle for racists) song Old Town Road, purchased the beat used in on his track. While it wasn’t a secret by any means, the idea that someone purchased a sample or a beat as concept seemed to completely bewilder to the general public (sparking a discussion about ‘real music’).
Everyone who has remotely sniffed around the business of producing music understands that this is extremely common. There are hundreds of sites dedicated to selling full beats, sound loops, and individual WAV files of instruments. We touched on this corner a little earlier on in a Deadmau5 article about his masterclass, where he casually talks about the music business. You don’t have to be a center-stage performer to make a living in this world. There are plenty of opportunities around the show to make an income.
Fast forward to Old Town Road. Lil Nas X purchased the beat from an artist named YoungKio (the actual producer behind the original beat), even purchased/used sampled pieces of other songs to create the track. Not only did this score him an insane amount of publicity, but he was able to negotiate a deal with Lil Nas X (pretty classy move of respect here), and get hooked up with Universal Music Group for future projects.
Not a bad way to get a break into the industry.
Sampling, sharing, and just general collaboration is the way music both progresses and pays tribute to the tracks laid along the way. To think of it in another way: an engineers may break down a toaster to figure out how it works, and then use some of those same pieces to build another appliance.
This shouldn’t spiral into a discussion around “oh nothings original anymore,” or “oh that’s why only real musicians… blah blah blah”. I promise you that what you hear on the radio has been infused with the work of others in some capacity. Popular music (much like the old football trope) is a copycat league.
Lil Nas built something people enjoy, tipped his hat to the people who contributed to his art, and continues to be a pretty inspiring person.