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Where yesterday's soul meets today's sound.
A 60-minute deep dive into the records that built hip-hop. We play the source, then the sample — and tell the story in between.
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Soul Sample airs Fridays, 8 to 9pm Central on Rebel Radio 92.1 FM, the Voice of Ole Miss. Press play to hear the station right here, as it broadcasts.
Two seasons. Sixteen episodes. Every era covered — from the source record that started it all to the sample that carried it forward.
From "Shining Star" to "September" — Earth, Wind & Fire built a catalog so rhythmically rich and emotionally vast that hip-hop producers have never stopped reaching for it. This episode traces the legacy of the elements.
Minnie Riperton's five-octave voice became some of the most beautifully sampled material in hip-hop and neo-soul history. From Erykah Badu to A Tribe Called Quest to 2Pac.
Gil Scott-Heron didn't just write poems — he wrote prophecy. How his words and grooves became essential source material for hip-hop's most conscious artists.
Tracing the DNA from Parliament-Funkadelic through to hip-hop and beyond — how P-Funk became the most sampled movement in Black music history.
The artist who defined hip-hop soul. The original records behind some of her most iconic songs and how soul, funk, and hip-hop came together to create a new sound in the 90s.
From vibraphones to basslines, from crate digging to clean loops — Tribe didn't just sample records, they curated a sound. This episode breaks down the jazz and soul foundations behind one of hip-hop's most influential groups.
The production genius of Dr. Dre and how classic soul and funk records became the foundation of West Coast hip-hop. The origins of G-Funk and why Dre's sound feels different.
Before the sampler, before the MPC, before neo-soul had a name — Eddie Kendricks was already creating the sound. How his falsetto became the emotional and sonic foundation for generations of artists.
From Baduizm to New Amerykah — Erykah Badu didn't just sample the past, she transformed it. The soul, jazz, and funk records that shaped one of the most important catalogs in neo-soul history.
Before the success. Before the luxury. Before Life After Death — there was soul. The records that helped shape the sound of The Notorious B.I.G.
Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Queen Latifah, Monie Love, Black Sheep, Chi-Ali — eight source records, eight samples, one hour.
Two of the most fearless, uncompromising sounds in American music — Stax Records and Wu-Tang Clan — put head to head. The soul that built the sample, and the sample that built a dynasty.
The women who built the sound before anyone was listening. A deep tribute to the female soul voices whose records became the backbone of hip-hop.
From "What's Going On" to "Let's Get It On" — tracing how Marvin's catalog became one of the most sampled bodies of work in hip-hop history.
Isaac Hayes built cinematic soul before anyone called it that. This episode follows his orchestral grooves from Stax Records to the samples that live inside hip-hop classics.
One of the most gifted and most sampled vocalists in soul history. A confession, a catalog, and a legacy that producers keep returning to.
André 3000 and Big Boi didn't just make Southern hip-hop — they rewired what hip-hop could sound like. How Outkast sampled Black American music to create something entirely new.
The holiday season, sampled. Classic Christmas soul records and the hip-hop productions they quietly powered.
El DeBarge's silky falsetto became a pillar of hip-hop sampling. This episode traces the DeBarge family's outsized influence on the genre.
Before Thriller, before Off the Wall — the early MJ records and Jackson 5 sides that producers were quietly digging for decades.
The unbroken line from Delta blues to modern rap. How the oldest American music became the DNA of the newest — without most people noticing.
Curtis Mayfield's strings, his falsetto, his consciousness — all sampled endlessly by hip-hop's greatest. An episode-length tribute to the man who wrote the blueprint.
Nina Simone's voice was resistance. Her recordings became raw material for some of hip-hop's most politically charged records. This episode is her tribute.
Hip-hop doesn't only sample soul — it samples everything. This episode explores the surprising pop and rock records that became foundational hip-hop breaks.
Jazz was the original sample library. From Miles to Coltrane to Roy Ayers — how jazz musicians became the most crate-dug artists in hip-hop history.
A sweep through four decades of soul — and a special tribute to D'Angelo, whose neo-soul records both sampled the past and became samples themselves.
Where it all started. The first episode of Soul Sample on Rebel Radio 92.1 — introducing the show's format and the philosophy behind it: start at the source, end at the sample.
Full episodes, source & sample breakdowns, and behind-the-crate extras. Subscribe and never miss a drop.
Record finds, episode teasers, source & sample graphics, and the stories behind the grooves — on Instagram every week.
Soul Sample is a 60-minute radio show built on a single conviction: the samples weren't theft. They were conversation.
Every episode, we go back to the source record first — the soul, the funk, the jazz, the Latin groove that a producer heard in a crate at two in the morning. We let it breathe on its own terms. Then we play what was built from it.
Because once you hear where it came from, you'll never hear the hip-hop record the same way again.
We cover the Native Tongue Collective, Golden Age New York, the G-Funk era, Dirty South, and beyond — tracing the unbroken line from Stax and Motown and Blue Note through to the records that defined generations.
This is music history as it should be told. With the records playing.
"Where yesterday's soul meets today's sound."
New episode in your inbox every week. Tracklists, source notes, and the story behind every sample — before it drops anywhere else.