SAMPLED: The Game – "Scared Now" feat. Meek Mill

by Aaron Zorgel

December 14, 2012

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SAMPLED examines the skeletal production of a contemporary rap, R&B, hip-hop or pop song — Where did the loop, sample, or chopped up vocal providing the backbone originate? SAMPLED gives you the history, the context, and the insight.

This week, the sample is taken from “This Side Of Forever,” a song from 1983, composed by Lalo Schifrin and Jerry Fielding and sung by Roberta Flack specifically for the Sudden Impact soundtrack, the fourth film in the Dirty Harry series:

You might not know him by name, but you’re definitely familiar with at least one of his melodies. Lalo Schifrin is an Argentinian film composer best known for composing the iconic theme from Mission Impossible. I’m actually having trouble thinking of a more universally-known melody. Maybe the Jaws theme, or the iPhone marimba ringtone? The “Numa Numa” song is a real crowd pleaser. Ah, it’s gotta be “Happy Birthday,” right? Moving on, the point I’m trying to make is that Lalo Schifrin is in your brain, whether you knew his name prior to ten seconds ago or not.

Schifrin began studying piano at the age of six, and receiving training in multiple disciplines, he started his own sixteen-piece jazz orchestra when he was in his early twenties. This band would perform on a popular weekly variety show on a Buenos Aires television station, which allowed Schifrin to meet Dizzy Gillespie. Schifrin composed a piece for Gillespie’s big band, and soon moved to New York to join his quintet. While under contract to MGM, Schifrin was offered the chance to score a Hollywood film called Rhino!. He enjoyed the task so much that it prompted a move to Hollywood, where he would be in a better position to receive more film and television composition work.

Lalo Schifrin’s career has been long and prolific, consisting of over thirty solo albums, fifteen soundtrack albums, twelve television scores, and over seventy-five film scores, winning four GRAMMY Awards (with twenty-one nominations) and six Oscars. Like I said, Lalo Schifrin is in your brain. He even scored all three Rush Hour movies. Your favourites!

“This Side Of Forever” appears on Sudden Impact, the fourth installment of the Dirty Harry series, which is incidentally the Dirty Harry movie famous for coining the Clint Eastwood maximum badass catch-phrase phrase “Go ahead, make my day.” The song is equal parts eighties electro cheese and jazzy discarded Bond theme, and though I haven’t seen Sudden Impact recently, I expect the painfully emotional “This Side Of Forever” plays while Dirty Harry cries himself to sleep after a long, hard day of being a tough guy.

“This Side Of Forever” was recently sampled by Atlanta-based hip-hop producer Black Metaphor on “Scared Now,” the opening track from The Game’s Jesus Piece:

Speaking of tough guys, The Game just released Jesus Piece this week, his fifth studio album to date. The features on it are simply stacked: Meek Mill, 2 Chainz, Rick Ross, Kanye West, Common, J Cole, Lil Wayne, Big Sean, Pusha T, Kendrick Lamar, Chris Brown, and Wiz Khalifa all came out to lend a hand on Jesus Piece.

When it comes to beat selection, The Game seem to gravitate towards sample-based music, so it’s no surprise that nearly every track on Jesus Piece was derived from samples. Game enlisted Atlanta producer Black Metaphor (Young Jeezy, Meek Mill) to produce the first two tracks on Jesus Piece, which is a huge co-sign for the young producer, considering the first track sets the tone for the entire record.

The intro from “This Side Of Forever” already sounds like a ready-made trap synthesizer melody, so all Black Metaphor had to do was chop the intro, pitch it up and increase the tempo. He adds a drum beat, a bassline, and some heavy low octave piano stabs to make “Scared Now” one of the most moody, menacing opening tracks we’ve heard all year. The only real oversight here is that The Game didn’t work “Go ahead, make my day” into his lyrics somewhere.

Tags: Music, Featured, News, Black Metaphor, Jerry Fielding, Meek Mill, The Game

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