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, we’re breaking down the sample used in “Oil Money Gang” by Rick Ross, a single produced by go-to Maybach Music Group hitmakers the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, featuring Jadakiss. For this sample, we’re combing through the back catalogue of smooth jazz pioneer Lonnie Liston Smith:

Lonnie Liston Smith, Jr. was born into a musical family in Richmond, Virginia in 1940, learning piano, trumpet, and tuba in high school, and graduating with a degree in musical education from Morgan State University in Baltimore. In 1963, he relocated to New York City, where he started playing piano in jazz bands, and lending out his services as session musician in recording studios. In 1965, he joined the Jazz Messengers, who would become a pivotal sextet in an experimental jazz scene that would give rise to legends like Miles Davis and Chick Corea. In 1972, Lonnie accepted an invitation to join Miles Davis’ band on organs and keyboards, which appeared on all of Davis’ recordings from that period.

After his time in Miles Davis’ band, Lonnie Liston Smith formed his own ensemble, Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes, adopting a style rooted in fusion funk and soul, somewhat of a departure from the free jazz that he’d become known for while playing with the Jazz Messengers and Miles Davis. The genre experimentation made The Cosmic Echoes a crossover hit with jazz, funk, and soul audiences, and their albums are still regarded as mainstays in the jazz fusion genre. (The 1983 Cosmic Echoes record Dreams of Tomorrow is the one that the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League saw fit to chop for “Oil Money Gang.”)

The Cosmic Echoes disbanded in 1985, and Lonnie Liston Smith returned to his free jazz roots, releasing recordings under his own name. The hip-hop community began taking note of Lonnie’s work after he began collaborating with legendary New York City rapper Guru, appearing on the revolutionary Guru’s Jazzmatazz Vol. 1, one of the first recordings to incorporate a live jazz band. Since then, Lonnie Liston Smith’s worth has been sampled by countless hip-hop artists, including Diggable Planets, Joey Bada$$, MF Doom, and most recently, Rick Ross.

A sample from “Dreams Of Tomorrow” appears in Rick Ross’ new single “Oil Money Gang”:

Rick Ross and The J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League have really landed on something special with their brand of “Maybach Music” and “Aston Martin Music,” a sound that echoes the soul and musicality of classic hip-hop, while sounding as contemporary as any trap beat or club banger could. There’s a distinct craft in the way J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League assembles a track, whether they’re sampling a soul recording like Lonnie Liston Smith’s, or playing the parts from scratch.

In “Oil Money Gang,” the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League chop and loop the intro from “Dreams Of Tomorrow” for the main sample, adding ethereal synth pads and massive boom-bap drum samples that are signature to their classic sound.