Sunday Night Sample - Drake - Poundcake
“Pound Cake/Paris Morton Music 2” appeared on Drake's 2013 album Nothing Was The Same and features Jay Z. The track was produced by Drake's frequent collaborator Boi-1da and Jordan Evans.
The estate of jazz musician Jimmy Smith filed the lawsuit, as Drake’s track used a 35-second sample of his 1982 song “Jimmy Smith Rap.”
Drake somehow won the lawsuit, when the district court of New York ruled that Drake’s use of Smith’s sample constituted fair use as his version slightly altered Smith’s original statement and “adds something new.” “Jazz is the only real music that’s gonna last. All that other bullshit is here today and gone tomorrow. But jazz was, is and always will be,” Smith said in the original song. Drake modified the sample for the track so that it stated “Only real music's gonna last. All that other bullshit is here today and gone tomorrow.”
The song prominently features Jay-Z. What's funny is the song nearly found itself apart of the Magna Carta … Holy Grail tracklist.
Drake revealed that he’d heard Jay’s verses while working with Beyoncé.
“I had the nerve to ask Jay if I could not only get that song from him,” Drake remembers, “but if I could get the acappella because I had an idea for it. He sent me the two verses acappella—he told me, I never do this.”
Soon after, Noah “40” Shebib to cooked up a beat that Drake says was good, but a bit too nostalgic. “I was like, this is like some Foxy Brown album cut… too Ill Na Na,” he quipped, referencing Foxy’s debut LP.
Boi-1da cracked the code with what would become the final instrumental.
“The beat brought the Jay verses to life,” Drake says. “I sent the song back to Jay—and that was when it almost became a Jay-Z song. But he’s such a good guy, he was like, ‘I gave you my word.’ I don’t know what I’d do without that guy sometimes, he’s just full of gems and advice.”
Drake adds that he’s proud of the collaborations that he’s done with Hov, from “Pound Cake” to Thank Me Later’s “Light Up.” But there’s one that he would’ve done differently.
“I wasn’t supposed to be on that hook [of ‘Off That’],” Drake says of The Blueprint 3’s trend-snubbing album cut. “I wrote it as a reference and it ended up making the album. If I was going to be on that hook, I probably would’ve said different things. At that time, who’s going to say no? I was just grateful to be on the album.”
Wu-Tang Clan's "C.R.E.A.M." is also sampled on "Pound Cake", where the chorus is chopped throughout the song.
The song also features vocals from Timbaland on the chorus, and believe it or not, Ellie Goulding from her song "Don't Say a Word."
https://www.tiktok.com/@elliegoulding/video/6877944813853887746?referer_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F&referer_video_id=6877944813853887746&refer=embedhttps://twitter.com/elliegoulding/status/382095637145456640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E382095637145456640%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2020%2F10%2F01%2Fellie-goulding-fans-shocked-drake-and-jay-z-song-13354802%2FHopefully we get an official collab from the two on Drake's upcoming new album (which is said to be completed and ready for release…)
Ellie says - ‘We converse! He discovered my voice on his last album, he sampled it, and I think he’s become a fan through that. So who knows, something might happen.’