Grammy nominated rapper Logic sampled two Orson Welles radio programs on his 2020 album No Pressure, but an online database shows that Welles’ voice has appeared on more that 80 recordings since his death in 1985.
The app Who Sampled and its related website, whosampled.com, compiles and lists examples of sampling in modern recordings.
During his lifetime, Welles lent his rich baritone to Manowar’s Dark Avenger and talked his way through I Know What It is to Be Young. Since his death, Welles’ recording output has steadily grown.
While his appearances on Logic’s album received a great deal of media attention, less has been written about his voice appearing on scores of other releases since his passing 40 years ago.
According to Who Sampled, War of the Worlds snippets can be heard on Panic! At the Disco’s Intermission, Gang Starr’s The Militia and Britney Spears’ Kill the Lights. His performances from The Shadow has been sampled in tracks by Method Man, The Prodigy and others. The website provides audio examples to support their findings.
Artists ranging from Pogo to Jaden Smith have sampled bits of dialogue from Welles’ landmark movie Citizen Kane. Other Welles-directed movies like F for Fake and The Stranger have provided audio fodder for musicians.
The legality of sampling a copyrighted work without permission has been debated in the courts.
Generally, sampling is illegal without proper permissions and licenses from the copyright holders of both the sound recording and the composition. However, some argue that very short or subtle samples might be considered “de minimis,” meaning so small as to not constitute infringement.
In the case of Logic, the rapper worked with the Welles estate and the owners of the radio sound recordings before releasing his album in the summer of 2020.
Logic lifted nearly a full minute of Welles’ playful introduction to a 1942 performance of the classic Suspense thriller The Hitch-Hiker for his No Pressure Intro. Logic’s Obediently Yours took its name from a sign-off Welles frequently used throughout his radio career and showcased five minutes of Welles speaking out against racism. The Welles’ sample used on Obediently Yours came from an episode of Orson Welles Commentaries.
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