Beyonce featured a sample of a Kikuyu conversation in her new song.
Beyoncé is arguably the biggest superstar in the world, selling millions of records and headlining iconic events over the course of her career which started as a part of the girl group Destiny’s Child in 1990.
As a solo artist, she became one of the highest paid entertainers in the world, requiring little media promotion for her music thanks partly to an unusually committed fandom known as the Beyhive.
Yonce is currently making waves on Tik Tok.
She released the music videos for ‘Yoncé‘ and ‘Partition‘ on December 24, 2013, with both singles part of her eponymous fifth solo album ‘Beyoncé‘.
Unknown to many, however, ‘Yoncé’, which is still making waves in 2020 as a dance challenge on TikTok, features a sample from a Kikuyu conversation.
You can hear it at the beginning of the song.
It might be hard to recognize the chopped-up Kikuyu sample which is first heard right at the beginning of the song, mixed in with a heavy bass-line.
The sound is actually a recording of a Kikuyu conversation, and is sold and distributed in online sound packs for music producers, with the title ‘African market with kids’.
Listening keenly to the sample itself, a woman can be heard asking, in Kikuyu, “Why would anyone get angry? Why would anyone get angry?”.
It was seemingly recorded in a market set-up, with the woman questioning why someone would get mad or annoyed over something.
The viral TikTok challenge it inspired is also known as ‘Gimme Some’, and features individuals dancing to a bit of the song, with the sample kicking in after Beyoncé shouts ‘Gimme some’.
Kendrick Lamar also released his own awar-winning songs.
Yoncé isn’t the only popular song to use the sample, with Grammy-award winning rapper Kendrick Lamar also using it on Mortal Man, released in 2015.
Mortal Man was on Kendrick’s critically acclaimed album To Pimp a Butterfly which won the Grammy award for Best Rap Album in 2016.
Listen keenly to the song, and you will hear the distinct sample around 2 minutes and 10 seconds into the song.
Samples are sounds taken by music producers and re-purposed for new releases. They can be taken from anything, including old songs, past speeches, movies, recordings or even voice messages.
Over the years, sampling has come to be considered an art, with world famous producers such as Kanye West praised for their unique ability to use samples to create exciting new sounds.
Watch the ‘Yonce’ video below, with the sample first heard at 00:14 :
(H/T Kenyan News)