Samples run the world.
2022 has seen a new hip-hop song practically every week climb the charts that features a creative, nostalgia-inducing use of a sample. Whether it be songs like Fivio Foreign‘s “What’s My Name,” Drake’s “Circo Loco” or The Kid LAROI‘s “Paris to Tokyo,” producers have been giving young listeners history lessons with their beats full of callbacks to decades-old classics.
With the most recent use of this tactic, Coi Leray‘s new single “Players” (Nov. 30) utilizes one of rap’s most iconic and celebrated tracks of all time. Sampling and interpolating the melody from Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five‘s “The Message,” “Players” sees Coi flip the legendary hit to a girls anthem that promotes them “being players too.”
Produced by Johnny Goldstein, responsible for hits from pop superstars like Black Eyed Peas, John Legend, Shakira and rising hip-hop figures like Latto and NLE Choppa, this new cut from Leray is a joyful, liberating track that could be played in the exact setting depicted in the song’s cover art — a groovy backyard party. In between her renditions of “cause girls is players too” hook, Coi demonstrates her increasingly impressive pen, delivering bars about her elevated lifestyle and untouchable aura.
What you know ’bout livin’ in the top?
“Players” — Coi Leray
Penthouse suites, lookin’ down on the opps
Took him for a test drive, left him on the lot
Time is money so I spent it on a watch, hol’ on
“Players” is Coi’s fourth single singe the release of her April studio album Trendsetter, which wow’d listeners and rose her level of stardom with hits like “Blick Blick” with Nicki Minaj, “TWINNEM” and “No More Parties” with Lil Durk. Coi’s pleasantly surprising ascent doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon, and “Players” just another indicator of that.
Check out Coi Leray’s latest release below!
