In an effort to stay current with changing music trends, the Grammy Awards are tweaking their rules concerning sampling and interpolations.
Starting this eligibility year (the Grammys air Feb. 8, 2015), the Recording Academy will allow “samples or interpolations of previously written songs in all songwriting categories,” which includes song of the year. That means tracks once excluded from top honors, like Jay Z and Alicia Keys’ 2011 smash “Empire State of Mind” (which contained a sample of Sylvia Robinson and Bert Keyes’ “Love on a Two-Way Street”) and Kanye West’s 2007 hit “Good Life” (which looped a snippet of Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T.”), would be eligible. Both songs won rap song of the year, the only category allowing for sampling until now.
Songs written for visual media, like “Please Mr. Kennedy” from the 2013 film Inside Llewyn Davis, which borrowed heavily from the 1962 Goldcoast Singers tune of the same name (and credited to Justin Timberlake, T Bone Burnett, and filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, in addition to original writers Ed Rush and George Cromarty) could also be affected, avoiding the Oscars’ dismissal for best original song. The rule change also could be great news for Aloe Blacc, whose current hit “The Man” interpolates the hell out of Elton John’s “Your Song.” And you can tell everybody.
