Sample Clearance: Mary J. Blige – “You Remind Me”

Story time. I recently noticed that internet sensation and voice of a generation, Ytiet, was out here doing drops (Props to him for blowing up singing numbers). Shit, if that’s the case I wanted one for The FROCAST and/or nappyafro.

Ytiet had a link in his bio to another Instagram page that supposedly his management. I clicked the link and messaged about how to get a video of the Vietnam god singing something about nappyafro. The “management”, who was surprisingly a Black man, did the wack Instagram thing where their page is private, and you have to follow them first before you can message them. I hate that shit (And now that I remember his name I’m unfollowing that shit with a quickness. Also, as of this writing, Ytiet is looking for a new manager).

And while I never heard back about doing business with Ytiet, a video did pop up in my Instagram feed from his “manager”; a promo for “Max Out”, a song by Florida rapper Skeet Blak. Skeet Blak’s frustration with his city of Miami for not supporting local artists and the music business in general drew me in but the production built around a sample of Mary J. Blige‘s “You Remind Me” was the thing that made me actually search out the song. I found the YouTube of the full music video but the song may or may not be on Skeet Blak’s album Red Jumper. The song or the album isn’t on Spotify even though there are links in the rapper’s bio saying OUT ON ALL PLATFORMS. They just gonna make me rip it off YouTube and call it a day,

But here is the thing, the song isn’t an original. I found out “Max Out” borrows the beat from another song by another rapper I never heard of, “Lost Touch” by Steven Earnest. But then again, that song is under two minutes and barely has any views so I’m not even sure. It feels like more people should have sampled Mary J. Blige’s “You Remind Me” by now (I’m not counting Tory Lanez).

Mary J. Blige – “You Remind Me”
Skeet Blak – “Max Out”
Steven Earnest – “Lost Touch”