The original jam recording for “Miracles,” chopped. All of my music from this period started from jam sessions, and still about 95% of it does today

Today, for paid subscribers, I’m releasing the first batch of many: five of my favorite records, for you to use, remix, and sample.

This is my first public sample release since the three Kingsway Library albums I’ve done. I’ve been making and licensing records as samples in some form—mostly privately, for specific producers—for the last 8 years.

I see these records as the rough, first brush strokes of a song. They’re fragments that are intentionally left vague and gestural. The energy in these ideas is meant to stir up some ideas—to get you to run recklessly. The key to making them, as I see it, is to follow the Hemingway quote: “always stop when you are going good… when you know what will happen next.”

Samples are nutritional goods, useful for many genres but notably at the heart of rap music. For years, I’ve been providing these rough-hewn ideas to a close group of producers who can bring them to life. I’ve watched as these little seeds can take on a new identity in the hands of a great artist. It’s a fun assignment, and I’ve come to appreciate the benefits of my post. It means I’m always starting—always experimenting with how things begin.

Know this: you’re encouraged to use these in your music. I’m inviting you to. Maybe you just like the melody, or something about the inner texture. It’s all in your interpretation.

Use and abuse

For paid subscribers, these samples will come with a license to use them in your music. The exact details of the license is forthcoming (I need a bit of time to adapt my team’s normal one for use here). It’ll be on my homepage when it’s ready. For independent (non-label) projects, It’ll be a no-nonsense license that lets you use these samples and their stems in your released music as you see fit.

For projects that end up at a label, I will draw up a separate, simple license (much like the Kingsway license that’s on my other public samples) that makes it easy to clear these samples. I’ve been doing license clearance for my samples for many years now—we’re easy to work with, and we’ll get any project sorted.

I’m including a brief rundown of how I made each sample, with some notes on the techniques I used, specific gear, etc. This is a way to share some of my findings and experiments with you all, so you can riff on these ideas in your process.

The full set is available for listening here. What follows are the downloads, write-ups, and stems:

Use and abuse

1. Miracles

Some Special Magic

Five of my best records from the last few…

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