Sample Spotting: Rjd2's Ghostwriter

I did a little crate digging today to pick up a new 45 for 7" Sundays, and stumbled upon Betty Wright's 1974 song "Secretary" and gave it a listen.  Something about it sounded vaguely familiar and I came to the conclusion that it must have been sampled by someone at somepoint.  Sure enough, with a little reasearch I found that the opening section was used in Rjd2's fantastic "Ghostwriter".  I had always recognized the Elliott Smith sample throughout the song, but never knew any of the other samples origins.  With a little more research, I have dissected the song a bit more.  Keep reading for the full breakdown and audio clips...



To start off, the guitar line at the beginning of the song comes from the beginning of Paul Desmond's "A Taste of Honey", with what sounds like a some gating to give it a little more of a staccato feel.


The "Mmmm  mmm hmmm" at 0:47 & 3:52 comes from the very end of Cream's "Outside Woman Blues" (2:22).


The aforementioned Betty Wright's "Secretary" provides the chorus that drops in at 1:32.  This is from the very beginning of her song.


The gentle "Ahhhs" and melodic vocal line at 1:03 and 2:19 respectively come from the beautiful and devastating "I Didn't Understand", the last track on Elliott Smith's XO.  This sample has been pitch-shifted to match the key of the song.


I'm not sure about this one, but I think the drums may have come from the Delfonics "Ready Or Not"... could be wrong on that one though.  Yes, this is the same song that the Fugees sampled, as well as Missy Elliott, and Lil Wayne, and on and on...


Wendy Carlos' "Timesteps" from the Clockwork Orange Soundtrack is also sampled here, along with some others that have yet to be identified.  It still boggles me how anyone can create such a seamless and natural sounding song from such disparate snippets, and have it be able stand on it's own without any context of the samples is a great feat. Knowing where some of the samples came from, I believe it is an extraordinary feat. But, with as many songs that are mashed into this pot, someone felt like they could add just one more, for good measure: