Okayplayer: How Sample Drill Is Leading One Of Rap’s Most Bizarre Sampling Eras

Okayplayer: How Sample Drill Is Leading One Of Rap’s Most Bizarre Sampling Eras. “Sample drill is perhaps the most online iteration of rap music we’ve ever seen. A particularly postmodern recycled medium, born in the wake of a pandemic that made in-person sessions all but impossible, the phenomenon speaks to how online the creation of music — specifically rap — has become. The scrolling thumb has replaced the dusty finger; it’s crate-digging in the post-record shop era. Let’s call it ‘cloud-digging,’ where, in the case of sample drill, everything from 2Pac’s ‘I Ain’t Mad At Ya’ to Dick Dale’s ‘Miserlou’ is fodder for a drill beat.”