Aaliyah’s uncle says Normani didn’t clear ‘One in a Million’ sample

[Teletubby 150,527]

Aaliyah’s uncle says it would’ve been ‘more honorable’ if Normani got approval for alleged sample
 

Barry Hankerson, the uncle of Aaliyah and president of Blackground Records, the late singer’s label, said he was pleased with Normani’s single, “Wild Side,” which sounds similar to Aaliyah.
 

Hankerson said he would not stand in the way of new Normani track, which features Cardi B. He said his niece “always encouraged young women pursuing their musical and entertainment careers, to achieve their dreams.”

Barry did make a jab that it would have been “more honorable” had Normani sought the family’s approval to sample “One in a Million.” Instead, her team insists they didn’t directly lift Aaliyah’s song. 

“Wild Side” sounds eerily similar, and even its video has obvious inspiration from the late singer’s classic.

Blackground Records confirmed that no sample of “One in a Million” was ever cleared for use on “Wild Side.”

source

[littlepotter 75,147]

Music is all about borrowing and expending on what came before... They'd have a heart attack if they knew that in the earlier days of music all the big composers basically plagiarized each other. That's how it evolves and also preserves the past. Why wouldn't they clear the sample for her? It's depressing how it's all about profitability and making money.

[ZiggyZiggs 30,062]

 

[Bonkers 29,596]

Technically sampling is when you take a physical recording or portion of it and use it in your music.  Using the same chord progression, baselines, etc is not really sampling and in many cases isn't even borrowing.  I would say by the true definition of sampling you do need to ask permission or acquire rights, but I don't think that's what happened here.

I think Gaga said it best when she said that "nobody creates in a vacuum."  When you write music it's not really even possible always trace back exactly where the inspiration came from, but it's almost never pulled out of thin air.  

[MonsterJay 1,539]

Aaliyahs family would not have approved the sample anyway in my Opinion.

They have all her music locked away from

streaming services 

[doraemon 1,061]

Instead of talking to media about Normani, just release the whole Aaliyah masters that you kept, you piece of Gollum! And give JoJo back her old masters!!

[doraemon 1,061]

16 minutes ago, MonsterJay said:

Aaliyahs family would not have approved the sample anyway in my Opinion.

They have all her music locked away from

streaming services 

I don’t know about that… Barry is the one who locked it, while her family want it out on the streaming services…

[Chlorine 47,976]

I bet Aaliyah would love for her fans to be able to listen to her music. Let’s start there. 

[Chesescake 4,010]

Both labels were problematic 

[Guest]

Hm yeah it's disrespectful

[Lilbit 1,596]

1 hour ago, MonsterJay said:

Aaliyahs family would not have approved the sample anyway in my Opinion.

They have all her music locked away from

streaming services 

That’s her uncle I believe. He’s been holding her music hostage because his label was a huge flop. They managed to screw over a lot of big name artists. He’s just looking for $$$. Look into it. It’s hella interesting, and sad. 

[JusKeepBreathin 19,311]

I don't know. This thing about cord progressions is that opinions can vary about how much is just a cord progreasion and how much is borrowed from a song. I think if the songs were completely different I would side with Normani. Like Gaga has the same cord progressions in Paparazzi and Pokerface as the Lion King song Can You Feel The Love Tonight. But they are so night and day different even between Paparazzi and Pokerface that people can't tell. 

But when I heard Normani's song, I actually thought it was a sample of One In A Million not just the same cord progreasion. Even the way the video was styled and shot seemed like an updated Aaliyah music video. So I'm not sure the uncle is not all wrong. 

[Roboboy 3,777]

the only similarities are the chord progression and a snare drum. sit down grandpa