Bam Bam!: 12 Times Hip-Hop Sampled, Remixed + Flipped Sister Nancy

Words by Jesse Serwer and Richard “Treats” Dryden

“Famous” is easily the most talked about track on Kanye West’s newly-released, The Life of Pablo, thanks, for the most part, to its lines about Taylor Swift. The track, which features guest vocals from Swizz Beatz and Rihanna and production from a committee that includes Havoc of Mobb Deep, caught our attention for a different reason, though: It prominently features a sample from Sister Nancy’s “Bam Bam,” easily one of the most recognizable dancehall songs worldwide.

“Famous” is hardly the first rap song to jack “Bam Bam.” The track, originally released in 1982 on producer and Techniques Records founder Winston Riley’s Stalag riddim, has permeated hip-hop for over two decades, turning up in samples, song lyrics, and even movies, and a few R&B songs, too. Amazingly, the ethereal song was not a hit for Nancy when it was released. In a unique and unusual twist, it’s celebrated far more now than it was in the era it conjures, Nancy’s ethereal vocals and Riley’s dark, haunting riddim having grown more resonant over time.

Naturally, “Bam Bam” (and Nancy herself) features on Corey Chase and DJ Gravy’s recent LargeUp-presented mixtape, Double Barrel, highlighting reggae samples in hip-hop. But where we only had room to show you one track — Main Source’s “Just Hanging Out” — that borrowed from “Bam Bam,” there’s many, many more.

Here’s a look at 12 of the most notable times hip-hop has sampled, remixed, borrowed and otherwise paid homage to Nancy’s ethereal dancehall classic.

Start the list here, and watch our webisode with Sister Nancy below.

Main Source – Just Hanging Out (1991)

In Jamaica, “Bam Bam” was overshadowed by “One Two,” another Riley-produced single from Sister Nancy released the same year. In fact, as Nancy told us in 2012, it wasn’t until the late ‘90s, after she had relocated to New Jersey, that she became aware of the song’s popularity in the States, in either reggae or hip-hop.

According to Whosampled.com, the web’s most exhaustive archive for hip-hop samples, the earliest rap record to take pieces from Nancy’s version of “Bam Bam” was this 1991 single from Queens, NY trio Main Source’s classic debut, Breaking Atoms — an album perhaps better known for giving the world its first taste of Nas, on “Live at the Barbecue.”

Pete Rock & CL Smooth – The Basement (1992)

One thing you can say about Kanye West is that he pays credit where it is due — when it comes to other producers, at least. On “Famous,” he follows a path set by one of his biggest influences, Pete Rock, who sampled “Bam Bam” on “The Basement,” a deep cut from Rock’s classic 1992 album with CL Smooth, Mecca and the Soul Brother. (A track which also featured Rock’s Jamaican-born cousin, Heavy D, among other guests).

Kanye seems to pay homage to the legendary New York DJ, producer and rapper every few years, starting with a 2004 appearance on “Selfish” by Slum Village that saw him boast, “The way the beat rock, new version of Pete Rock.” Rock would later team up with Kanye directly when Yeezy tapped him to produce “The Joy,” a track from Kanye’s G.O.O.D. Fridays run in 2011, and later included on Watch The Throne.

In 1992, the same year he made a cameo on “The Basement,” Heavy D dropped the hard-hitting “Talk is Cheap,” with an intro quoting lyrics one might note are similar to “Bam Bam,” What the Heavster was actually referencing on the Skeff Anselm-produced Blue Funk track, though, was the original “Bam Bam,” sung by Toots and the Maytals in 1965, which Nancy referenced on her 1982 dancehall version. It is likely, though, that he was even more directly inspired by Pliers’ (more literal) cover version of “Bam Bam,” a major dancehall hit in the early ’90s that the Mandeville, Jamaica native surely would have been aware of. (Dancehall songs, like those in hip-hop, are rarely completely original, with artists and producers constantly adapting and modernizing classic lyrics and rhythms)

In fact, Heavy always made a point to acknowledge his yardie roots — as he did on “Talk is Cheap,” warning his competition that they could catch a “bam bam” if they ever tried to “dis di champion.” RIP HEAVY D.

Too Short – Blowjob Betty (1993)

When it comes to dirty rap lyrics, no one looms larger than Too Short. Along with Miami’s 2 Live Crew, the Oakland MC opened the doors for X-rated rap in the ‘80s (although it can be said that both took inspiration from the recently departed funk icon Blowfly), and his lyrics have remained delightfully raw and nasty throughout his now 30-year career. He even roped Sister Nancy into his dirty web in 1993 — a time when dancehall was experiencing its own descent into slackness — sampling “Bam Bam” on “Blowjob Betty,” a self-explanatory tale about a woman who uses her head to get ahead. This one is definitely NSFW.

Sister Nancy – Big Beat Bam (1993)

In 1993, as dancehall’s crossover popularity seemed to be peaking, Big Beat Records launched a short-lived reggae imprint, Big Beat Reggae. One of the label’s first releases was a 12” featuring this hip-hop remix of “Bam Bam” handled by influential New York radio and club DJ, Stretch Armstrong. The version, along with the original “Bam Bam” recording, would also appear on the 1993 compilation, Buyaka: The Ultimate Dance Hall Collection.

Lauryn Hill – Lost Ones (1998)

Recorded in Jamaica with musicians including guitar don Earl “Chinna” Smith (of Soul Syndicate, Upsetters and the Wailers fame), “Lost Ones” was one of several reggae-leaning tracks on 1998’s landmark debut, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Though never officially released as a single, it’s been canonized as a hip-hop classic, and rightfully so, as it showcases Ms. Hill at her best. The reference to Sister Nancy here isn’t a sample, but rather a vocal interpolation of “Bam Bam” in the song’s hook, which Lauryn used to emphasize her excoriation of former beau and Fugees bandmate, Wyclef.

Madlib – Blades (2001)

“Bam Bam” may have brought us to the nexus of the sample universe. Let this sink in: California beat maestro Madlib sampled Sister Nancy on “Blades,” an interlude-length instrumental featured on his Stones Throw album, Beat Konducta Vol. 0: Earth Sounds, back in 2001. Fast forward to 2016, and Madlib turns up as the producer of “No Parties In LA” (a track they actually made together back in 2010) on Kanye’s The Life of Pablo — an album on which Kanye (and various co-producers) sampled “Bam Bam” on “Famous.” Funny how things come full circle.

Guerilla Black feat. Beenie Man – Compton (2004)

Guerilla Black was a rapper who looked and sounded exactly like the Notorious B.I.G., but with a twist — he was from Compton, instead of Brooklyn. Black’s career didn’t last long, but he did land Beenie Man for his “Bam Bam”-sampling debut single.

Cam’Ron-Bum Bum (2007)

Cam’Ron doesn’t always hit the mark, but the colorful Harlem rapper is always entertaining — and he never passes up an opportunity to rep his taste for Jamaican takeout. On this track from his 2007 comeback mixtape Public Enemy #1, he mentions beef patties, coco bread and oxtail (“Gal need advice, told her we can eat a bite/Ate the oxtails/You can keep the rice”), all over a tasty sound bed sampled from “Bam Bam.” For more Dip Set anthems with a Caribbean flavor, check out this LargeUp Toppa Top 10, or cue up Corey Chase and DJ Gravy’s Double Barrel mixtape: it opens with Sanchez’s “One In a Million,” as sampled on Cam’Ron and crew’s “Dip Set Anthem.”

Chris Brown feat. Wiz Khalifa – Bomb (2011)

Producers Free School were behind this flip of Sister Nancy’s “Bam Bam,” which appeared as a Wiz Khalifa bonus track on Chris Brown’s 2011 album F.A.M.E..

Kat DeLuna – Bum Bum (2015)

Kat Deluna isn’t a rapper, but the Dominican songstress from the Bronx brought nuff swagger to this slept-on, radio-friendly flip of “Bam Bam.”

Released last spring, Kat’s “Bum Bum” had all the elements to be a smash: Those arresting horns from the Stalag riddim, a verse and chorus from Trey Songz (which took a page out of Shaggy and Rayvon’s “It Wasn’t Me”), and a very NSFW video that will steam up your contact lenses. If you’re still reading, welcome back from the cold shower. Though she echoes the words of Sister Nancy’s classic, Kat also seems to be taking inspiration from Lauryn Hill’s “Lost Ones,” specifically how she turned What a bam bam into What a bum bum. (Although in her case, Lauryn was referring to a deadbeat guy, and not her ass).

Overall, it was a strong effort by the Bronx native, who’s no stranger to dancehall: she made her debut back in 2009, when she linked up with Elephant Man and Ivy Queen for “Whine Up.” Why “Bum Bum” never got the push it deserved is anyone’s guess.

Kanye West – Famous (2016)

Much like The Life of Pablo as a whole, there is a Frankenstein-like quality to “Famous.” The chorus from Rihanna, the hard-hitting, Mobb Deep-like beat Kanye raps over, the Nina Simone song the track suddenly ends with — it all feels like three different songs, (if not more) pulled into one. The sample of “Bam Bam” doesn’t arrive until nearly two minutes in, and its connection to the rest of the song is tenuous, but it’s easily the best part of an otherwise unfocused song. Hey, we’re on board with anything that leads to more club play for Mumma Nancy. LargeUp yuhself, Mr. West!

See here for more of Kanye West’s “Most Jamaican” Moments.

Stream “Famous” at Tidal.

Belly (1998)

“Bam Bam” doesn’t only turn up in hip-hop tracks; it’s in hip-hop movies, too. For many, it might be most recognizable from a pivotal scene in Belly, Hype Williams’ stylized 1998 drama starring Nas and DMX, which introduces the femme fatale character, Chiquita. Set between between Jamaica, Queens and Kingston, Jamaica, Belly had a noted dancehall slant, with cameos from Sean Paul, Mr. Vegas and the late Mr. Bogle, and veteran deejay Louie Rankin in the role of Teddy Bruckshot. But it’s that scene with “Bam Bam” that people remember the most; in fact, you could say it’s partly responsible for the song’s persistence in popular culture, as Belly still regularly airs on TV. In a case of what one might call cinematic sampling (Quentin Tarantino does it all of the time) there are echoes of Belly‘s Chiquita scene in Seth Rogen and James Franco’s controversial comedy The Interview. Instead of heralding the arrival of an exotic seductress, the cinematic horns of the Stalag riddim and Nancy’s ethereal vocals set the scene for the appearance of a mysterious, absurd foreign despot: Kim Jong-un.