Lizzo Criticizes Origins of ‘Racially Charged’ Sampling Laws That Police Black Creativity: ‘Now Sampling Is Synonymous With Theft’

Lizzo is opening up about why she feels the origins of sampling laws were “racially charged.”

The Detroit native stopped by Million Dollaz Worth of Game earlier this week where she discussed the art of sampling and how it polices Black creativity.

“The first time people started sampling was who? It was rappers in the ’80s and ’90s,” she said. “They were sampling records because they didn’t have access to big studios. They didn’t grow up learning how to play bass and stuff like that.”

Lizzo added: “They created the genre of hip-hop through sampling records in their parents’ vinyls and stuff. There were no sampling laws back then. It was all a free-for-all. So they was just outside, just like, ‘OK, this is just what it is.’ And then hip-hop was born, and it was this beautiful thing.”

She recalled the early sampling issues of Biz Markie, as Warner Bros. Records took his I Need a Haircut album off shelves over a sample on his “Alone Again” track.

“I just feel like the theft of it all, putting theft on Black culture, that’s the part that kind of turns me off,” she continued. “Hip-hop’s medium was sampling. Sampling is a Black art that bred hip-hop. Hip-hop was born from sampling. And now sampling is synonymous with theft.”

Lizzo then clarified that she believes “the origins of sampling…were racially charged” as hip-hop was built on sampling for much of the ’70s and ’80s. “The origin of sampling laws were racially motivated to me because it was policing Black art,” she claimed.

Co-hosts Gillie and Wallo weren’t well-informed of the early sampling laws, so they didn’t offer up much of any rebuttal to Lizzo’s claims. However, the Detroit-bred artist ran into sampling issues of her own in 2021 when she was sued by Orlandus Dunning over the use of a recording of him performing at a mutual friend’s funeral on Lizzo’s 2016 track “Coconut Oil.”

Watch the full interview below. The sampling talk begins around the 36:30 mark.