the samples

the big four

• 7 rings — my favorite things, from the sound of music (1959). an interpolation rather than a lift of the recording: the melody is re-sung over a trap arrangement. richard rodgers and oscar hammerstein ii are credited songwriters, and their estates take a reported ninety per cent of the publishing.
• the way — still not a player, big pun featuring joe (1998). her first hit is built on a late-nineties rap record, which in turn was built on brenda russell's a little bit of love. the sample is the whole architecture of the song rather than an ornament on it.
• break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored — it makes me ill, nsync (2000). the hook is nsync's, re-sung, with the group's writers credited. it is also the reason justin timberlake has a writing credit on a 2019 ariana grande single.
• break your heart right back — i'm coming out, diana ross (1980). arriving by way of mo money mo problems, which sampled it first. a sample of a sample, and one of the few times she has taken the recording rather than re-cut the melody.

why the list is this short

she has released eight albums and the substantive sample list runs to four entries. that is unusual for pop made in this period, and it is a production choice rather than an accident: her records are built on live vocal stacking and written arrangements, and a stacked harmony sitting on top of a borrowed loop tends to fight it. the sweetener and positions records are almost entirely original material by construction.

the ones people hear and are wrong about

• yes, and? and madonna's vogue. not a sample and not credited as an interpolation. the house pulse and the spoken section are unmistakably in vogue's debt, and madonna herself appeared on the official remix within weeks, which is as close to a settled question as this gets.
• the boy is mine and brandy and monica. shares a title and an idea, not a recording. brandy and monica both appear on the remix version, which is the joke landing rather than the sample being paid for.
• side to side and reggae records generally. the rhythm is a dancehall pastiche written for the song, not a lifted riddim.
• god is a woman. repeatedly claimed to sample something. it does not.

what the samples cost

7 rings is the instructive one. it was one of the biggest songs in the world in 2019 and she keeps a small fraction of the publishing on it, because interpolating a 1959 showtune means splitting the song with two of the most valuable estates in american music. reports at the time noted the rodgers and hammerstein share arriving at a michigan pension fund that holds part of the catalogue, which is the least glamorous possible destination for a number one single.

the wider point: a sample is a creative decision with a permanent financial consequence attached, and the fact that her catalogue contains four of them rather than forty is worth reading as a deliberate position rather than a lack of interest.