Nas clears It Ain't Hard To Tell sampling myth
by Zimmermann 054: Michael Jackson
The internet rumor that Michael Jackson only cleared the Human Nature sample for It Ain't Hard To Tell if Nas kept the track clean is totally false. Nas, a massive fan, worked with producer Lars Professor on multiple demo versions before realizing how the sample landed. Securing the record deal took time due to the clearance process, but landing on the same label as MJ felt destined. A group on that label later gave him a shout-out on a song, strengthening the connection even more. Teddy Riley then reworked the sample for SWV, creating a huge hit. Nas's hip-hop version actually came out first, though he acknowledges the SWV release might have slightly overshadowed his own.
Transcript (en)
Ain't hard to tell. I'm a big Michael Jackson fan and so that was my demo and there was many different versions of that that Lars Professor did and it just I was really like tripping how he sampled it because you know Michael being one of my faves is like you know you know it was incredible for me to have that as a record and it was like I never I never thought that you know it took a while you know I guess a minute for us to get the deal for me to get signed so I was happy at the end result that we got it signed and and we did it you know what I'm saying to clear sample there's a process but when being signed the same label with Michael was sort of like it was like the man upstairs made that happen and it's like you know how did it was just something meant to be you know I mean and you know after that he had a group that came out on his label when they shouted me out on a song some kids that were rapping and that's when I really felt the connection even stronger at first I was just happy to be on the same label as Michael Jackson being probably the newest facing rap at that time too so I was like this is it and then I got a shout out from his group on his label, on a song. It was big. And right at the time, it was like, you know, Teddy Riley re-did it for SWV, and theirs took off. You know, it was a big record. But ours was the hip-hop version. It was out before it. And so we kind of got a little elbowed out the way with that one, but it was still cool.
