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[Lazarus]

The pop charts, you may have noticed, are partying like it?s 1999. A couple of weeks ago, DJ Khaled released ?Wild Thoughts,? featuring Rihanna, Bryson Tiller, and most notably, the Latin rhythms and torrid guitar licks from one of Carlos Santana?s turn-of-the-millennium megahits. No, not ?Smooth.? The other one. Now, aided by five well-timed remixes, this blast from the dotcom-boom past is within striking distance of No. 1 on the Hot 100.

?Wild Thoughts? isn?t alone. As Billboard?s Jason Lipshutz reports, mainstream pop is finding late-?90s and early-?00s songs are ripe for pillaging. Machine Gun Kelly and Camila Cabello?s recent pop-rap hit ?Bad Things? borrows its refrain from a 1998 sleeper hit by alt-rock band Fastball. (No, not ?The Way.? The other one.) Meanwhile, Cabello?s debut solo single, ?Crying in the Club,? slips in the ?oh-oooh oh-oooh? melody from the chorus of Christina Aguilera?s 1999 breakout ?Genie in a Bottle.? On Ed Sheeran?s ?Shape of You,? a vaguely Caribbean pop slurry that?s somehow inescapable this year, the pre-chorus so closely echoes TLC?s ?No Scrubs? that the songwriters behind the 1999 smash were belatedly added to the credits.

The period roughly between the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the Iraq War was a weird one for pop. The record industry was still running on air like Wile E. Coyote, and the watered-down vestiges of ?alternative nation? battled frosted-tip teen-pop on Best Buy shelves. The possibilities still to be sampled vary widely, from big stars like Britney, Nelly, Destiny?s Child, and the boy bands, to one-hit wonders like Len, Lou Bega, and Baha Men. Plenty of material from this time, whether acoustic pop, trance, or Eurodance, may have been sampled a little too soon. But when John Mayer is quoting Primitive Radio Gods on his comeback single, how much longer can it be until we?re all swing dancing in khakis to Gap?s old in-store playlists? Probably not long after MTV revives ?TRL.? (We always knew the apocalypse would somehow involve Carson Daly.)

There is, of course, a logic to this nostalgic strategy: these songs are old enough to draw in listeners who remember them from their youth, but the sampled parts are perhaps not familiar to today?s teenagers. If this Top 40 trend must persist, as it seems poised to do, we?ve got a few ideas for specific pop samples from ?98 to ?02 that are ripe for repurposing.

Tweet ? ?Oops (Oh My)? [ft. Missy Elliott]

If contemporary producers are gonna sample grooves, like DJ Khaled with ?Maria Maria,? then they could do worse than look toward the fidgety computer-funk that even back then felt ahead of its time. Busta Rhymes and Janet Jackson?s 1998 mind-melter ?What?s It Gonna Be?!? was remixed four years ago by Kaytranada, and Brandy?s 2002 opus ?What About Us?? has had at least its opening ?woo? sampled by everyone from M.I.A. to the Avalanches. But there are still a bevy of hypnotic vocal loops and feeling-myself hooks on Tweet and Missy Elliott?s Timbaland-produced ?Oops (Oh My)? that may have been off the radar just long enough to revive. Rihanna is who everybody wants to sing their songs, but tweaks on this 2002 hit could also work for a more prim star looking for a rebrand.

M?a ? ?Case of the Ex (Whatcha Gonna Do)?

Something similar could be done with a song that?s less retro-futuristic, more just retro. M?a?s ridiculously catchy ?Case of the Ex? was popular enough (No. 2 for three weeks on the Hot 100 in 2002) to be familiar, but not ubiquitous enough to be played out?she?s like the least famous person on 2001?s ?Lady Marmalade.? Producer Tricky Stewart?s finger snaps and horn-like stabs are of their era but still feel like they?re part of the same conversation as plenty of bouncy, word-wise pop today. Indeed, the lyrical concept?M?a hurls questions at a lover about how he?ll handle his ex?is strong enough that it too could be repurposed in a 2017 track. A clear-voiced young singer with a strong sense of identity like Kehlani (or maybe Halsey in a pinch) could work wonders here, though the Weeknd's got a baked-in storyline for the gossip folks.

Mystikal ? ?Shake Ya Ass? [ft. Pharrell]

No conversation about turn-of-the-millennium production that stands the test of the time would be complete without the Neptunes. Pharrell?s everywhere to this day, but he?s changed up his approach enough that his circa-Y2K work with Chad Hugo could be ready for a renaissance. And who should follow M?a in the phone book, coincidentally enough, but Mystikal, the rough-voiced No Limit rapper who worked with the Neptunes on his biggest hits. His bootylicious 2000 smash ?Shake Ya Ass? might be a touch obvious, but it isn?t hard to imagine that airy little instrumental riff transported to 2017?s summer of flutes?perhaps Playboi Carti could rap over it.

Sugar Ray ? ?Every Morning?

Santana?s guitar riffs are crucial to ?Wild Thoughts,? so somebody else might want to follow suit with a similar formula. Craig David?s 2000 hit ?7 Days? has sweet classical guitar, a flexible days-of-the-week lyrical concept, and it still retains a slight cachet that Mark McGrath and co. just never had. But ?Every Morning? was a great pop-rock song, and its twiddly acoustic guitar bit is actually perfect for this kind of thing. Justin Bieber, this one?s calling your name, though savvy sampler and former pop-rocker Selena Gomez could also have success with it. Just, maybe don?t sample the song's whistling bit.

Gorillaz ? ?Clint Eastwood? [ft. Del the Funky Homosapien]

Maybe the perfect turn-of-the-millennium sample was hiding in plain sight (well, for Pitchfork readers) all along. Though it sounded nothing like American pop radio back in 2001, the debut single from Damon Albarn?s virtual band was huge at MTV and it charted a bit higher than you might remember. The woozy, dubwise melodica or the circus organ?like keys could easily find a home in 2017 pop, perhaps with an artist who's as obsessed with the Brits as he is with looking cool: Drake.

Korn ? ?Freak on a Leash?

Despite Korn?s nu-metal trappings, 1998?s ?Freak on a Leash? was pure pop, to the point that it had to be retired from ?TRL.? Now, this is still pop by Korn, but before the bench-press guttural chorus, there?s a nicely nauseous little guitar intro, high-pitched and distended. It?s not hard to imagine one of today?s dark young rappers, like Lil Uzi Vert, finding a spiritual kinship here. Though let's be real: Rihanna working her magic with ?Freak on a Leash? would probably be the pinnacle of this entire trend.

[Vonc2002]

Come on for Oh My, iconic song.
I really like Sugar Ray's Every Morning too

[hotep.]

I could see someone messing up Case of the Ex

[Freemala Harris]

I don't need these gors messing up these songs

[Gilgamesh.]

I love how he used the Shan sample

[Lazarus]

I love how he used the Shan sample

This is nice. It gels perfectly.

[Kurama]

I can see all of these being sampled except the Korn.

[Vonc2002]

I love how he used the Shan sample

Yea

[.betterwiseup]

Sampling these days is trash. When Kanye, Timbland, The Neptunes and etc were sampling they made it dope and not so obvious.

['ology]

They're bout to mess up a lot of classics lol