3 Hit Songs that Sample the Legendary German Electronic Band Kraftwerk

The German-born electronic quartet Kraftwerk is one of the most influential groups of its kind. For proof of that, music fans need not look any further than some of the biggest acts of modern times that have borrowed melodies and musical riffs from Kraftwerk to help produce some well-known hit songs over the years.

Here below, we wanted to explore three such songs that take from Kraftwerk. A trio of tunes from some of the best known songwriters that have gone on to rocket up the Billboard charts. Indeed, these are three hit songs that sample the legendary German electronic band Kraftwerk.

[RELATED: How Kraftwerk Pioneered Synth Pop with the 1970s Hit “Autobahn”]

“Talk” by Coldplay from X&Y (2005)

This 2005 song from the British-born band Coldplay samples the melody from Kraftwerk’s 1981 track “Computer Love.” The descending musical movement is used both in a guitar line and lead singer Chris Martin’s vocals. But music fans, do not worry. Martin asked Kraftwerk prior to the single’s release if it was alright for his band to use the melody. Listeners can hear it throughout the tune, but one time it pops up is around the 2:45 mark. And it’s then that Martin sings,

In the future where will I be?

You can climb a ladder up to the sun

Or a write a song nobody has sung

Or do something that’s never been done

“(Always Be My) Sunshine” by Jay-Z from In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 (1997)

From Coldplay to Jay-Z, the famed Brooklyn, New York-born rapper borrowed a part of a Kraftwerk song for his hit track “(Always Be My) Sunshine,” which features Foxy Brown. The song the rap tune borrows is Kraftwerk’s 1978 electronic offering “The Man-Machine,” which employs bright, dazzling synths. Much of the beat is made using those keys and over top, Jay-Z raps,

Who be, in a Japanese restaurant, eating sushi

Drinking sake, it’s me, and my mami with the doobie

Cutie, smelling like Miyake, half-Phillipine thing

For now, let’s call her Suki, got me, booty banging

Properly, in Versace pants, cocky bow-legged stance

A thing of beauty, watch me, body crazy

“Cha Cha Cha” by MC Lyte from Eyes on This (1989)

Even before Jay-Z was making hits in the 1990s, female rapper MC Lyte was pushing boundaries and breaking new ground for artists. Her song “Cha Cha Cha,” which is one of her best-known, samples Kraftwerk by also borrowing from “The Man-Machine.” Perhaps she inspired Jay to do so eight years later. And on this seminal song, the Queens, New York, lyricist raps,

You can cha-cha-cha to this Mardis Gras

I’m the dopest female that you’ve heard thus far

And I do get better, the voice gets wetter

Nobody gets hurt (as long as you let her)

Do my thing with an ’89 swing

The dopeness I write, I guarantee delight

To the hip-hop maniac, the Uptown brainiac

In full effect, MC Lyte is back

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