Cowboy Bebop is one of the coolest anime series of all time and its influence on hip hop and pop culture shouldn’t be overlooked. One thing I haven’t seen much of is discussions about its samples in music so let’s do that with another edition of Sampleface Five where we look at 5 Cowboy Bebop samples.
1. bsd.u – Bebop;
Sample: Sherry Lynn as Young Faye in Season 1 Episode 18 (Speak Like a Child)
We kick things off with a track by bsd.u entitled ‘Bebop‘. It takes dialogue from Season 1 Episode 18, provided by a young Faye Valentine. The track itself is a short jazz-hop beat that fits with the motif nicely.
2. Flamingosis – Guilty Pleasure
Sample: Steven Blum as Spike Spiegel in Season 1 Episode 26 (The Real Folk Blues (Part 2))
Another track featuring Faye—this time as a grown woman—is Flamingosis’s Guilty Pleasure from his 2017 album, ‘A Groovy Thing‘. The producer places some smooth drums over a beautiful Michael Franks sample here.
3. Nymano – Solitude
Sample: Wendee Lee as Faye Valentine in Season 1 Episode 12 (Jupiter Jazz: Part 1)
It’s Faye again, extolling the virtues of solitude (cosign) over a gorgeous Bill Evans/Stan Getz sample. When it works, it works.
4. Kendall Miles and Mukashi – Bell Peppers & Beef
Sample: Steven Blum as Spike Spiegel and Beau Billingslea as Jet Black in
Season 1 Episode 1 (Asteroid Blues)
Kendall Miles and Mukashi threw an argument between Spike and Jet Black over their track, Bell Peppers & Beef, which was about… bell peppers and beef. What are the chances?! It’s another jazz sample but this one punches at a high tempo. Boom bap at its finest.
5. Kendall Miles and Mukashi – Waltz for Venus
Samples: Steven Blum as Spike Spiegel and Tom Fahn as Rocco Bonnaro in Season 1 Episode 8 (Waltz For Venus)
The final Cowboy Bebop comes from Kendall Miles and Mukashi again as part of their Cowboy Bebop EP (Bell Peppers & Beef was from there too). In this vocal sample, Spike demonstrates Jeet Kune Do, a form of martial arts created by Bruce Lee.
Related: 5 SP-404 albums, 5 Blade Runner samples, and 5 Thundercat samples