The hidden Velvet Underground sample in Massive Attack song ‘Risingson’
Trip-hop is one of the most fascinating genres to emerge from the 1990s. It blends hip-hop beats and production with a heavy emphasis on sampling, glitching sounds, and record scratches while incorporating other genres like jazz and electronica. A lot of trip-hop has a very sensual undercurrent, placing silky smooth vocals over the top of a very considered and experimental layer of instrumentals.
From Portishead’s Dummy to Tricky’s Maxinquaye and Massive Attack’s Blue Lines, the trip-hop phenomenon originated in Bristol. It was much more innovative and interesting than other popular British genres of the time, such as Britpop. While Oasis and Blur dominated the charts during this time, Massive Attack still managed to achieve significant success in their own lane.
The band were formed in the late ’80s after each member met through the Bristol club scene. They released their first album, Blue Lines, in 1991, containing the single ‘Unfinished Sympathy’, which hit number 13 on the UK Singles Chart. As the band’s career continued, seeing them collaborate with many singers and musicians, they proved to be one of Britain’s coolest and most fascinating acts. It wasn’t until 1998, however, that Massive Attack released their most successful album, Mezzanine.
The record boasted many iconic songs, like ‘Angel�� featuring Horace Andy and ‘Teardrop’, with vocals from Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser. Additionally, beautiful cuts like ‘Black Milk’ and ‘Group Four’, also featuring Fraser, and ‘Dissolved Girl’, sung by Sarah Jay Hawley, remain incredibly underrated. One of the most interesting things about the album is its use of samples, with Massive Attack blending obscure or unexpected pieces of music into their songs, often hiding them so cleverly that fans of the sampled song might not even notice.
While some of their samples are more obvious, such as Isaac Hayes’ ‘Our Day Will Come’ in ‘Exchange’, there are a few that you’ve probably never identified, such as a tiny vocal sample from The Cure’s ‘10:15 Saturday Night’ in ‘Man Next Door’. Then there’s the sample in ‘Risingson’, which, once you notice it, you can’t not hear. Yet, it’s so easy to listen to the song without even hearing the glaringly obvious sample because it is blended in so well.
The song features vocal samples from The Velvet Underground’s ‘I Found A Reason’, which first appeared on their 1970 album Loaded. The tender track from the experimental pioneers sees Lou Reed sing heartwarming lyrics like “I found a reason to keep livin’/ Oh, and the reason dear is you.” Massive Attack inserted Reed’s delivery of “I found a reason” between the last “Toy-like people make me boy-like” part and the first “Dream on…” at the end of the track. The “Ba-ba-ba-ba” sections are also cut up and manipulated, with these sections playing behind verses throughout the song.
It’s a very clever sample that blends so well into the song that many Velvet Underground fans have listened to ‘Risingson’ without hearing the sample. Despite Massive Attack’s smart use of sampling on Mezzanine, difficulties securing rights for the samples in ‘Exchange’ led them to step away from the technique for their next album, 100th Window.