Lizzo called out music sampling laws and their racial implications during a Million Dollaz Worth of Game interview, arguing the rules unfairly target Black creativity and the roots of Hip-Hop.
The “Truth Hurts” singer didn’t hold back when discussing how copyright enforcement has evolved to criminalize the very foundation of Hip-Hop’s sound.
“The first time people started sampling was who? It was rappers in the ’80s and ’90s,” she said. “They were sampling records because they didn’t have access to big studios. They didn’t grow up learning how to play bass and stuff like that. They created the genre of hip-hop through sampling records in their parents’ vinyls and stuff. There were no sampling laws back then.”
Lizzo argued that the crackdown on sampling is more than just a legal issue — it’s a cultural one.
“I just feel like the theft of it all, putting theft on Black culture, that’s the part that kind of turns me off,” she said. “Hip-hop’s medium was sampling. Sampling is a Black art that bred hip-hop. Hip-hop was born from sampling. And now sampling is synonymous with theft.”
She described the legal pursuit of artists over unlicensed samples as “policing Black art,” a phrase she repeated throughout the interview. While she acknowledged the need for some level of regulation, she criticized how copyright law is often applied.
“They had to regulate some sort of thing and there’s certain things that are fair and unfair,” she said. “I get it. But when you’re suing people off of a vibe, it’s like, man, that’s the vibe of my song.”
Sampling has long been a cornerstone of Hip-Hop, with early pioneers looping breaks from funk, soul and jazz records to create new sounds. However, as the genre evolved into a global phenomenon, the legal landscape underwent significant changes.
Lawsuits over unauthorized samples have become increasingly common, forcing artists to clear even the smallest snippets or risk litigation.
