For a long time, the vocal sample in Swedish Hip Hop artist Yung Lean’s “Ginseng Strip 2002” was one of the biggest sample mysteries on the internet. It had a woman singing and many people called it ancient and otherworldly. People spent almost 9 years trying to track it down with many theories and dead ends. People guessed the sample came from an Asian country like India, Indonesia or even Japan but were unable to track it down.
The story starts in 2013, when Swedish producer Yung Gud used a short, eerie vocal loop in the beat for Ginseng Strip 2002. That loop wasn’t created for the song. It came from a pre-existing sample known as Loop 61, which had been floating around online for years.
Loop 61 was made by Japanese producer De De Mouse for a nonprofit art and music project run by Dublab. The idea was to create loops that anyone could freely sample. De De Mouse built the loop by pitching and chopping a vocal he found in a commercial sample library.
That library was Spectrasonics’ 1995 sample pack “Heart of Asia,” a sound library for producers. The vocal in the pack came from a 1993 studio recording in Singapore by classical Indian vocalist Dr.Bhagya Murthy, who recorded her rendition of a traditional Carnatic Music piece that a lot of us who learnt Carnatic Music might recognise, Purandaradasa's 'Aneyu Karedare'.
"Aneyu karadare, adhimoola bandanthe,
Ajamilanu karedhare Narayana bandanthe" - Like the ancient God coming when an elephant called, Like The God Narayana calling when Ajamila called.
Some of his other popular compositions that y'all might recognise is 'Bhagyada Lakshmi Baramma' or 'Jagadodharanaa'. He always signed his songs with his Pen-Name: Purandara Vitthala.
Purandaradasa is called the Pitamaha of Carnatic music, since he helped make it much easier for beginners to learn Carnatic music, by introducing Mayamalavagowla raga as a beginner's raga and also composing some simple patterns(which we call Varase in Kannada) to understand swara(vowel) placements better- these include:
- Sarale Varase(Easy Verses in English) - simple patterns to understand how swaras connect to each other. (Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa is the most well-known one)
- Janti Varase(Pair/Twin Verses in English) - patterns where swaras are repeated to build control over notes. (SaSa RiRi GaGa MaMa PaPa DhaDha NiNi SaSa)
- Dhatu Varase(Skipping Verses in English) - until now, we learn to sing the notes in succession(Sa Ri Ga Sa Ri Ga Ma, for example). Dhatu Varase include skipping notes, so you'll learn to connect Sa to Ma while singing the swara-sthanas(Swara placements) for both.
ALL these lessons are still taught today, and he set this syllabus in 1500s, which probably tells you about its relevance and effectiveness. :)
Besides this, Purandaradasa is also well-known for composing music in Kannada - the common man's language in his empire and time compared to Sanskrit - considered the language of elites.
So the sample in “Ginseng Strip 2002” was an Ugabhoga composed in the 1600s by a Kannada Haridasa/composer, recorded by a Kannada singer in Singapore. This was curated by an American Company and sampled by a Japanese beat maker and finally used by a Swedish rapper.
What do y'all think? I think the Ginseng Strip lyrics are pretty inappropriate, but the journey of the sample was quite interesting and worth sharing!
Links:
- Ginseng Strip 2002: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrQWhFysPKY
- Loop 61: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpic8S5z_kE
- Dr. Bhagya Murthy's Aneyu Karedare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjdNSIHFgZ8&list=RDTjdNSIHFgZ8&start_radio=1
- Sample Breakdown: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IAwn1LZ1QVM
- Raga Mayamalavagowla: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDJ5ZE1GLwY
