New York City rap rock trio, Fun Lovin' Criminals burst into the music scene in 1996 with their breakout hit 'Scooby Snacks'. The debut single known for sampling Quentin Tarantino films 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Reservoir Dogs' spent 17 weeks on the Billboard chart and catapulted their accompanying album 'Come Find Yourself' to multi-platinum. The bands blend of hip-hop, rock, blues and jazz, paired with their satirical lyrics has excited fans worldwide. We're stoked to sit down with the bands founding member and multi-instrumentalist, Brian Fast Leiser as he takes us through his top favourite samples.

Catch Fun Lovin' Criminals on their Australian tour for the 25th anniversary of their album '100% Colombian' this February. Score your tickets below!

Words by Brian Fast Leiser:

In the summer of 1989 I bought 2 albums that changed my life as a music producer / musician. They were both released within 6 weeks of each other. The first was Paul's Boutique by Beastie Boys, produced with The Dust Brothers. The other was Big Audio Dynamite's Megatop Phoenix. Both of these albums showcased the power of a new music production tool called the 'Sampler'. This 'instrument' allowed you to record any sound into it and manipulate it to your hearts content. I won't get into the legal and moral issues some have with sampling. What I would like to share are 5 of my favourite samples (in no order)...

Gang Starr / Dj Premier - Mass Appeal

For most 'Samplist's' Dj Premier is the top of the list for his crate digging skills. I was working in Peter Gatiens 'The Tunnel' nightclub in New York City in the early 90's. Sunday night was Sean Combs' (Puff Daddy) Badboy Entertainment Hip Hop party called Mecca. Dj Funkmaster Flex would play all the best music on his radio show on Hot 97 as well as at the Mecca parties. Mass Appeal by Gang Starr was played more than a few times each night. I'd be willing to wager that Dj Premier's productions made up around 50% of all the total music played at these parties in the mid 90's. Preemo's ability to find the 'perfect sample' in a song is what makes him to this day 'one of the best yet'. He has produced chart topping beats for so many artists there are too many to list here!

Dr. Dre - What's The Difference

If you're talking about samples you have to give props to Dr. Dre, who single-handedly created a sub-genre of Hip Hop called G-Funk in the early 90's. The way he pioneered using samples and live instruments together really elevated the genre. Dr. Dre and his crew have so many great jams there are too many to mention but this track is one of my favourite uses of a sample by the late great French artist Charles Aznavour.

Jurassic 5 / Cut Chemist - Lesson 6 (The Lecture)

Cut Chemist is out of this world when it comes to his crate digging abilities and skills as a 'Turntablist'. I bought the vinyl of Lesson 6 (The Lecture) while in London touring with FLC in the early 90's. According to the amazing website/app 'Who Sampled' there are 41 samples in the song, or lesson in sampling, if you will. This song uses one of the best placed samples from the soundtrack to Star Wars, which I was a huge fan of (Ep. 4-6, wink wink). Unfortunately not many of the samples were 'cleared' (legal permission obtained by the rights holders) for usage and the track was pulled and re-released without some of the amazing samples put together by Cut Chemist. Like the Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique, it became obvious that the 'wild west' days of sampling without clearance were coming to an end. Music publishers and labels knew there was money to be made from producers sampling other peoples work (listen to Puff Daddy's 'I'll Be Missing You', now 100% owned by Sting) This actually inspired Samplist's to be more clever with what they sample and to 'chop' (manipulate) the samples so they are hard to detect. Note: Dj Premier is, in my opinion, THE best at manipulating samples in his music.

Timbaland / Just Blaze

These two very talented producers sampled Arabic and Latin music to great effect, which was rare at the time. 

Fun Lovin' Criminals / Brian Fast Leiser - There Was A Time

For most 'Samplist's' Dj Premier is the top of the list for his crate digging skills. I was working in Peter Gatiens 'The Tunnel' nightclub in New York City in the early 90's. Sunday night was Sean Combs' (Puff Daddy) Badboy Entertainment Hip Hop party called Mecca. Dj Funkmaster Flex would play all the best music on his radio show on Hot 97 as well as at the Mecca parties. Mass Appeal by Gang Starr was played more than a few times each night. I'd be willing to wager that Dj Premier's productions made up around 50% of all the total music played at these parties in the mid 90's. Preemo's ability to find the 'perfect sample' in a song is what makes him to this day 'one of the best yet'. He has produced chart topping beats for so many artists there are too many to list here!

ART OF NOISE - Beat Box (1984) / MARRS - Pump Up The Volume (1987)

When I heard these I fell in love with electronic music. I had no idea at the time the music was a 'collage' of samples but my subconscious stored it and a few years later my love of sampling was born!