Lily's Law Room

Sampling a Sample: Who Owns the Sound?

I still remember the day I realised Runtown’s Successful was actually drawing from the Fugees’ Ready or Not, which itself sampled Enya’s Boadicea. I had to pause the track and go back to play Enya’s Boadicea, then play Fugee’s Ready or Not. I was intrigued, and was a new wig, yet to be introduced to the world of entertainment and music law.

Music has a funny way of catching you off-guard. One minute you’re vibing to a song you’ve comfortably claimed as your own, and the next you’re hearing something that sounds oddly familiar.

In music, sounds travel across decades, slipping into new genres, wearing new outfits, and returning with a different swagger. But behind all that fluid movement lies something more serious, the part where creativity meets ownership, and where the law quietly starts clearing its throat.

While the creatives – recording artistes, mix engineers, and producers are doing what they know how to do best, make sounds that travel across time, there’s always that crucial question the legal team asks in the background: whose sound is this, and did you ask them before using it?

The Twin Rights: Composition and Recording

Every song has, at minimum, two layers of rights. The first is the underlying composition such as the melody, lyrics, chords; the intellectual work behind the idea. The second is the sound recording (master), the actual audio captured, with all its performances, studio mix, and final polish.

Sampling isn’t just borrowing a tune, it is borrowing a specific recording: the actual sound. That means an artist who wants to reuse part of a track has to get permission not just from the songwriter(s)/publisher(s), but also from whoever owns the master recording.

This is familiar ground when sampling a “clean” song but what happens when that song already carries a sample of its own? What happens when you sample a sample?

When You Sample a Sample

Imagine an artist (call them “Lex”) wants to sample a track. Let’s call it Track B. Track B contains a sample from Track A. When Lex samples Track B, is effectively re-using parts of Track A (through B), as well as the creative investment in B.

In that case, proper clearance needs to come from all the parties with stakes in those layers:

It does not matter if the parties are 2 or 10. Without those permissions, the use is incomplete and legally vulnerable and in music terms, the track is not cleared.

In essence, sampling a sample doesn’t shortcut the chain, in fact, it extends it.

Something every musician must note is that every origin matters.

Why Does It Matter?

This isn’t merely a matter of formality or industry procedure. It is, as a matter of fact, a legal obligation. Copyright law protects both the musical composition and the sound recording, and those protections extend to every layer contained within a sampled work.

When an artist samples a song that already contains an earlier sample, they are not just interacting with one set of rights; they are using multiple copyrighted works, each of which has its own owners. Failing to obtain permission from any of the rights-holders constitutes copyright infringement, regardless of how small the borrowed portion is or how far removed the original source seems.

In legal terms, sampling without clearance can trigger:

So what might feel like a harmless snippet is, in law, the unauthorized use of protected intellectual property. And when a song contains another sample, the chain of rights does not disappear. Each contributor has enforceable legal interests, and each must give permission before their work can be reused.

What begins as “creative homage” can end as legal headache.

Let this be a simple guiding principle

If you sample something, treat it as if you are dealing with every single origin behind that sound. That means:

Music is a conversation across time and when you join that conversation, the least you can do is greet everyone at the table. Think of it as greeting everyone in a compound before you pass through the compound.

Sampling is art. Sampling a sample, following due process, is respectful art. But respect must be mirrored with legality.

If you’re remixing, reworking or re-imagining a song that already carries its own history, let that history guide you. Don’t just ask the last artist for permission. Ask the whole chain behind the sound.

It’s a negotiation, and like any negotiation, permission is not guaranteed. A rightsholder can say yes, can say no, or can insist on terms that reshape the entire project. That is why your legal team should never be an afterthought. They are the ones who help you licence correctly, document properly, and avoid the kind of trouble that turns a promising track into a liability.

What is interesting, though, is how Nigerian artists increasingly show diligence when the sample are from foreign (read as Western) artistes. Emails are drafted, managers are looped in, lawyers are copied. Everyone suddenly understands the seriousness of “clearance.”

However, that same respect often evaporates when the source is local especially when the music belongs to older Nigerian artists whose work built the foundation we now stand on. Their rights are no less valid. Their catalogues are (arguably) no less protected and the law does not distinguish between a foreign classic and a homegrown one simply because we think the latter is easier to reach or easier to ignore.

Asking for permission is not just legal housekeeping; it is recognition. If we can follow the protocols for artists overseas, then our own legends deserve nothing less.

Music thrives when creativity, regard and integrity share the same space. Always regard the history behind a sound recording you want to use.