Najat Aatabou Goul El Hak El Mout Kaina (1987)
Sampling is a delicate affair. The cultural technique goes back as far as Pierre Schaeffer’s experimentations in the 1940s that came to be known as musique concrète. In the second half of the 20th century, sampling played a crucial part in the genesis of several genres of music. Above all, hip hop and electronic music heavily rely on the technique. At the same time, the practice of sampling has led to various copyright infringements. In fact, if a sample hasn’t been properly cleared with its rightful owner, the musician using it might face a lawsuit, as was the case for The Chemical Brothers. In their 2004 hit single “Galvanize” that features A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip, the British electronic music duo sampled—quite bluntly, as you will hear in a minute—Moroccan chaabi singer Najat Aatabou’s song “Goul El Hak El Mout Kaina” from 1987. Considering the obviousness of the case it is hard to understand why the duo hadn’t cleared the sample. It is all the more puzzling that The Chemical Brothers didn’t credit Aatabou in the first place and refused to pay royalties to her. It took ten years in court—the International Court of Justice in The Hague, to be exact—until Aatabou found justice. Ironically, the original song’s lyrics are about cheating, as Mohamed Ghabri points out. Mohamed is an accomplished Amsterdam-based artist manager, DJ and radio host. He is also a contributor to The Rest, “Goul El Hak El Mout Kaina” being his first contribution.
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