Provided by Paste
Like hardboiled noir detectives, we’ve been hitting the streets lately for the skinny on the shifting musical predilections of one Shawn Carter, AKA Jay-Z. We had our suspicions that he was wandering into, um, indie-er, musical territory when he put Luke Steele of Empire of the Sun on the opener of The Blueprint 3. Then came exhibit B: photographic proof of Beyoncé and he at a Grizzly Bear show in Brooklyn.
Book ’em Danno, because we’ve got the last piece of evidence we need to wrap this one up: Jay-Z is sampling Regina Spektor for an upcoming track titled “Crispy Benjamins.”
According to a press release from New Familiar Music Group, Hova recently purchased the rights to “Crispy Benjamins” from producer Mirk of NFMG. And the kicker: it features a sample of “Chemo Limo” from Spektor’s 2004 LP Soviet Kitsch. But twists and turns yet remain in a case as labyrinthine as Kanye’s hair. The press release hints that the song will feature on a record “scheduled for release in 2009.” Sleuths over at a Regina Spektor fansite theorize that it could be a bonus track to an as-yet-unannounced re-release or b-sides collection for The Blueprint 3.
That’s a whole mess of speculation, so we won’t venture any further into the shadowy backalleys of the hypothetical. Although this case may not be closed quite yet, one thing’s certain: Spektor probably just received a nice stack of benjamins (some crispy, some not) from Jay-Z.
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