Sample Saturday: 21 Savage ft Young Nudy - STEPBROTHERS

Welcome to Sample Saturday! Where we discuss samples that are used in your favorite songs. Today we will be discussing the sample used in 21 Savage’s song “ STEPBROTHERS” featuring Young Nudy off the 2025 album “WHAT HAPPENED TO THE STREETS?”

Produced by Coupe, the song “STEPBROTHERS” talks about the reality of street life and how people glorify a lifestyle filled with betrayal, violence , and unforgiving.

The sample used in the song is “My Hero Is a Gun” by Michael Masser from the soundtrack of the 1975 movie “Mahogany” starring Diana Ross.

The movie follows a Chicago fashion student named Tracy (Diana Ross) who is struggling financially, but her luck turns around when she meets a high-end photographer (Anthony Perkins) in a department store and becomes a popular fashion designer in Rome. 

Coupe uses various elements of the sample throughout the song. Instead of focusing on the gradual crescendo of the instruments in the song, Coupe focuses on the piano in the beginning. He knocks down the piano a couple octaves and slows the instrument to create a more intensified sound with combining the drums and looping the beat.

The beat sets the overall tone of the song, accompanied by the raw gritty lyrics, the beat compliments the sound of both artists individually.