“Flava In Ya Ear” Sample Finally Identified After 32 Years

Craig Mack’s 1994 debut single “Flava In Ya Ear”, the first release on Bad Boy Records, has had a long-unidentified sample traced to its source. The discovery sheds light on how producer Easy Mo Bee built the track’s spare, memorable melody from a fragment transformed almost beyond recognition.

The Sample Sanctuary Discord community, publicised by YouTuber ShakerMaker, identified two guitar notes from jazz guitarist Melvin Sparks’ 1971 recording of “Alone Together”, a 1932 Broadway standard. The notes come from the middle of a solo and were slowed down and heavily treated with reverb and other effects. “Flava In Ya Ear” reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100; Mack died in 2018, aged 46.