For this song share, I chose a song called “Counting Stars” by Japanese artist Seba Jun, better known by his stage name Nujabes.  For some background, Nujabes was a record producer, audio engineer, DJ, composer and arranger who was best known for his instrumental mixes and the sampling he did.  Nujabes incorporated many different musical elements into his music that include Lo-fi hip hop, jazz rap, breakbeat, and downtempo.  Nujabes released two studio albums in his lifetime, and one posthumously after his tragic death in a car crash in 2010.  Although Seba received recognition in his lifetime, he has achieved much acclaim since the time of his death and has often been referred to as the “godfather” of lo-fi hip hop.  And it is easy to see why he has achieved recognition as the “godfather” as his music truly epitomizes lo-fi hip hop.  “Counting Stars” comes off a collection of his production titled 2nd Collection, and is a very calming song to listen with a melodic beat in the background that relaxes the listener.  As I mentioned, Nujabes is prolific at sampling and mixing different songs to create instrumentals, and with this song he samples two different songs and mixes them in his final piece.  For the hook and riff, he samples “Affirmation” by Jose Feliciano and for the vocals he sampled Frank Sinatra’s “It Could Happen to You”.  These are two songs that really that similar, but that is what is so cool about sampling and hip hop production in my eyes.  You can take two completely different pieces of music and pick out parts that could combine to make something beautiful.  The guitar that is chopped and mixed around by Nujabes is incredibly soothing in my eyes, and I highly recommend checking out the original song that the guitar sample comes from that I mentioned above by Jose Feliciano.  Nujabes is able to replicate this calmness in all of his songs as his music really embodies the lo-fi genre and his ability to sample different genres of music is evident in all of his music.  He was a great artist, and I thoroughly enjoy his music and I hope you enjoy this song as well.