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Following Tame Impala's third Billboard 200 top five album Deadbeat, Billboard is rounding up 13 rap songs that sample Kevin Parker's psychedelic outfit.
10/30/2025
Tame Impala Julian Klincewicz
Travis Scott‘s recent co-sign of Tame Impala‘s Deadbeat, its first album in five years, marks the right time to reexamine the Kevin Parker’s psychedelic outfit’s long-standing relationship with rap.
Scott described Deadbeat as “the best album to come out in the last 2 years” on his Instagram Story shortly after its release on Oct. 17; it debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 this week (chart dated Nov. 1), marking Tame Impala’s third top five (and top 10) LP. Deadbeat also topped six Billboard charts, including Top Rock Albums, Top Alternative Albums and Top Dance Albums (the act’s first entry on the latter list). Tame Impala produced The Weeknd-assisted “Skeletons” on Scott’s 2018 album Astroworld, and wrote on Instagram that he was “very proud to be on this one.”
“Tame came by the studio and he played this beat. I’ve always had this hook stuck in my f–king head. I’ve been having it stuck in my head for months and s–t. I’ve never heard a beat to ever put it on,” the Houston rapper told the crowd during Voodoo Music + Arts Experience in 2018. “And when I first heard this f–king beat, I always felt like this was the f–king song. This is one of my favorite songs on the album.” Tame Impala, John Mayer and “Skeletons” co-writer Mike Dean also performed the song and “Astrothunder” on Saturday Night Live that year.
Parker further broke down the recording process of “Skeletons” to Billboard in his 2018 cover story. “I remember going through this stuff to play to Travis, and just thought, ‘Oh, this is actually really up his alley.’ I know Travis likes his psych-rock. He likes his crusty metal guitar sound. I was struck by how much I thought it would fit Travis’ thing even though it’s not hip-hop-sounding,” said Parker, adding that “Skeletons” is “the most artistically satisfying” collaboration he’s done “because it was over a long period of time and had a lot of sessions to it. And it was fulfilling to watch.”
The Australian multi-hyphenate shares co-writing credits on “Skeletons” with Ye, for whom Parker co-wrote “Violent Crimes” on the rapper’s 2018 self-titled album. He said in his Billboard cover that designer and creative director Willo Perron introduced the two after telling Parker that Ye “wanted some psychedelic guitars…. So he took me out to [West’s] studio one day, and we just chatted for a bit, and it kind of went from there,” Parker recalled. “I was completely starstruck, obviously. I was numb with excitement…. I feel like I was so privileged to be in the room. He wasn’t totally head-in-the-clouds. He seemed really switched-on and lucid. Even though you can see him [being] all over the place, musically I always knew I was in safe hands.”
His writing credit on “Violent Crimes” (No. 27, 2018) — as well as Kid Cudi’s “Dive” (No. 80, 2020) and Don Toliver‘s “Bandit” (No. 38, 2024), both of which sample Tame Impala songs (broken down below) — and production credits on “Skeletons” (No. 47, 2018) and The Weeknd’s “Repeat After Me (Interlude)” (No. 69, 2020) from his 2020 blockbuster album After Hours have brought Tame Impala to the Hot 100 over the years. But “Dracula,” the spooky single from Deadbeat, marks Tame Impala’s first Hot 100 entry as an artist, reaching No. 33 on the chart this week. “My Old Ways” and “Loser” also debuted on the all-genre songs tally this week, at No. 56 and No. 91, respectively.
Parker was also surprised to hear Rihanna‘s cover of “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” (dubbed “Same Ol’ Mistakes”) on her 2016 magnum opus Anti, after he said in his Billboard cover story that the band thought she was going to sample or remix the cut from its 2015 critically acclaimed album Currents — not cover it. “It was only when the song came out that I was like, ‘It sounds like a cover,'” he said at the time. “I thought, ‘That’s cool, I guess that means she thought it didn’t need changing in any way.”
“I would’ve been like, ‘I couldn’t imagine doing hip-hop,’ just because I didn’t come from that world. I never really looked at it as something I could do,” he told Billboard in his cover story. “Even on the things I’ve collaborated with, they’ve still got me star-crossed.”
Billboard rounded up 13 rap songs that have sampled or interpolated Tame Impala, in order of newest to oldest.
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Don Toliver, “Bandit” (2024)
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Don Toliver sampled “One More Hour” from Tame Impala’s 2020 album The Slow Rush on his “Bandit” single off his 2024 album Hardstone Psycho. Producer ReidMD pitched up and looped the “I did it for love” vocal and menacing bass riffs from “One More Hour” throughout “Bandit,” which became Toliver’s first top 10 on Hot Rap Songs and reached the top 10 on Rhythmic Airplay.
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Kid Cudi, “HUMAN MADE” (2024)
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Kid Cudi’s also sampled “One More Hour” from The Slow Rush on “HUMAN MADE” from his 2024 album INSANO. The staccato chord progression and bass riffs of “One More Hour,” with a pinch of Parker’s atmospheric ad-libs, serve as the core instrumental elements of “HUMAN MADE.”
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Rich Amiri, “SAME OLD ME” (2024)
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Rich Amiri lifted “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” from Currents on “SAME OLD ME” from his 2024 album War Ready. The woozy synth- and sitar-driven instrumental of “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” received a new trap update on “SAME OLD ME.”
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LISA, “Rockstar” (2024)
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LISA of BLACKPINK also interpolated “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” from Currents on “Rockstar,” the 2024 lead single from her 2025 debut album Alter Ego. Producers Ryan Tedder and Sam Homaee slowed down and looped a replaying of the twinkling synth chords and bouncy bassline from “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” over the post-chorus and outro of “Rockstar,” which became her first No. 1 on Billboard Global Excl. U.S.
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Mak Sauce & Lil Yachty, “Wocky My Lover” (2021)
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Mak Sauce and Lil Yachty sampled “The Less I Know The Better” from Currents on their 2021 single “Wocky My Lover.” Producers Cash Cobain and DJ Updoe looped the funky bassline of “The Less I Know The Better” (and gave it a drill makeover) on the first half of “Wocky My Lover.” “The Less I Know The Better” is the streaming smash of Currents, remaining the band’s highest-streamed song on Spotify with over two billion. It also reached the top 40 of Hot Rock & Alternative Songs.
The following year, Yachty remixed “Breathe Deeper” from The Slow Rush and released his own psychedelic rock album Let’s Start Here in 2023. “It was so amazing to work with Kevin as I’ve been a big fan since high school so it was a pleasant surprise and honor to be a part of such an incredible song,” Yachty said in a statement about his “Breathe Deeper” remix.
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Kid Cudi, “Dive” (2020)
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Kid Cudi sampled “Love/Paranoia” from Currents on “Dive” from his 2020 album Man On The Moon III: The Chosen. The “But it hit me like an arrow/ Babe, to know, I could just be paranoid” line from the first verse of “Love/Paranoia” is pitched down and looped throughout “Dive.”
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A$AP Rocky, “Sundress” (2018)
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A$AP Rocky sampled “Why Won’t You Make Up Your Mind?” from Tame Impala’s 2010 album Innerspeaker on his 2018 single “Sundress.” The trance-inducing electric guitar loop and titillating hi-hats from “Why Don’t You Make Up Your Mind” underscore “Sundress.” Tame Impala brought out Rocky to perform “Sundress” and “L$D” during the act’s weekend two headlining performance at Coachella in 2018.
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Maxo Kream, “Pop Another” (2018)
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Maxo Kream sampled “Reality in Motion” from Currents on “Pop Another” from his 2018 album Punken. He lifted the pre-chorus and first couple of lines from the chorus of “Reality in Motion” — “What will I do?/ I never had a chance to/ There’s no one else around you/ I never had a chance to/ There’s no one else around you” — for the intro of “Pop Another” and chopped up those lines and interspersed them throughout his track.
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Teddy Walton & Dom Kennedy, “Mental Health” (2017)
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Teddy Walton and Dom Kennedy sampled “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” from Currents on the “Mental Health” title track of Walton’s 2017 EP. Walton slowed and pitched down the bassline and chopped up lines from the chorus of “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” — “Feel like a brand-new person/ But you’ll make the same old mistakes/ Well, I don’t care, I’m in love/…. Stop thinking that the only option was” — on “Mental Health.” Walton counts Tame Impala as one of his main influences.
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$uicideboy$, “If You Were to Get What You Deserve, You Would Know What the Bottom of a Tire Tastes Like” (2016)
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$uicideboy$ sampled “The Less I Know The Better” from Currents on “If You Were to Get What You Deserve, You Would Know What the Bottom of a Tire Tastes Like” from its 2016 album I No Longer Fear the Razor Guarding My Heel (III). The hip-hop duo borrowed the “Oh, my love, can’t you see yourself by my side?” line from the chorus of “The Less I Know The Better” and sprinkled it a few times throughout its track, while $lick $loth interpolated the titular line in his first verse: “I say the less you know the better, that West Bank fire-setter.”
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Kendrick Lamar & Tame Impala, “Backwards” (2014)
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Kendrick Lamar sampled the chorus of “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” from Tame Impala’s 2012 album Lonerism — “Only go backwards lately/ Every part of me says, ‘Go ahead’/ I got my hopes up again, oh no, not again/ Feels like we only go backwards, darling” — on “Backwards” from the Divergent: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack in 2014.
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A$AP Rocky, “Unicorn” (2014)
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A$AP Rocky slowed down “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” from Lonerism for “Unicorn” in 2014 from his unreleased instrumental album Beauty and the Beast: Slowed Down Sessions, Chapter 1. In his five-part Noisey documentary SVDDXNLY, Rocky explained that the album is “how music is supposed to sound” and will “bring it back to that first time you got high.”
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G-Side feat. Stalley & Joi Tiffany, “Gettin’ It” (2011)
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G-Side sampled “Why Won’t You Make Up Your Mind?” from Innerspeaker on “Gettin’ It,” featuring Stalley and Joi Tiffany, from its 2011 album Island. The hypnotic electric guitar loop from “Why Won’t You Make Up Your Mind?” underscores “Gettin’ It.”
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