Microkhan by Brendan I. Koerner

Hewing to that most time-honored of journalistic axioms—”Two equals trend”—we’d like to declare that we’re living in the era of the ersatz sample. Way back when, we were introduced to a whole host of R&B classics by reading the liner notes of various hip-hop albums. (We discussed, for example, how Dr. Dre led us into Donny Hathaway’s sonic embrace here.) But nowadays, there are more and more artists who are taking original music and recasting is as retro, to the point that a casual listener might be forgiven for thinking they’re listening to a sample source rather than a straight-up homage. The El Michels Affair is arguably the master of the form, but French singer Hawa stakes her claim in the Justice cover above. To be honest, we actually like this version better than the original—fake can not only be just as good, it can be better, too.

(h/t Fresh Produce)