Posted on Aug 31st 2011 5:00PM by Jesse Ship

Sometimes unauthorized samples can lead to lawsuits, but in the case of Manchester’s Darren Williams, aka, Star Slinger, it’s a formula for success.

The twenty-something hybrid hip-hop producer borrowed vocals from the legendary gospel singer Mavis Staples for a song on his much-blogged about ‘Volume 1′ album and, to his surprise, received praise from the artist herself.

“Her manager played the remix I did of [the Staple Sisters’] ‘Lets Do It Again’ and she actually liked it!” Williams tells Spinner. “She should be trying to sue me or something, but she’s not.”

Williams — who’s often compared to J Dilla but sees himself more in line with Planet-Mu-affiliated producers DJ Rashad and DJ Nate since “J Dilla is a given” — isn’t exactly an amateur when it comes to cooking up sample-based tracks either.

“I had just finished my university degree in Music Technology and I was making music for the hell of it,” he says. “I started going record shopping and actively sampling records because, prior to my education, I never had the courage to do it before. My studies taught me about a lot of good music and sampling, so I just sort of caved. It was something I had to do.”

Though he found success early on releasing trance music, Williams soon stepped outside of that scene. “I stopped making the dance music and went with a hip-hop and soul influence rather than playing what I was hearing on the weekend; Star Slinger is intentionally something totally different from what was out there at the time.”

“I’ve never thought that I’d be sampling forever,” he adds, “I like creating my own melodies too much.”

Though he isn’t entirely sold on a life of sampling, Williams might have a hard time reinventing himself given how in demand he’s become on the remix circuit. In the past year, he’s given his touch to Broken Social Scene‘s ‘Texico Bitches’, the Go! Team‘s ‘Apollo Throwdown’ and Toro Y Moi‘s ‘New Beat,’ just to name a few. While touring with breakout artists like Baths and performing repeat gigs at London’s legendary Fabric club has opened doors for him in terms of collaborations.

“Not everyone that I like likes my music but there are a fair bit of people who do, and I’m very happy with that,” says Williams. “I’m really into southern rap like Three6Mafia, Juicy J and Project Pat, so it’s pretty cool that the Stunnaman 2800 from the Pack contacted me saying he wants me to make him a mix tape.”

Star Slinger – Mornin’ Directed by Alan Jensen from Star Slinger on Vimeo.