The Beastie Boys’ classic 1989 album, Paul’s Boutique, boasted a pastiche of samples on each and every track. “B-Boy Bouillabaisse” is a prime example of this. Produced by the Dust Brothers, the head-nodding, post-modern banger features kooky rhymes from the trio and over 20 samples, including Lovebug Starski’s “Starski Live at the Disco Fever.” A classic song indeed.

In 2009, Common tried to go pop with his underwhelming album, Universal Mind Control. The Neptunes-produced title track was made strictly for the club but left many fans disappointed. Lyrically, it was on-point, but folks weren’t ready for the Chicago rhymer to go electro-pop with his sound. If you listen closely, you can hear “Starski Live at the Disco Fever” interwoven into the song.

Before Mark Wahlberg became a Hollywood star, he was a chart-topping rapper in the 1990s. One of his big hits was “You Gotta Believe,” which sampled Lovebug Starski 1983 song of the same name.

Kool Moe Doe is also a pioneering MC who was rocking the mic alongside Lovebug Starski, Grandmaster Caz and many others during hip-hop’s infancy in the 1970s. On his classic 1987 album, How Ya Like Me Now, Moe Dee pays homage to the early B-boys (particularly Lovebug Starski) on throwback banger “Way Way Back.” Moe Dee’s lyrical flow on the song is the same as Starski’s rhyme style on “Dancin’ Party People.” It’s a great tribute to Lovebug Starski and other rappers from that era.

This is an oldie but a goodie. Early B-boy group The World Class released a 1986 track called “Girls at the Party.” It’s your basic storytelling rap song featuring rappers Hollywood, CD Love, Masterpiece 2 detailing their stories of meeting a fly girl at a party, with turntable chief Scratch Master T delivering the scratches. The group sampled the intro from Lovebug Starski’s 1981 song, “Positive Life.”

The Bronx rap group Cru (aka Rhythm Blunt Cru) released their underrated album, Da Dirty 30, in 1997. While “Just Another Case” and “Pronto” are their most known tracks from the LP, they were a couple of other gems that went unnoticed. The head-nodding “Live at the Tunnel” features gritty rhymes from Cru and the Yonkers trio the LOX. Of course, the song is anchored by the sample of Lovebug Starski’s “Starski Live at the Disco Fever.”

Lovebug Starski’s influence in rap stretches from the East Coast to the West Coast. Compton rapper King Tee rapped some lyrical flavor over his 1987 song “Bass Original,” which samples “Starski Live at the Disco Fever.” On the song, King Tee shows that he could easily rhyme like the East Coast B-boys and still keeping it all the way G. The track was produced by DJ Pooh and Bobcat who would later produced LL Cool J’s classic second album, BAD (Bigger and Deffer).

M|A|R|R|S was a London-based dance group who garnered an international club hit with “Pump Up the Volume” in 1987. While the song is famous for sampling Rakim’s line on “Paid in Full” (“Pump Up the Volume”), the song also boasts a small vocal sample of Lovebug Starski’s “Positive Life.”

Boston indie group 7L & Esoteric dissed who they deemed  talentless rappers on their 2010 boom-bap banger “No Shots.” 7L spits his braggadocious rhymes while Esoteric provides a throwback sound with additional samples from Trouble Funk, the “Dragnet Theme Song” and “Starski Live at the Disco Fever,” among others.

Here’s another oldie but goodie. Rap tandem Def Duo scored a minor hit in 1989 with “You Gotta Believe.” Of course, the main sample used is Big Daddy Kane’s “Raw” (among others), but it also uses a vocal snippet of Lovebug Starski’s “You Gotta Believe” on the chorus. Turntable master Joe Stick’s phenomenal scratching at the end of the song is worthy of your attention.