“Noon At Rest” (pictured above) is one of my favorite Vincent Van Gogh paintings of all time, if not one of my favorite art pieces.  It is meant to resemble the true meaning of happiness, a man with his wife, relaxing mid-day after a hard bout of work in the fields.  Work, leisure, companionship, accomplishment, nature, the key ingredients to happiness and a fulfilling life.  So what does all this hippie sh** have to do with Hip-Hop?

It turns out this painting was actually a remix of a prior painting by Jean-Francois Millet titled “Noonday Rest” (see below).  The homie Millet painted this in 1866 – and while the two painted during the same time period, Van Gogh was an admirer of Millet’s work.  Van Gogh was temporarily hospitalized for about a year; during this time, he had limited access to the outside world.  As such, he drew inspiration from other artists that he admired as “a musician interpreting Beethoven.”  In plain English, Van Gogh took a Millet sample, chopped up the colors, put his own technique behind the brush strokes, flipped the arrangement and made the trebles (brighter colors) a little louder than the “bass-heavy” Millet work.  The next time someone tries to use the outdated argument of “sampled music is not real art,” give them a dose of this.  Ta-Dow!