The Art of Sampling
@Art_of_Sampling • 2,830 subscribers
Sampling, copyright law, music, and culture. Official account for The Art of Sampling (book); musician account for Sa’id (@amirsaid). [email protected]
Videos
Imagine being in the studio and hearing this new beat by RZA… Look at the focus of Inspectah Deck. GZA’s vibing, trying to come up something. But Inspectah Deck is mesmerized, already LOCKED IN… He has no idea yet what he’s about to create; that’s he’s about to be a part of hip hop history! But you can see it in his face what he *feels listening to this beat… And just like that “C.R.E.A.M.”, one of Wu-Tang Clan’s most iconic songs, one of hip hop/rap music’s most important classics, was born…
The Art of Sampling100,616 просмотров • 6 месяцев назад
Prodigy (of Mobb Deep) – “Keep It Thoro” The word “genius” is thrown around a lot these days. As far as hyperbole goes, the word “genius” is most often used by fans to describe artists that are slightly above average. Worse than the misuse of the word “genius” is the *misapplication* of the word “genius”. You see, genius is often infers “complexity”. But the spectrum of genius also includes “simplicity”. And it is here, in this range of genius, that we find Prodigy (of Mobb Deep), one of the greatest rappers in the history of hip hop/rap music. There’s dimensions to Prodigy’s genius. First, there’s his use of the *talk-rhyme* style. Of all of the rhyme styles, talk-rhyme — the rhyme style in which the rapper sounds more like he’s talking than rapping — is the most difficult rhyme style to pull off. Some rhyme styles give you cover. They mask your defaults and inabilities. They wear down the listener’s ear, giving off a mix of blandness cosplaying as rhyme skill. With the speed-rhyme style, where rhymes are delivered deliberately in a speedy (fast) manner, you can hide. With the miracle lyrical rhyme style, where large groups of words are jumbled together, giving the false impression of rhyme skills, you can hide. With the talk-rhyme style, you can’t hide. Talk-rhyme relies on less words. It’s powered more by the voice, and the realness of the life lived behind the voice. Talk-rhyme is also a technical marvel. Of all hip hop/rap’s rhyme styles, it’s the one that exhibits the highest level of breath control. And this is baked into the style. With the talk-rhyme style, you don’t hear the *gulps* of breathing between lines; you don’t hear a rapper catching his breath between transitions. This is one reason why the talk-rhyme style is the epitome of breath control. Prodigy, one of only a handful of talk-rhymers, was a master of the talk-rhyme style. Not just because he made one of the most difficult rhyme styles look easy, but because he was deceptively simple with his rhymes. Much of Prodigy’s genius lied in his poetry and timing: “Ayo, … I break bread… ribs… hundred dollar bills… … Peel on Ducatis… and other four wheels/ write a book full of medicine and generate mils” There’s a deadpan, life-or-death quality to Prodigy’s rhymes. This too was part of his genius… Now, as for the “Keep It Thoro” beat. “Keep It Thoro” is an absolutely menacing audio composite. Aside from Prodigy’s heavy New York slang-laced phrasings and deadpan life-confident delivery, it’s the beatwork of Alchemist that also makes this song so defiantly hard. The core groove is built around a dusty, lounge-act piano sample that jabs the exact same tone — in 1/8ths — for a count of seven times before there’s a change in the phrase: A loose note kicks off moments before the sample loops back to itself. For the bass parts, Alchemist doesn’t go with a conventional bass line. Instead, he uses just three bass sound-stabs to anchor the groove. Two of the three bass-stabs are simply low- and high-pitched versions of the same exact sound stab; the third bass-stab, which Alchemist uses to slide into one of the others, has a slick, boom texture to it. Some beatmakers might not (at first) understand Alchemist’s arrangement of higher tones with lower ones, but the reality is this technique of clashing textures and levels is one of the most fundamental mainstays of the beatmaking tradition. So on “Keep It Thoro,” Alchemist is acutely aware of the fact that it’s the repetitive nature of the sampled piano phrase that actually makes the bass parts sound even more pronounced; which, in turn, gives the overall track a “booming” sonic impression. A genius beat for a genius rhyme…
The Art of Sampling30,619 просмотров • 5 месяцев назад
Boogie Down Productions - “My Philosophy” The biggest misconception about KRS-One is that he’s a “conscious” rapper. But long before that label was ever used to describe some rappers (often in a derogatory manner), KRS-One was dropping science. Not sure when it became a thing for any rapper to *not be conscience. But if you really listen to the pioneering rappers from Melle Mel to Run-DMC to LL Cool J to Rakim to Chuck D to Kool G Rap to MC Lyte to Queen Latifah…you’ll notice one thing for certain: They were all “conscious”. That is to say, they were all obliviously intelligent, aware of their environment and surroundings, and completely at ease with expanded vocabularies and nuanced poetry. And yet, none of them were ignorant of the streets. KRS-One, of the greatest MCs of all time (and an automatic win in ANY MC battle), displayed intelligence right from the start. He was also from the streets. And while over time labels have been used to misinform people about what hip hop/rap music was, is, and can be, these two things should never be seen as mutually exclusive. Especially since hip hop/rap music’s roots are deeply embedded in the streets. In fact, this is one of the primary elements that gives hip hop/rap music it’s distinct flavor. Another primary element that distinguishes hip hop/rap music from all other music forms is sampling. Here, on the aptly titled “My Philosophy,” a sampled-based song built around menacing drums and flip of sample of Stanley Turrentine’s and Milt Jackson’s “Sister Sanctified,” we feel the force of sampling in hip hop/rap music. As I say in my book The Art of Sampling, 3rd Edition, hip hop beatmakers (producers) can convert anything to hip hop form. And the reconceptualization and recontextualization of a small sample from an obscure jazz fusion tune like “Sister Sanctified” goes a long way in proving this point…
The Art of Sampling24,896 просмотров • 5 месяцев назад
Ramsey Lewis Trio - “Summer Breeze” (1973) If it can be said that music is often in conversation with other music, then you will find no better direct example of this than the cover song. Despite the mechanical licensing rules that apply to the permissibility of cover songs, there are an infinite number of ways to do a cover song; ergo, to do your own *version and unique interpretation of a pre-existing song. The tradition of covering songs spans every genre. But in jazz, the tradition of instrumentalists covering songs that include vocals is a special medium. And then there’s the tradition of what I call “re-soulifying” rock songs… Here, we have the Ramsey Lewis Trio covering “Summer Breeze,” the 1972 hit by folk rock duo Seals & Crofts (Jim Seals and Dash Crofts). The Isely Brothers reworked “Summer Breeze” for their album ‘3+3’ (1973) — itself a masterpiece that took the original Seals & Crofts song from 3 minutes to 6 minutes ! — so I’m not sure if the Ramsey Lewis Trio was inspired by The Isley Brothers’ cover or, if like The Isley Brothers, they simply moved fast to cover a recent hit. In any event, what emerges from the Ramsey Lewis Trio’s cover is a subdued yet powerful jazz-soul-funk fusion number that conjures up the sound and feel of an early ‘70s after hours lounge…
The Art of Sampling17,725 просмотров • 3 месяцев назад
Gang Starr - “Mass Appeal” “Mass Appeal” was a turning point for DJ Premier. I remember the first time I heard “Mass Appeal.” It was on Gang Starr’s 1994 album, ‘Hard to Earn.’ I played this song over and over. Serious repeat! What caught my attention the most was how Premier chopped the sample, and then arranged it in a way that the ends exploded every time the loop turned over. What’s more, at the point where the loop turns, there isn’t a dominate kick, which was typical of most hip hop/rap songs of that period. The absence of the kick on the loop turning point convinced me that Premier was in the midst of a sound change. Having heard his beatwork on ‘Illmatic’ just a couple of months before, I was wondering if his beats would be in the same vein or take a different direction. Two songs into ‘Hard to Earn,’ I knew Premier was going for a new sound. And what tipped me off was his experimentation with his drums. I was paying extra close attention to Premier’s use of the kick drum. Specifically, I was studying the ways in which he was starting to “relax” the punch of his kicks while still coming up with non-conventional drum frameworks. On “Mass Appeal,” it was if Premier had challenged himself to devise a moderately syncopated kick pattern underneath a deceptively simple sample arrangement. If you listen to “Mass Appeal,” pay careful attention to how the end of the sample seems to speed up. Truth is, it doesn’t. By chopping the end of the sample the way he did, and by easing up on the attack (the front-end) of the sample, an otherwise simple 1-bar measure is transformed into something akin to break in a record being “pushed” forward by the DJ. And what makes this all more complex than most people realize is the fact that the tempo — which stays the same throughout — is managed thoroughly by the kick pattern and shuffling hat pattern.
The Art of Sampling22,267 просмотров • 5 месяцев назад
Nas (and Large Professor) - “Number Man” (demo) A snippet. From a 1992 demo. And you just know Nas is gonna blow… No one could ever say that it was handed to Nas on a platter. He earned it. And it was Large Professor who gave Nas his most consequential first look on Main Source’s “Live at the Barbecue.” Large Professor followed this up with with helping Nas get the deal that lead to the recording of the classic Illmatic (arguably the best hip hop/Rap album of all time). But a demo in 1992? What the “Number Man” demo shows is a young artist transitioning from his influences into his own artist. While Nas was undoubtedly influenced by on number of the late ‘80s era rappers, he is by and large a disciple of Kool G Rap. On “Number Man,” we here Nas force tweaking his style, intentionally tooling with rhyme misdirection and slant rhymes in ways that enabled him to break away from G Rap and come into his own. This is a critical point to understand. Nas was clearly aware that he sounded like Kool G Rap early on. And Nas was aware of how his connection to the rhyme school of Kool G Rap could impact him. Despite stealing the show with a blistering debut verse on Main Source’s “Live at the BBQ,” it wasn’t an automatic that Nas was ever going to get his own deal. At least not right away. For instance, when Nas was shopping his demo, Def Jam records reportedly passed on Nas because Russell Simmons thought that Nas was nothing more than a low-budget Kool G Rap. Nas persevered. He continued to shop his demo. And fundamental to Nas’s perseverance was Large Professor. It was Large Professor who provided Nas with the beats that allowed Nas to woodshop his style, flow, and delivery. And it was Large Professor who adamantly encouraged Nas and went around town (New York) with Nas shopping his demo. As far as demos go, you can hear it. It’s all there. It was only a matter of time before Nas would breakout. The feeling at the time, among some but not all, was that Nas was gonna blow. Still, as smooth as Nas sounds on this beat, you can hear him working to differentiate himself, a feat every great artist achieves in order to stand on their own. Finally, the beat. What we hear on this Large Professor produced beat is some of the fundamental aesthetics of the beatmaking tradition as they were being established in 1992. Filtered bass lines, jazz horns, and hard hitting drums are all present on “Number Man.” By 1994, practically every standard aesthetic, method, and technique in hip hop’s beatmaking tradition would be established. And Large Professor was one of the chief pioneers among the handful collective of beatmakers (producers) who contributed greatly to the development of these standards…
The Art of Sampling21,476 просмотров • 5 месяцев назад
Smoothe Da Hustler - “Broken Language” feat. Trigga Tha Gambler When it first dropped, “Broken Language” hit hard like a brick off a project rooftop through a car windshield. I interviewed DR Period (who produced “Broken Language”) for my book The BeatTips Manual, and he told me that “Brownsville, Brooklyn was embedded that beat!” Facts. Beyond that, “Broken English” demonstrates how even on the hardest of hardcore hip hop/rap songs, the poetry, wordplay, and creativity can be incredibly high…
The Art of Sampling12,781 просмотров • 6 месяцев назад
Ol’ Dirty Bastard - “Brooklyn Zoo” One of the testaments of RZA’s prowess as a beatmaker (producer) — on the BeatTips Top 30 hip hop/Rap Beatmakers (Producers) of All Time list, I rank RZA #2 — is that he created an entirely new sound: The Wu-Tang sound. The Wu-Tang sound was so powerful that even when RZA wasn’t behind the beat, such is the case here with “Brooklyn Zoo” (prod. by True Master), the Wu-Tang sound was still present and in your face. And when we think of rawness in hip hop/rap music, there are rappers who ever rhymed as raw and seemingly effortless as Ol’ Dirty Bastard…
The Art of Sampling11,225 просмотров • 5 месяцев назад
Capone-N-Noreaga - “L.A., L.A. (Kuwait Mix by Marley Marl)” feat. Mobb Deep and Tragedy Khadafi One of the best illustrations of hardcore hip hop/rap music as beautiful art. An example of when a dope sample-based beat meets bone gristle rhymes. And a reminder of why Marley Marl is one of the best hip hop beatmakers (producers) of all time…
The Art of Sampling11,471 просмотров • 6 месяцев назад
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