Sampling is also a good way to introduce great musicians and music of the past to the new generation. Sometimes when we learn that a certain piece was sampled, we go looking for the original and we fall in love with it
U. R. Joking... Right? I'm sure you're being sarcastic but I'll go in anyway ... One has nothing to do with the other when you're taking a picture you're taking a picture that's a ubicuos Act. It definitely has nothing to do with sampling someone else's copyrighted work unless you paint a picture or photograph a picture of someone's copyrighted work then it will have the same copyright infringement outcome because it's copyrighted work the key word is copyrighted work
It’s awesome to hear how cool and humble Clyde Stubblefield was when artists sampled him. He felt honored. I do agree that at least he should have gotten a “thank you” and a credit though
@@scottb32a That's the part that hit me. When I realized how the music industry is rtun it made me want nothing to do with it. Glad that record companies are dinosaurs. I hope those fossils retire soon. Purely exploitation and corruption of artists.
@@nirvanacobain001While I was disappointed in his perspective, he is absolutely a legend. Not just for the artists he’s recorded amazingly, but Big Black and Shellac.
@@yessir640 true. As the years go on, it seems music is becoming less and less original (at least in the mainstream) everything has already been done lol
To keep simple...hip Hop was the bridge to other forms of music I probably would have never heard of. From The Beatnuts, I discovered David Alexrod. Because of Axelrod, I discovered Cannonball Adderley, who has a brother, Nat. Pete Rock flipped a Nat Adderley record. I mean, it's just endless how it all connects. Now my taste is all over the place, lol. Hip Hop did that, for me at least.
Same for me! But borrowing or signifying has started way earlier with classic music, blues and jazz. Really bad to see that lawyers are taking over the arts year by year 😨
F Stanz excuse my ignorance, what's his name and what has he done. I'm sure he's great but what you said doesn't disprove my statement. If it's so lazy or easy lets see him do it, if he can't then he should STFU on the matter. For instance, I don't like country music. The instrumentation is simple and rhythms are pretty much the same, but I can't do it so you know what I do? I STFU and don't listen to it. Easy problem solver.
His name is Steve Albini, and he's a legendary producer in the punk/alternative rock/metal scene. He had a hand in classic albums such as Nirvana's In Utero, Pixies' Surfer Rosa, PJ Harvey's Rid of Me, Neurosis Times Of Grace, Godspeed's Yanqui UXO, and all of the albums from Jesus Lizard, Big Black, and Shellac. Plus Joanna Newsom's Ys which is also a fantastic folk record. Just to clarify though, I agree that his stance on sampling is ignorant.
Bob James embraces sampling and enjoys hearing his work reimagined. To me that's smart because it brings in another revenue stream AND exposes them to a new generation of music lovers.
If the underground hiphop artist didnt sample it. We all wouldnt be listening to those old jazz, funk and rock n roll doo wop, country legends. There music gets re -lived as time goes on. Always give credit where its due. I see nothing wrong with sampling. Long live music.
@@alexwolf7164 No, sampling can be a cultural conversation. Musicians 'sample' each other all the time - infact it was rife during the days of jazz where soloists would quote older melodies in their solos. Sampling just uses a different 'instrument'. Were the Beatles wrong for using mellotrons? They use samples. And i'm making an album for my 'graduate exam' and it's made up of 75% samples. Get out more.
@@alexwolf7164 Lol did I push your button or something? What do you know about creativity? I know one thing - creativity is open, playful and works beyond ideas of purity. Nice job on the assumptions but I am a drummer, guitarist and bass player of 15 years. I don't really care if it's not worthy of your snob ears. Jazz players quoting isn't sampling (obviously) but shows there is a history of this approach - using previous pieces of music as cultural value. Beatles aren't innocent either, until they got settled into the studio they were recycling beat/r&b music for their own compositions. It becomes a cultural conversation if you take older music and recycle it for the present. People who use traditional methods of writing music (instruments, composing) don't write in a vacuum, they are influenced and borrow/steal all the time. Like all forms of art and making music, there are people that do it creatively and there are those that are just derivative. Do you have the same opinions of collage art? It's exactly the same, recorded audio is a medium and with it you can do many things. Many of the great hip hop producers play their own instruments on their productions too.
@@alexwolf7164 Plakk? No idea. So much of your comment just sounds like an old jaded musician who doesn't get what the kids are doing and just wishes it would return to the good old days of Bert Jansch. Times change! You're the 2020 equivalent of adults in the 50s who hated rock n roll because they didn't get it. By the way, playing a Fender in bands isn't as impressive as you think it is.
@@mothernightlabel9543 Don't bother with that sack of dust. His profile picture is a brain.. Clearly we do not inherit the intelligence required to interpret his sheer brilliance. Now that I think about it, he's sampling so many letters and words, I don't know how I feel about this. I think he should pick up a pen and write his own words. He hasn't even used one purely original letter or word in everything he's said. Pathetic.
As a BeatMaker/ sampler myself, one common thread I’ve noticed running throughout all samplers is that they subscribe to ALL types of music and sound. All they care about is if the sound is beautiful and/ or works in the equation they’re trying to solve. That’s it. They’re so open minded about where the sample comes from: A bird, a train, a plane, or an obscure or well known music album. Doesn’t matter. They are some of THE most knowledgeable music archivists I’ve ever met
To Sample is to allow these artist to re-live again, if not for HipHop sampling I love music as much as I do, I wouldn't be creating & wouldn't know about legendary artist who the world has forgotten about.
Shock G had a damn good point comparing it to a painter vs. a photographer. It's just technology. It moves forward and music absorbs it. You probably had people ranting about acoustic pianos back in the day when they were first made.
All art is borrowed from each other lol, you just see it plain as day with sampling. But, you can’t argue that combing various artists from various genres to make a cohesive track isn’t the stuff of creativity and skill.
@Shock he knows how to play the piano and other instruments very well so to act like people that sample are talent-less is just dumb and ignorant. It takes a certain skill to create a masterpiece using samples and it's even more amazing when that producer's own abilities to play other instruments is involved. Roger Troutman and even George Clinton were all about sampling and both had a say with their original compositions. Dj Quik's early sampling allowed for his abilities to truly shine in his later stuff when he started doing more original work with less samples and more instruments. You just wouldn't understand it until you step out of that dense-ass, narrow mindedness.
And Picasso remixed and directly sampled African Art but He’s a genius. Rock music directly used riffs and chords created by blues artist but.... hypocrisy
If it wasn't for sampling I'd of never found out about the older music. If I like the sample I'll look up the original artist which then leads me on another musical adventure of the history of the artist and end up purchasing their music. It's a win for everyone.
When I was a kid in the late 80s and early 90s, I always wondered why all the hip hop songs had pretty much had the same type of drum beat and drum tone. It was the sampling of the Amen Break.
I really like that Clyde Stubblefield. He's been screwed over by so many, never made a buck from people sampling his stuff. Yet he still has a smile on his face. Classy dude in my opinion.
@Phresh Produce He didn't sell JB anything. JB heard Clyde playing the beat just messing around in the studio. JB heard it and told him to keep playing that and they recorded it. Clyde was paid for the studio session and that's it. JB own those beats. That's how it works with studio sessions for musicians.
@@Anthropomorphic the artists was not making money back especially in the 80s when sampling became and issue also r&b artists were and still sampling and none of those lawyers were going after r&b artists for doing the same thing so it was a prejudice and a agenda against hip hop music especially real hip hop
I grew up listening to Bob James because my father is a huge fan. I would get excited every time I heard his music in hip hop...which is a lot. Bob James is one of the most sampled artists ever and is the epitome of modern jazz.
Bob James is only scratching the surface of jazz ...I had a pianist once tell me about how great Bib Janes was then I turned him on to McCoy Tyner and some other great jazz musicians....
@@alexwolf7164 lmao you uptight fuck Try to make something as good as Madvillainy or Endtroducing and you can be mad. You have a bad understanding of art. How about collage, is that theft? Stick to your boring ass Led Zeppelin
@@alexwolf7164 Oh, you mean the Led Zeppelin that literally STOLE music? Dazed and Confused was written by Jake Holmes and Jimmy Page just put his own name on the song. Same thing happened with a song off LZ II which they got sued for and had to add a writing credit for Robert Johnson or someone. He's stolen so much fucking shit, not to mention the basis of most rock music is just ripping off older blues artists but adding a wah pedal. Typical rock fan, completely stuck in their own pathetic elitist backwards caveman thought process that they can't enjoy other forms of music. Maybe one day you'll learn to enjoy all types of music. The fact that you don't even know that one of your own favourite bands relied heavily on "theft" and "plagiarism" is embarrassing.
Every painter is influenced by someone else , every musician is influenced by someone else. Van Gogh was influenced by Gaugain Listen to Jazz and you will hear snippets of classical music, and so it goes on and on.
@@alimantado373 further more.. every artist should realize their position as alchemist and utilize the tools before them to create new platforms of self expression or appreciation
Tracklist: 01:51 RJD2 - Since we last spoke 02:22 El-P - The Overly Dramatic Truth 03:40 The Jackson 5 - ABC/Bill Haley & His Comets - Rock around the clock 04:21 Led Zeppelin - Whole gotta love 04:23 Bob Dylan - Like a rolling stone 04:25 Beatles - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 04:26 John Coltrain - Blue train 04:29 Rolling Stones - Gimme shelter 04:31 ACDC - Back in black 04:34 Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline 04:50 Nirvana - Heart shaped box 04:52 Pixies - Bone machine 04:55 Robert Plant - Sons of freedom 05:18 Rick James - Super freak 05:18 MC Hammer - U can touch this 05:57 Little Richard - Ready Teddy 06:04 Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole lotta shakin going on 06:11 Chuck Berry - Maybellene 06:13 Buddy Holly - That’ll be the day 07:34 Herbie Hancock - Rock it 07:47 LL Cool J - Rock The Bells 09:30 Parliament - Give Up The Funk 11:05 James Brown - Funky drummer 11:41 Public Enemy - Fight the power 11:55 LL Cool J - Mama said knock you out 12:41 Kool and The Gang - Jungle Boogie 12:47 Afrika Bambaataa - Planet Rock 13:50 Kurtis Blow - The breaks 13:52 El-P - Jukie Skate Rock 14:51 A Tribe Called Quest - Scenario 15:02 Boogie Down Productions - My philosophy 15:13 De La Soul - Me myself and I 15:22 Eazy E - We want eazy 15:38 Beastie Boys - Shake you rump 16:18 Public Enemy - Night of the living baseheads 16:43 Public Enemy - Prophets of rage 17:01/17:19 Public Enemy - Welcome To The Terrordome (Vocal) 17:57 Public Enemy - Don’t believe the hype 18:15 Public Enemy - Night of the living baseheads 18:47 Public Enemy - Bring the noise 19:28 Public Enemy - Fight the power 20:00 Bruce Springsteen - Born in USA 20:11 Run DMC & Aerosmith - Walk this way 20:24 Mase & Puff Daddy - Feel so good 20:57 Public Enemy - Caught, can we get a witness 21:36 The Turtles - You showed me 21:45 De La Soul - Transmitting live from Mars 23:12 Gilbert O'Sullivan - Alone again 23:38 Biz Markie - Alone again 24:49 Biz Markie - Just a friend 25:50 Public Enemy - Caught, can we get a witness 27:45 Little Roger & The Goosebumps - Strairway to Gilligan's Island 28:49 Eric Sermon & Marvin Gaye - Music 32:05 James Brown - Cold sweat 32:19 James Brown - I don’t care 34:16 Public Enemy - Rebel without the pause 34:20 Big Daddy Kane - Mortal Combat 34:25 NWA - Fuck tha police 34:30 Kool Grap & DJ Polo - It’s a demo 34:37 Roxane Shante - Have a nice day 35:01 Sinéad O'Connor - I am stretched on your grave 35:09 Coldcut - Say kids 35:20 Prince - My name is Prince 36:20 Funkadelic - In The Cabin Of My Uncle Jam 36:40 Snoop Doggy Dog - Who am I 36:51 George Clinton - Atomic dog 37:16 Rick James - Superfreak 37:23 MC Hammer - U cant touch this 37:34 Stevie Wonder - Pastime paradise 37:40 Coolio - Gansta's paradise 38:00 RJD2 - Ghostwriter 40:40 Danger Mouse - Encore 41:16 Jay Z - 99 problems 41:24 Danger Mouse - 99 problems 42:22 Beatles - Revolution #9 43:04 Danger Mouse - Encore 50:19 RJD - Iced lightning 51:45 El-P - Constellation (Remix) 52:30 RJD2 - Ghostwriter
Besides other points usually mentioned, I would add that sampling is a great way for artists to pay respect to other artists, other styles, other eras. I am Russian, born in USSR, the one thing that clearly stands out (IMHO of a foreigner) in US musical tradition is continuity. When modern artists salute to previous generations, mention names they grew up on, give them another time to be noticed, it is so deep, so warm and so authentic. Because art never exists encapsulated, a new form is always born in a boiling pot of other forms, various connections and influences. And it is great when an artist shares it's own tastes and recipes with public. In this documentary it was mentioned that it was cheap to make MC Hammer's U Can't Touch This out of Rick James' Superfreak. Like someone took what was already cool and put his name on it. I do not know original intentions of a producer, but as I prefer to see it it was a matter of respect. Rick James name was introduced to a newer generation once again, and not only to a new generation, for the whole world too. This was a moment I discovered Rick James (and Temptations too, as they were mentioned in a sample). Later, I started searching for other connections hidden in other songs, in credits or directly mentioned in lyrics (like references to Aaron Hall) and it was a huge new ocean of music I fell in love with. Now, back to my point of continuity, this is just wonderful that (as some guys mentioned here in comments too) in US musical tradition, there are bridges from older generations. Sampling is one of the ways these bridges are built. And it is not a museum‐like reference, sampling gives old music a new birth. I wish it was same in Russia, there is so much music of USSR times, classy lyrics, melodies, which, woven into modern music, would make the scene deeper, and classy, too. Basically, respecting elders is classy, sampling era was all about respect.
I'm a musician, guitarist, singer, played in rock bands since the 80s, trust me this shit ain't easy, anyone can play guitar, this stuff requires precision and exceptional timing. I use mostly only samplers, drum machines and analogue synths nowadays to make the music I want to hear. this shit is hard to get right
anyone can play guitar...but play it well? wrong, most ppl cannot play an instrument that well or to the point where they're bringing their own unique perspective and style to it. No idea why you'd say that. Sure, anybody can learn how to play the riff from Smoke on the Water or Come As You Are, but that's not really saying anything. And btw I love all genres of music, hip-hop being near the very top.
@@HeavehBurtation I've played guitar and been in rock bands since the late 80s, guitar is pretty easy compared to synth sound design and processing samples, I have built my own guitars made from junk and sold them as a business, I have also made some unique instruments of my own design I am a good guitar player who can play most styles and I understand that the guitar might be difficult for beginners to understand, and I fully understand the nuances between different players, for example I prefer people like gilmour or hendrix, but the point still stands. Anyone can play a guitar and play pretty well after a few months, electronic music requires lots more than learning scales and chords, it requires an understanding of frequencies, of creating a totally new sound that only you have created, of making something that can not be replicated on a simple 6 stringed instrument like a guitar, I love the guitar, but I also love the banjo, the ukelele and the mandolin as well and I play them all, electronic music has way more possibilities that's the difference
A crucial documentary. One of the best ever made. I miss the old days. My very first hip-hop albums were LL Cool J - Radio, Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill, and the fist two Public Enemy albums. It went on from there. All of them so full of amazing beats and samples.
This doc just appeared on my YT home page, never seen it before, just saw it, and though it didn't break any new ground or anything, it was nice & concise. It looks like it was released some time around 2009 so now in 2022 I just want to pay my respects to those who appeared in this doc who have since passed: the legendary Clyde Stubblefield, Michael "Eyedea" Larsen, Greg Tate, Shock G, etc...May they rest easy.
The merits or evils of sampling makes for an interesting topic of debate. Making a song with a traditional instrument will likely require lots of manual practice and learning about musical theory. Producing a song with a drum machine and sampler may take far less practice and more digging (to locate a few seconds of a fitting sample among millions of hours of recorded music) and then technical processing. Each requires a certain set of talents to be honed. I listen to loads of electronica, including old school hip hop but must concede that Albini has a point. Ultimately all the technical processing is not necessarily borne of musical talent or work, but very sophisticated listening and essentially technical programming. It also comes down to minimal standards. Making good hip hop may take a certain talent, but doing it merely passably is far easier than playing even the simplest tune on guitar or piano. And this doesn't even consider the heavier creative onus of starting from the blank slate of silence versus the more "assisted" slate of beats and samples. If someone told you to make a song in 48 hours, would you have enough time to learn guitar and write a song from scratch, or would it be easier to open up Ableton and hunt down some samples? That said, Albini neglects to consider all the cultural and societal reasons which birthed hip hop and made it sound so good. Maybe the creative windfall was upfront -- in its very inception as a genre. Sampling also may have had the net effect of increasing awareness of music which would have been forgotten to future generations, to quote Stetsasonic (Talkin' All That Jazz). Ultimately the real shame is that the original artists never saw a red cent of royalties. That's just wholly unfair on any level! I suppose the hip hop artists who got minted could make personal reparations especially in the case of unknowns like ESG?
Yeah. But samples have a unique quality to them as to where u can cut notes at the transients and take away some of the human expression of the originators and imply there own sense of human expression in its place. For example, Dilla takes a few frames of a sample and stretches it only to replay it any way. It gives the sample his expression making it a completely new piece. Alchemist is really good at this these days as well
Interesting documentary. I speak as someone who makes electronic music, but also plays keys, guitar and bass but I’ve always found these sorts of arguments silly. The purists and elitists don’t seem to understand that there isn’t just one way of creating music, and the existence of sample based mediums do not invalidate their ability to play an instrument. A person who uses samples is aware they are borrowing sounds from elsewhere, but the skill comes from completely re-contextualising it. Also, I think the detractors have a very simplistic view of what sampling is or can be. I sometimes use samples in my own music, but rather than taking a chunk of someone else’s music and sticking a beat behind it, I will grab a snippet and manipulate it to create an entirely new sound, which then becomes an instrument in and of itself. It’s not likely you’d even recognise the “samples” in much of my music if you heard them. In short, stop trying to police creativity and ingenuity with your snobbery. Elitists (usually mediocre guitarists) need to get over themselves and sit the fuck down.
@@freein2339 how you would define "great" is entirely your prerogative, but I have played with other musicians plenty of times. What's your point exactly?
Obviously there's a huge difference between taking a loop like puff as opposed to sampling parts then making your own thing like a primo or dilla... taking a note from a preexisting song then creating your own melody is no different than taking any instrument you didn't invent, like a piano or guitar, & making a melody. In that sense, all instruments are simply "presets".
I always thought of that. Nobody playing guitar invented the instrument, neither the cords or the distortion needed to sound like "rock". In this case everything is a preset. I agree.
Puff practically repurposed entire classics and turned them into rap songs in my opinion. Guys like Premier, Havoc, 9th Wonder, Khrysis, etc. find a different melody in an established song, they don't bite the whole song. It's because of their sampling that I have found some of my favorite soul/R&B songs. I think it's fun to strip down the song by ear and discover where the melodies came from.
As far as i'm concerned, there's a right and wrong way to approach sampling. The distinction being that one is going to require you to clear the samples because they're immediately recognizable and are just simple loops from a familiar melody at the forefront, and the other way being when samples are manipulated beyond recognition, while being used and layered in a musical way. Especially once awareness for lawsuits in copyright infringement became public knowledge, producer's and dj's had to be much more cryptic and clever with their sampling tactics. So naturally, there's far more creativity involved in taking an obscure sample and utilizing it in a way that's akin to how different 'notes' or pitches are used to comprise a melody! When done right, you can have a track consisting of various samples from a wide range of artists, that contains as much musicality and sophistication as any traditionally instrument centric composed song! Being able to seamlessly match several different elements taken from totally separate sources is not easy, and it's a skill of its own!
@Shock did you just come to this video to hate and talk shit on every comment? Because all you say is that comments don't make any sense when they clearly do. Whether or not your tiny brain comprehends it is on you.
The Beach Boys "sampled" Chuck Berry. Elvis "sampled" black gospel singers. The Osmonds straight bit The Jackson Five. Let's not pretend this is a phenomenon exclusive to Hip Hop.
I think the key difference is copyright. When the beach boys did surfin usa for example there could have been a copyright claim and nobody would have disputed it. What the samplers are saying is that they shouldn't be subject to copyright laws and they should be free to take whatever they want. This is really a debate about people getting paid and not artistry (even though it is cloaked as such)
If it’s about pay, pay the originators of music period. Music is black culture it’s about power and pride someone samples your song and theirs did better than yours did, I️ want to create publicity around that situation cause they couldn’t create it on there own.
I was never seriously interested in making music until I learned about samplers and drum machines in high school. It opened up an entire world of creative possibilities.
You have no idea what you guys just did. This documentary is out of this world. The quotes I’ve gotten or this are quotes from geniuses. This is truely a gem. Thank you.👌🏾
This documentary should be a must watch for all new producers coming up, you new kids need to understand how Hip Hop was formed and where your roots come from......Sample That!
The fact that Led Zeppelin WHO BUILT THEIR DISCOGRAPHY on lifting lyrics and notes from other people's music would stop other musicians from doing the same to them is unbelievable.
Let's not forget, the people using samples love music. They know records and artists, and even behind the scenes ppl. They are praising artists like James Brown and his funky drummer. There is a lot of respect for history, these guys are nerds truly nerding out and digging for records. Thank God now we have virtual instruments and ppl don't have to sample to get a sound they want. Remember hip hop and rap was a way for ppl to make it, and digging was the only inexpensive way to gather sounds rather then crazy hardware.
@@paulmoss4402 attending audio engineering school and playing instruments, in addition to sampling, is not uncommon for "bedroom producers" these days. not knocking albini, hes a legend, just saying music production and audio engineering is much more accessible these days compared to 10 or 20 years ago.
Steve Albini produced Nirvana, possibly the most overrated and lazy band in rock mainstream EVER. Cobain's music sounded ''dark'' not because he intended it to be that way but his chords progressions were so bland and stale that gave his songs that sort of feeling.
The notion that soundwaves can be 'owned' and 'stolen' should itself be up for debate. There was a time before the music business came along and monetized everything! It's all art, doesn't matter if the preset sound came from a guitar, synth or vinyl record, talent is still needed to make a track!
I’ve played with bands for over 25 years, and, as a drummer, sampling allows me to create my own complete compositions, without relying on other musicians. Not to mention that sample-based hip hop is a sound that couldn’t ever be replicated by standard instruments. It’s the timbre, the reverb, the crowd sounds, traffic sounds, trains in the distance; far away foghorns. In my opinion, it’s the widest and most versatile genre for experimentation.
Alex Wolf I disagree. The use of sampling in a way that redesigns, re-contextualizes and repurposes older music is art, much in the same way collage or Dadaist artists worked. Look up “Joseph Cornell”. Look at his work and tell me it isn’t art. To imagine that strumming the same 4 chords on a guitar is any more creative than hip hop sample based production is a pretty narrow perspective of art.
At 3:32 and so on. The Documentary makers had made a wonderful 40 seconds of sampling and moving pictures. Really wonderful done. I have watched that piece several times. Very good work!!
The squares will never understand Hip-Hop. Some of the squares got fucking rich off of it though more so than the artist who created/made the song/album.
It's Dilla month, he was always in the background. They mentioned his groups but not him. Kinda messed up you will never have had de la soul and tribe called quest without Dilla!
From my own experience I'd have to say I disagree with the guy who says its much easier to make music from sampling than it is to play something because all those bits and pieces have to actually fit and make sense together weather you're using a voice or an instrument I mean theres been times when I actually felt restricted because I'm working within the boundaries of each previous sound I layer and then theres parts that I have to delete and recombine so it all becomes a new groove that works..When you're just playing what you want on instrument(s) you're not dealing with that..
SS- When you already play a single instrument like a piano or guitar or sax its easier to come up with a song than taking sounds from multiple sources and genres to make one piece..If you got 5 guys in one place you're playing with in real time you can make everything fit and stick to make sense, time wise, rhythm wise, style wise , motivation wise etc. because you have the benefit of improvisation and making changes on the spot..It's a much more difficult task to deal with ready made pieces of music that are already complete at their own speeds, styles of possibly totally unrelated genres and creating something new that makes sense, I personally experience more limitations.. If I play an instrument and already know how I want a certain sound to be played on a keyboard I can make it sound that way and thats it I'm not confined to what somebody already played and recorded...While you're making corny ass bets I talk from experience and I BET you never made a beat thats knocking ever in your life...Holla...
SparksOnTheRoad word up. Sampling is an art. Proponents against it can talk that smack like Charlie Brown's school teacher but they truly lost like tourists in the Amazon Jungle. But since folks is on the "play me close tip" I chop everything up like lettuce and make Caesar Salad. To find my samples will take a 1000 years. I don't use break beats.
Human Observer it's like this...say you wanted to use Atomic Dog as your foundation groove and you wanted to mix a Diana Ross vocal clip..you can't just slap it in there..the vocals need to be made harmonically correct and also on time with the beat. sampling is a true science of time space tempo key and pitch.
SS-Well it's more work than than simply doing it on the spot with an instrument in your hand isn't it? And lets not front like musicians don't apply certain effects to own playing right? Do you not understand the limits of using pre recorded music? Listen to the beats from 20 years ago compared to today which is more complex? Holla at me when you ACTUALLY DO A BEAT from multiple genres instead of speaking from theory and I don't do no auto tuning..
Looping goes hand in hand with deep crate diggin.Crate diggin is also a form of art. Combine looping with easy youtube 'digging' (even worse is sampling from those that even cater to so called beatmakers) and then it becomes lazy. It's all about context.
Looping made up a lot of the 'golden era' in the 90s and late 80s, it's definitely not lazy if done well. Chopping and sequencing the chops wasn't so common then, except maybe drums.
Of course the most uncreative people on the planet would get upset when others create something new out of what was created before. It's called evolution. Everything comes from something. The people most upset about sampling and trying to sue didn't even create the "original" work in the first place. They own it because the music industry likes to take advantage of the creative talent that comes out of poverty. If what you created inspires the youth to reference your creativity to create something new, you should be honored not butt hurt.
Steve Albini is a legend. His work proves it. But apart from this on the other hand, throughout his career he has shown that he is very short-sighted. He hasn't been a visionary at all. He criticized Hip-Hop right from the start and it has become one of the most successful popular manifestations of the 80s and 90s. He also criticized House and Techno music, and we can all see the influence of this music today. He criticized digital technology and we can also all see where the world of computer-based production has come. Albini is a great studio engineer, I can't deny it, but as a visionary he is completely blind. He has spent his whole career behind an electric guitar and a tape recorder throwing shit at every new musical manifestation.
Don’t care what he’s done or who he’s worked with anyone that discredits sampling n the genius it takes to do it correctly is an IDIOT. He’s just a racist gatekeeper. All the ppl he worked with wouldn’t be a thing if it wasn’t for black music/culture which is the most sampled/remixed thing on earth
@@alteredstatestapesits so funny for a PUNK ROCK artist to DARE to criticize others… learn some basic chords and you play the first couple of Ramones records from front to back, do it faster and you’ve got some of the 80’s hardcore shit too
thank you so much for putting footage of someone playing an SP-303 in this. that was my baby for 14 years until she crapped out. still sorta works but you have to jack your stereo volume all the way to hear anything and pray!!!! that it doesn't just start working again and blow your eardrums. I need a 404A when I can afford it
Great doc. I grew up on Long Island, NY; was part of the local D.J. scene from the very start in the mid '70's where we began with a Radio Shack mic mixer (rectangle pill box w/ two dials.) Some strong opinions here for a clearly nuanced, multifaceted issue. Great treatment!
Poor kids who looped grooves to rhyme over it wasn’t “lazy” it was growing up in poverty and creating with what we had...
Facts
Say it
forever
And those that called it "lazy" could never do it themselves.
@@VibesByDom lol nah. they *chose* not to bc they thought it to be lazy.
Sampling is also a good way to introduce great musicians and music of the past to the new generation. Sometimes when we learn that a certain piece was sampled, we go looking for the original and we fall in love with it
I agree wit this strongly. There are many songs that I listen to now that I found when looking for samples.
Agreed
That’s exactly what made me fall in love with hip-hop.
So true. I listen to any music now because I understand its all the same, just delivered differently.
Absolutely agree !!
If you're musical, you'll make music with anything you can get your hands on.
Amen! Facts.
This is how all music, especially the best sound, has always been made.
TRUTH, REAL TALK 💯
Lawyers be like: "Excuse me did you just sample the sound of running water? See you in court."
hhhhhh law and order
Right I'm like wait why is that even serious
@@AikiraBeats money is the motive
And that's exactly why the lawyer on the musicians side is there to say "excuse me but fuck you u don't own the English language!"
They don't call them bloodsucking for nothing
hearing samples in new songs, helped me realize how much more i love the originals once i find where those sounds came from. No fucking joke.
BaconMoney920 true it can be educational I wouldn't know about alot of music if it wasn't for hip hop
Same with me homie
ya i fell in love in love with D.O.Cs (it funky enough) because of eazy e's (real muthaphucking Gs)
BaconMoney920 That's how I felt about every Zapp Song.
WORD !!
Shock G’s analogy of sampling to photography was really astute
lol
U. R. Joking... Right? I'm sure you're being sarcastic but I'll go in anyway ... One has nothing to do with the other when you're taking a picture you're taking a picture that's a ubicuos Act. It definitely has nothing to do with sampling someone else's copyrighted work unless you paint a picture or photograph a picture of someone's copyrighted work then it will have the same copyright infringement outcome because it's copyrighted work the key word is copyrighted work
I agree
It’s all an art form
I don't take a photo and try to pass it off as a painting I made from my own thoughts.
It’s awesome to hear how cool and humble Clyde Stubblefield was when artists sampled him. He felt honored. I do agree that at least he should have gotten a “thank you” and a credit though
to be fair James Brown didnt ever credit Clyde so they probably didnt even know it was him at the time. But yes , what a guy !
Layers of audio archeology. Top description!
@@scottb32a That's the part that hit me. When I realized how the music industry is rtun it made me want nothing to do with it. Glad that record companies are dinosaurs. I hope those fossils retire soon. Purely exploitation and corruption of artists.
THIS PART!!.. they were sampling "james brown records" not "clyde stubblefield" if anything clyde needs to be beefin with polydor@@scottb32a
Sampling is the greatest compliment one can give ...and to get the best sample generally one buys the artists record ......mmm
R.I.P. Clyde Stubblefield, the original Funky Drummer!
It’s sad that he didn’t get his just do for his beat! It’s disgusting
@@jpreddy3665 He should've been a multi-millionaire.
Also let's not forget about G.C. Coleman (RIP), who never received any royalties.
Ah man, Clyde you know we'll miss you, forever in our hearts, always.
11:30
Translation: Business people judging art.
Pay the artist. The artist wants to get paid
@@sunshinesunflowerz1647 majority of the time the artists still don't get paid, the label business suits do.
@@sunshinesunflowerz1647 But it's record companies who sue the Samplers because they are fucking piranhas, and the artists still don't see shit
@gaba hahaha true
Yup
I'm surprised at how little a legend like Steve Albini understands about sample culture.
Seriously! If it's so easy, Steve, show us what you can do?
I respect both views, both have good points
having that narrow minded view about music makes him far from being a legend
Because he’s a racist
@@nirvanacobain001While I was disappointed in his perspective, he is absolutely a legend. Not just for the artists he’s recorded amazingly, but Big Black and Shellac.
a sample is a homage. its always a homage. nothing less.
that is a very reductive statement
But then if you sell my stuff as if they were yours I don't care if you call it a homage or not you PAY for your "homage".
@@pliniogoiania Everything is a Sample at this Point
@@pliniogoiania people can’t pay because snobby elitists charge ridiculous upfront fees half the time ,or just won’t give rights
@@yessir640 true. As the years go on, it seems music is becoming less and less original (at least in the mainstream) everything has already been done lol
To keep simple...hip Hop was the bridge to other forms of music I probably would have never heard of. From The Beatnuts, I discovered David Alexrod. Because of Axelrod, I discovered Cannonball Adderley, who has a brother, Nat. Pete Rock flipped a Nat Adderley record. I mean, it's just endless how it all connects. Now my taste is all over the place, lol. Hip Hop did that, for me at least.
Facts HipHop bridges genres and puts you on to different things
Precisely right 🙏🏿
Beautiful
Same for me! But borrowing or signifying has started way earlier with classic music, blues and jazz. Really bad to see that lawyers are taking over the arts year by year 😨
same bacause im always listening for samples!!
For the guy that said is easy, lazy, and cheap. They should've given him thetools and told him "you do it"
As soon as I saw Albini I knew he wasn’t gonna be chill about this
`the guy` that said it was lazy has already produced some of the most acclaimed & influential albums, ever.
F Stanz excuse my ignorance, what's his name and what has he done. I'm sure he's great but what you said doesn't disprove my statement. If it's so lazy or easy lets see him do it, if he can't then he should STFU on the matter. For instance, I don't like country music. The instrumentation is simple and rhythms are pretty much the same, but I can't do it so you know what I do? I STFU and don't listen to it. Easy problem solver.
His name is Steve Albini, and he's a legendary producer in the punk/alternative rock/metal scene. He had a hand in classic albums such as Nirvana's In Utero, Pixies' Surfer Rosa, PJ Harvey's Rid of Me, Neurosis Times Of Grace, Godspeed's Yanqui UXO, and all of the albums from Jesus Lizard, Big Black, and Shellac. Plus Joanna Newsom's Ys which is also a fantastic folk record.
Just to clarify though, I agree that his stance on sampling is ignorant.
Fantasee thanks, That's all I was trying to say.
What they don’t get is that every sample is an ad for the original record. Free!
Bob James embraces sampling and enjoys hearing his work reimagined. To me that's smart because it brings in another revenue stream AND exposes them to a new generation of music lovers.
If the underground hiphop artist didnt sample it. We all wouldnt be listening to those old jazz, funk and rock n roll doo wop, country legends. There music gets re -lived as time goes on. Always give credit where its due. I see nothing wrong with sampling. Long live music.
@@alexwolf7164 No, sampling can be a cultural conversation. Musicians 'sample' each other all the time - infact it was rife during the days of jazz where soloists would quote older melodies in their solos. Sampling just uses a different 'instrument'. Were the Beatles wrong for using mellotrons? They use samples. And i'm making an album for my 'graduate exam' and it's made up of 75% samples. Get out more.
@@alexwolf7164 Lol did I push your button or something? What do you know about creativity? I know one thing - creativity is open, playful and works beyond ideas of purity. Nice job on the assumptions but I am a drummer, guitarist and bass player of 15 years. I don't really care if it's not worthy of your snob ears. Jazz players quoting isn't sampling (obviously) but shows there is a history of this approach - using previous pieces of music as cultural value. Beatles aren't innocent either, until they got settled into the studio they were recycling beat/r&b music for their own compositions.
It becomes a cultural conversation if you take older music and recycle it for the present. People who use traditional methods of writing music (instruments, composing) don't write in a vacuum, they are influenced and borrow/steal all the time. Like all forms of art and making music, there are people that do it creatively and there are those that are just derivative. Do you have the same opinions of collage art? It's exactly the same, recorded audio is a medium and with it you can do many things. Many of the great hip hop producers play their own instruments on their productions too.
@@alexwolf7164 Plakk? No idea. So much of your comment just sounds like an old jaded musician who doesn't get what the kids are doing and just wishes it would return to the good old days of Bert Jansch. Times change! You're the 2020 equivalent of adults in the 50s who hated rock n roll because they didn't get it. By the way, playing a Fender in bands isn't as impressive as you think it is.
@@mothernightlabel9543 Don't bother with that sack of dust. His profile picture is a brain.. Clearly we do not inherit the intelligence required to interpret his sheer brilliance. Now that I think about it, he's sampling so many letters and words, I don't know how I feel about this. I think he should pick up a pen and write his own words. He hasn't even used one purely original letter or word in everything he's said. Pathetic.
@@alexwolf7164 you sound like a bitch
R.I.P. Clyde Stubblefield
As a BeatMaker/ sampler myself, one common thread I’ve noticed running throughout all samplers is that they subscribe to ALL types of music and sound. All they care about is if the sound is beautiful and/ or works in the equation they’re trying to solve. That’s it. They’re so open minded about where the sample comes from: A bird, a train, a plane, or an obscure or well known music album. Doesn’t matter. They are some of THE most knowledgeable music archivists I’ve ever met
That is so cool that Eyedea and Abilities are on this. RIP Eyedea. If you haven't already I recomend checking out their music
It is easier to denounce someone if you do not understand their culture.
Best comment on the thread. You get it. Peace.
peace
Truth
To Sample is to allow these artist to re-live again, if not for HipHop sampling I love music as much as I do, I wouldn't be creating & wouldn't know about legendary artist who the world has forgotten about.
@@alexwolf7164 ...what?
Shock G had a damn good point comparing it to a painter vs. a photographer. It's just technology. It moves forward and music absorbs it. You probably had people ranting about acoustic pianos back in the day when they were first made.
All art is borrowed from each other lol, you just see it plain as day with sampling. But, you can’t argue that combing various artists from various genres to make a cohesive track isn’t the stuff of creativity and skill.
SHOCK thank you !!
Shock, you're a dumb fvck...
Shock
Well they have skill.
If you look at muscian who play all instrument, they are not rue musician.
They did no make instrument though.
@Shock he knows how to play the piano and other instruments very well so to act like people that sample are talent-less is just dumb and ignorant. It takes a certain skill to create a masterpiece using samples and it's even more amazing when that producer's own abilities to play other instruments is involved. Roger Troutman and even George Clinton were all about sampling and both had a say with their original compositions. Dj Quik's early sampling allowed for his abilities to truly shine in his later stuff when he started doing more original work with less samples and more instruments. You just wouldn't understand it until you step out of that dense-ass, narrow mindedness.
"If you can catch me, I didn't do my job." - El Producto.
El-P one of the goats
And Picasso remixed and directly sampled African Art but He’s a genius. Rock music directly used riffs and chords created by blues artist but.... hypocrisy
Absolutely. In essence, sampling is no different to the blues being ripped off for rock music. Nothing but hypocrisy
RIP Eyedea :( Wasn't expecting to see him in this doc
Ryan Terwilliger same
If it wasn't for sampling I'd of never found out about the older music. If I like the sample I'll look up the original artist which then leads me on another musical adventure of the history of the artist and end up purchasing their music. It's a win for everyone.
El-P in 2009: "If I get caught, I didn't do my job" (meaning mangle / disguise the sample enough).
El-P in 2019: RTJ money = clearing samples.
When I was a kid in the late 80s and early 90s, I always wondered why all the hip hop songs had pretty much had the same type of drum beat and drum tone.
It was the sampling of the Amen Break.
I really like that Clyde Stubblefield. He's been screwed over by so many, never made a buck from people sampling his stuff. Yet he still has a smile on his face. Classy dude in my opinion.
True
True
facts
@Phresh Produce
He didn't sell JB anything. JB heard Clyde playing the beat just messing around in the studio. JB heard it and told him to keep playing that and they recorded it. Clyde was paid for the studio session and that's it. JB own those beats. That's how it works with studio sessions for musicians.
I was thinking the same thing! He actually thought it was cool that people were sampling him 🙏🏼✊🏼🙌🏼🤟🏼
The lawyers only care about money not the art nor artists
Probably, though at least some of these lawyers were ostensibly representing artists.
@@Anthropomorphic yes to get money
@ The artists?
@@Anthropomorphic the artists was not making money back especially in the 80s when sampling became and issue also r&b artists were and still sampling and none of those lawyers were going after r&b artists for doing the same thing so it was a prejudice and a agenda against hip hop music especially real hip hop
crazy how i see you everywhere, even live squad music!
I grew up listening to Bob James because my father is a huge fan. I would get excited every time I heard his music in hip hop...which is a lot. Bob James is one of the most sampled artists ever and is the epitome of modern jazz.
Onyx
Hell yea man, Nautilus alone is responsible for atleast 300+ songs.
Bob James is only scratching the surface of jazz ...I had a pianist once tell me about how great Bib Janes was then I turned him on to McCoy Tyner and some other great jazz musicians....
Thank you for your remarks. B.James is getting his DUE.............respect!
How can you not like Clyde Stubblefield...
all true creators know "ART IS THEFT"
@@alexwolf7164 lmao you uptight fuck
Try to make something as good as Madvillainy or Endtroducing and you can be mad.
You have a bad understanding of art. How about collage, is that theft?
Stick to your boring ass Led Zeppelin
@@alexwolf7164 Oh, you mean the Led Zeppelin that literally STOLE music? Dazed and Confused was written by Jake Holmes and Jimmy Page just put his own name on the song. Same thing happened with a song off LZ II which they got sued for and had to add a writing credit for Robert Johnson or someone. He's stolen so much fucking shit, not to mention the basis of most rock music is just ripping off older blues artists but adding a wah pedal. Typical rock fan, completely stuck in their own pathetic elitist backwards caveman thought process that they can't enjoy other forms of music. Maybe one day you'll learn to enjoy all types of music. The fact that you don't even know that one of your own favourite bands relied heavily on "theft" and "plagiarism" is embarrassing.
Every painter is influenced by someone else , every musician is influenced by someone else. Van Gogh was influenced by Gaugain Listen to Jazz and you will hear snippets of classical music, and so it goes on and on.
@@alimantado373 further more.. every artist should realize their position as alchemist and utilize the tools before them to create new platforms of self expression or appreciation
Tracklist:
01:51 RJD2 - Since we last spoke
02:22 El-P - The Overly Dramatic Truth
03:40 The Jackson 5 - ABC/Bill Haley & His Comets - Rock around the clock
04:21 Led Zeppelin - Whole gotta love
04:23 Bob Dylan - Like a rolling stone
04:25 Beatles - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
04:26 John Coltrain - Blue train
04:29 Rolling Stones - Gimme shelter
04:31 ACDC - Back in black
04:34 Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline
04:50 Nirvana - Heart shaped box
04:52 Pixies - Bone machine
04:55 Robert Plant - Sons of freedom
05:18 Rick James - Super freak
05:18 MC Hammer - U can touch this
05:57 Little Richard - Ready Teddy
06:04 Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole lotta shakin going on
06:11 Chuck Berry - Maybellene
06:13 Buddy Holly - That’ll be the day
07:34 Herbie Hancock - Rock it
07:47 LL Cool J - Rock The Bells
09:30 Parliament - Give Up The Funk
11:05 James Brown - Funky drummer
11:41 Public Enemy - Fight the power
11:55 LL Cool J - Mama said knock you out
12:41 Kool and The Gang - Jungle Boogie
12:47 Afrika Bambaataa - Planet Rock
13:50 Kurtis Blow - The breaks
13:52 El-P - Jukie Skate Rock
14:51 A Tribe Called Quest - Scenario
15:02 Boogie Down Productions - My philosophy
15:13 De La Soul - Me myself and I
15:22 Eazy E - We want eazy
15:38 Beastie Boys - Shake you rump
16:18 Public Enemy - Night of the living baseheads
16:43 Public Enemy - Prophets of rage
17:01/17:19 Public Enemy - Welcome To The Terrordome (Vocal)
17:57 Public Enemy - Don’t believe the hype
18:15 Public Enemy - Night of the living baseheads
18:47 Public Enemy - Bring the noise
19:28 Public Enemy - Fight the power
20:00 Bruce Springsteen - Born in USA
20:11 Run DMC & Aerosmith - Walk this way
20:24 Mase & Puff Daddy - Feel so good
20:57 Public Enemy - Caught, can we get a witness
21:36 The Turtles - You showed me
21:45 De La Soul - Transmitting live from Mars
23:12 Gilbert O'Sullivan - Alone again
23:38 Biz Markie - Alone again
24:49 Biz Markie - Just a friend
25:50 Public Enemy - Caught, can we get a witness
27:45 Little Roger & The Goosebumps - Strairway to Gilligan's Island
28:49 Eric Sermon & Marvin Gaye - Music
32:05 James Brown - Cold sweat
32:19 James Brown - I don’t care
34:16 Public Enemy - Rebel without the pause
34:20 Big Daddy Kane - Mortal Combat
34:25 NWA - Fuck tha police
34:30 Kool Grap & DJ Polo - It’s a demo
34:37 Roxane Shante - Have a nice day
35:01 Sinéad O'Connor - I am stretched on your grave
35:09 Coldcut - Say kids
35:20 Prince - My name is Prince
36:20 Funkadelic - In The Cabin Of My Uncle Jam
36:40 Snoop Doggy Dog - Who am I
36:51 George Clinton - Atomic dog
37:16 Rick James - Superfreak
37:23 MC Hammer - U cant touch this
37:34 Stevie Wonder - Pastime paradise
37:40 Coolio - Gansta's paradise
38:00 RJD2 - Ghostwriter
40:40 Danger Mouse - Encore
41:16 Jay Z - 99 problems
41:24 Danger Mouse - 99 problems
42:22 Beatles - Revolution #9
43:04 Danger Mouse - Encore
50:19 RJD - Iced lightning
51:45 El-P - Constellation (Remix)
52:30 RJD2 - Ghostwriter
Leyend
36.20 is Funkadelic In the cabin of my uncle Jam
Doing the gods work
Between RJD2 and Jackson 5 is the instrumental of El-P’s “The Overly Dramatic Truth”
Legend.
Hip Hop and sampling came about during the 80's as a result of funding for schools being cut. As a result we changed the entire world.
Try the 70s and it had nothing to do with funding for school programs being cut.
Besides other points usually mentioned, I would add that sampling is a great way for artists to pay respect to other artists, other styles, other eras. I am Russian, born in USSR, the one thing that clearly stands out (IMHO of a foreigner) in US musical tradition is continuity. When modern artists salute to previous generations, mention names they grew up on, give them another time to be noticed, it is so deep, so warm and so authentic. Because art never exists encapsulated, a new form is always born in a boiling pot of other forms, various connections and influences. And it is great when an artist shares it's own tastes and recipes with public.
In this documentary it was mentioned that it was cheap to make MC Hammer's U Can't Touch This out of Rick James' Superfreak. Like someone took what was already cool and put his name on it. I do not know original intentions of a producer, but as I prefer to see it it was a matter of respect. Rick James name was introduced to a newer generation once again, and not only to a new generation, for the whole world too. This was a moment I discovered Rick James (and Temptations too, as they were mentioned in a sample). Later, I started searching for other connections hidden in other songs, in credits or directly mentioned in lyrics (like references to Aaron Hall) and it was a huge new ocean of music I fell in love with.
Now, back to my point of continuity, this is just wonderful that (as some guys mentioned here in comments too) in US musical tradition, there are bridges from older generations. Sampling is one of the ways these bridges are built. And it is not a museum‐like reference, sampling gives old music a new birth. I wish it was same in Russia, there is so much music of USSR times, classy lyrics, melodies, which, woven into modern music, would make the scene deeper, and classy, too. Basically, respecting elders is classy, sampling era was all about respect.
That’s a fascinating view from non American on our music and music history
I'm a musician, guitarist, singer, played in rock bands since the 80s, trust me this shit ain't easy, anyone can play guitar, this stuff requires precision and exceptional timing. I use mostly only samplers, drum machines and analogue synths nowadays to make the music I want to hear. this shit is hard to get right
anyone can play guitar...but play it well? wrong, most ppl cannot play an instrument that well or to the point where they're bringing their own unique perspective and style to it. No idea why you'd say that. Sure, anybody can learn how to play the riff from Smoke on the Water or Come As You Are, but that's not really saying anything.
And btw I love all genres of music, hip-hop being near the very top.
@@HeavehBurtation I've played guitar and been in rock bands since the late 80s, guitar is pretty easy compared to synth sound design and processing samples, I have built my own guitars made from junk and sold them as a business, I have also made some unique instruments of my own design
I am a good guitar player who can play most styles and I understand that the guitar might be difficult for beginners to understand, and I fully understand the nuances between different players, for example I prefer people like gilmour or hendrix, but the point still stands. Anyone can play a guitar and play pretty well after a few months, electronic music requires lots more than learning scales and chords, it requires an understanding of frequencies, of creating a totally new sound that only you have created, of making something that can not be replicated on a simple 6 stringed instrument like a guitar, I love the guitar, but I also love the banjo, the ukelele and the mandolin as well and I play them all, electronic music has way more possibilities that's the difference
Thank you for understanding us
Sampling is urban culture alchemist.
Alchemy
With no sampling those old songs die with who wrote them...
Clyde Stubblefield beats...I could listen to them on loop for hours.
You can actually listen to the Funky Drummer loop for hours and hours here on UA-cam.
Kendrick Lamar said in an interview with Rick Rubin that a person who can break down a sample is just as much a musician as anyone.
Kendrick doesn’t know anything.
@@karzymimi42 Kendrick created knowledge
@@karzymimi42 he realized that, the day he came home.
Yes and no.
That's like saying warming up leftovers is the same as creating a meal from scratch...
The producer of this video truly understands the art of sampling
"Paul's Boutique" a straight up masterpiece!
That first sample with Jackson 5 Rollin Stones Little Richard and the rest of them cats was going hella crazy!!!!! That was a true slapper
A crucial documentary. One of the best ever made. I miss the old days. My very first hip-hop albums were LL Cool J - Radio, Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill, and the fist two Public Enemy albums. It went on from there. All of them so full of amazing beats and samples.
"My music is my life. My music is my breathing! - Clyde Stubblefield
This doc just appeared on my YT home page, never seen it before, just saw it, and though it didn't break any new ground or anything, it was nice & concise. It looks like it was released some time around 2009 so now in 2022 I just want to pay my respects to those who appeared in this doc who have since passed: the legendary Clyde Stubblefield, Michael "Eyedea" Larsen, Greg Tate, Shock G, etc...May they rest easy.
The merits or evils of sampling makes for an interesting topic of debate. Making a song with a traditional instrument will likely require lots of manual practice and learning about musical theory. Producing a song with a drum machine and sampler may take far less practice and more digging (to locate a few seconds of a fitting sample among millions of hours of recorded music) and then technical processing. Each requires a certain set of talents to be honed.
I listen to loads of electronica, including old school hip hop but must concede that Albini has a point. Ultimately all the technical processing is not necessarily borne of musical talent or work, but very sophisticated listening and essentially technical programming. It also comes down to minimal standards. Making good hip hop may take a certain talent, but doing it merely passably is far easier than playing even the simplest tune on guitar or piano. And this doesn't even consider the heavier creative onus of starting from the blank slate of silence versus the more "assisted" slate of beats and samples.
If someone told you to make a song in 48 hours, would you have enough time to learn guitar and write a song from scratch, or would it be easier to open up Ableton and hunt down some samples?
That said, Albini neglects to consider all the cultural and societal reasons which birthed hip hop and made it sound so good. Maybe the creative windfall was upfront -- in its very inception as a genre. Sampling also may have had the net effect of increasing awareness of music which would have been forgotten to future generations, to quote Stetsasonic (Talkin' All That Jazz).
Ultimately the real shame is that the original artists never saw a red cent of royalties. That's just wholly unfair on any level! I suppose the hip hop artists who got minted could make personal reparations especially in the case of unknowns like ESG?
Yeah. But samples have a unique quality to them as to where u can cut notes at the transients and take away some of the human expression of the originators and imply there own sense of human expression in its place. For example, Dilla takes a few frames of a sample and stretches it only to replay it any way. It gives the sample his expression making it a completely new piece. Alchemist is really good at this these days as well
just because you have talent doesnt mean anything you make automatically good. and if sounds good who cares?
Interesting documentary. I speak as someone who makes electronic music, but also plays keys, guitar and bass but I’ve always found these sorts of arguments silly. The purists and elitists don’t seem to understand that there isn’t just one way of creating music, and the existence of sample based mediums do not invalidate their ability to play an instrument. A person who uses samples is aware they are borrowing sounds from elsewhere, but the skill comes from completely re-contextualising it.
Also, I think the detractors have a very simplistic view of what sampling is or can be. I sometimes use samples in my own music, but rather than taking a chunk of someone else’s music and sticking a beat behind it, I will grab a snippet and manipulate it to create an entirely new sound, which then becomes an instrument in and of itself. It’s not likely you’d even recognise the “samples” in much of my music if you heard them.
In short, stop trying to police creativity and ingenuity with your snobbery. Elitists (usually mediocre guitarists) need to get over themselves and sit the fuck down.
Thank you 😊❤️✊✊✊✊
Can you play with great musicians or are you just tinkering with a few instruments ..??.
@@freein2339 how you would define "great" is entirely your prerogative, but I have played with other musicians plenty of times. What's your point exactly?
@@inphanta If you have to ask what great is than you need to listen to great musicians .. not the samples of their creativity...
@@freein2339 I can only hope your musicianship is better than your comprehension skills. Now feel free to go and argue with your mother.
Working with what you have is truly greatness in action.
Thank you Clyde Stubblefield for endless music and genres..thank you for funk hip hop & jungle!!🙏🏾🥁
Clyde Stubblefield seems like a great human being
Obviously there's a huge difference between taking a loop like puff as opposed to sampling parts then making your own thing like a primo or dilla... taking a note from a preexisting song then creating your own melody is no different than taking any instrument you didn't invent, like a piano or guitar, & making a melody. In that sense, all instruments are simply "presets".
Hussell James dj premier a dilla have great chops puffy is trash
I always thought of that. Nobody playing guitar invented the instrument, neither the cords or the distortion needed to sound like "rock". In this case everything is a preset. I agree.
Puff practically repurposed entire classics and turned them into rap songs in my opinion. Guys like Premier, Havoc, 9th Wonder, Khrysis, etc. find a different melody in an established song, they don't bite the whole song. It's because of their sampling that I have found some of my favorite soul/R&B songs. I think it's fun to strip down the song by ear and discover where the melodies came from.
As far as i'm concerned, there's a right and wrong way to approach sampling. The distinction being that one is going to require you to clear the samples because they're immediately recognizable and are just simple loops from a familiar melody at the forefront, and the other way being when samples are manipulated beyond recognition, while being used and layered in a musical way. Especially once awareness for lawsuits in copyright infringement became public knowledge, producer's and dj's had to be much more cryptic and clever with their sampling tactics. So naturally, there's far more creativity involved in taking an obscure sample and utilizing it in a way that's akin to how different 'notes' or pitches are used to comprise a melody! When done right, you can have a track consisting of various samples from a wide range of artists, that contains as much musicality and sophistication as any traditionally instrument centric composed song! Being able to seamlessly match several different elements taken from totally separate sources is not easy, and it's a skill of its own!
@Shock did you just come to this video to hate and talk shit on every comment? Because all you say is that comments don't make any sense when they clearly do. Whether or not your tiny brain comprehends it is on you.
The Beach Boys "sampled" Chuck Berry. Elvis "sampled" black gospel singers. The Osmonds straight bit The Jackson Five. Let's not pretend this is a phenomenon exclusive to Hip Hop.
Decent point but not quite the same. The better point is covering a song vs sampling. Is there really that much difference?
cavaleer In sampling a song, the source material can be a mystery. When you cover a song, it's obvious that you are doing so.
I think the key difference is copyright. When the beach boys did surfin usa for example there could have been a copyright claim and nobody would have disputed it. What the samplers are saying is that they shouldn't be subject to copyright laws and they should be free to take whatever they want. This is really a debate about people getting paid and not artistry (even though it is cloaked as such)
Music Power it’s not it’s just a part of black culture.
If it’s about pay, pay the originators of music period. Music is black culture it’s about power and pride someone samples your song and theirs did better than yours did, I️ want to create publicity around that situation cause they couldn’t create it on there own.
It’s crazy how much funkadelic brought up Dre and snoop, it’s like this constant ball of energy of funk that goes to generation to generation
They created g funk sounds of hip hop
I was never seriously interested in making music until I learned about samplers and drum machines in high school. It opened up an entire world of creative possibilities.
You have no idea what you guys just did. This documentary is out of this world. The quotes I’ve gotten or this are quotes from geniuses. This is truely a gem. Thank you.👌🏾
We can all argue hours and days about music. But you have to admitt, Clyde seems to be the more humble in this documentary.
J Reality i cannot agree more man
Seems like he was such a down go earth dude. RIP to a legend. His music will live for ever.
啊我的寂寞
This documentary should be a must watch for all new producers coming up, you new kids need to understand how Hip Hop was formed and where your roots come from......Sample That!
The fact that Led Zeppelin WHO BUILT THEIR DISCOGRAPHY on lifting lyrics and notes from other people's music would stop other musicians from doing the same to them is unbelievable.
Let's not forget, the people using samples love music. They know records and artists, and even behind the scenes ppl. They are praising artists like James Brown and his funky drummer. There is a lot of respect for history, these guys are nerds truly nerding out and digging for records. Thank God now we have virtual instruments and ppl don't have to sample to get a sound they want. Remember hip hop and rap was a way for ppl to make it, and digging was the only inexpensive way to gather sounds rather then crazy hardware.
That engineer guy is pissed cuz you know and so does he that his job has been replaced by hardware samplers and bedroom producers. What a bum
Not a bedroom sampler alive that can do what Albini does.
@@paulmoss4402
Unless said bedroom guy or gal went to audio engineering school😂
@@paulmoss4402 attending audio engineering school and playing instruments, in addition to sampling, is not uncommon for "bedroom producers" these days.
not knocking albini, hes a legend, just saying music production and audio engineering is much more accessible these days compared to 10 or 20 years ago.
Nah he’s upset Bc he knows the style of music he did engineering for is being replaced and he doesn’t know how to adapt.
Steve Albini produced Nirvana, possibly the most overrated and lazy band in rock mainstream EVER. Cobain's music sounded ''dark'' not because he intended it to be that way but his chords progressions were so bland and stale that gave his songs that sort of feeling.
Sampling is an art in itself. Musicians use it as a creative tool. So many careers have been re-ingited be having there music sampled.
billy squier is very rich because of his song the big beat being sampled
The notion that soundwaves can be 'owned' and 'stolen' should itself be up for debate. There was a time before the music business came along and monetized everything! It's all art, doesn't matter if the preset sound came from a guitar, synth or vinyl record, talent is still needed to make a track!
Sampling is a way of life nowadays.People in the 50's 60's 70's 80's did it.R.I.P Clyde stubblefield one the greatest drummers to have ever lived.
I’ve played with bands for over 25 years, and, as a drummer, sampling allows me to create my own complete compositions, without relying on other musicians.
Not to mention that sample-based hip hop is a sound that couldn’t ever be replicated by standard instruments. It’s the timbre, the reverb, the crowd sounds, traffic sounds, trains in the distance; far away foghorns.
In my opinion, it’s the widest and most versatile genre for experimentation.
Alex Wolf I disagree. The use of sampling in a way that redesigns, re-contextualizes and repurposes older music is art, much in the same way collage or Dadaist artists worked. Look up “Joseph Cornell”. Look at his work and tell me it isn’t art. To imagine that strumming the same 4 chords on a guitar is any more creative than hip hop sample based production is a pretty narrow perspective of art.
Alex Wolf I’ll wait til you have some actual content of your own on YT, before I call you a hack. Let me know when that happens.
Alex Wolf Like I said.. the final output is the real decider. When you have some of your own content to show, put me on.
Alex Wolf You sound like you’re either A) 15 years old, or B) stopped learning @ 15 years old. I pity you.
Alex Wolf One will sound a lot better. Hot tip: it won’t be your “gig”.
Sampling has lead me to discover so many artists I never otherwise would have.
At 3:32 and so on. The Documentary makers had made a wonderful 40 seconds of sampling and moving pictures. Really wonderful done. I have watched that piece several times. Very good work!!
R.I.P Clybe Stubblefield, thank you for your contribution.
This was very interesting.
The squares will never understand Hip-Hop. Some of the squares got fucking rich off of it though more so than the artist who created/made the song/album.
Wow perfect analogy by Shock G...probably the best part of this doc
10:19 best line of the whole video "the beats are just so fat"
AN ENTIRE SAMPLING DOCUMENTARY AND J DILLA'S NAME WAS NOT MENTIONED ONCE?! :/
This the beginning of sampling
ua-cam.com/video/YEKRAn-ZleM/v-deo.html
So what. It was a great documentary. Dilla gone but not forgotten
It's Dilla month, he was always in the background. They mentioned his groups but not him. Kinda messed up you will never have had de la soul and tribe called quest without Dilla!
@@ishe728 not true
this was really well put together and demonstrated a lot of different perspectives.
Brilliant documentary, keep creating 👍🏼
From my own experience I'd have to say I disagree with the guy who says its much easier to make music from sampling than it is to play something because all those bits and pieces have to actually fit and make sense together weather you're using a voice or an instrument I mean theres been times when I actually felt restricted because I'm working within the boundaries of each previous sound I layer and then theres parts that I have to delete and recombine so it all becomes a new groove that works..When you're just playing what you want on instrument(s) you're not dealing with that..
SS- When you already play a single instrument like a piano or guitar or sax its easier to come up with a song than taking sounds from multiple sources and genres to make one piece..If you got 5 guys in one place you're playing with in real time you can make everything fit and stick to make sense, time wise, rhythm wise, style wise , motivation wise etc. because you have the benefit of improvisation and making changes on the spot..It's a much more difficult task to deal with ready made pieces of music that are already complete at their own speeds, styles of possibly totally unrelated genres and creating something new that makes sense, I personally experience more limitations.. If I play an instrument and already know how I want a certain sound to be played on a keyboard I can make it sound that way and thats it I'm not confined to what somebody already played and recorded...While you're making corny ass bets I talk from experience and I BET you never made a beat thats knocking ever in your life...Holla...
SparksOnTheRoad word up. Sampling is an art. Proponents against it can talk that smack like Charlie Brown's school teacher but they truly lost like tourists in the Amazon Jungle. But since folks is on the "play me close tip" I chop everything up like lettuce and make Caesar Salad. To find my samples will take a 1000 years. I don't use break beats.
Human Observer it's like this...say you wanted to use Atomic Dog as your foundation groove and you wanted to mix a Diana Ross vocal clip..you can't just slap it in there..the vocals need to be made harmonically correct and also on time with the beat. sampling is a true science of time space tempo key and pitch.
Thomas Mattherws-You got that right word...
SS-Well it's more work than than simply doing it on the spot with an instrument in your hand isn't it? And lets not front like musicians don't apply certain effects to own playing right? Do you not understand the limits of using pre recorded music? Listen to the beats from 20 years ago compared to today which is more complex? Holla at me when you ACTUALLY DO A BEAT from multiple genres instead of speaking from theory and I don't do no auto tuning..
Looping could be consider lazy, but chopping a record to a point the Artist who is sampled doesn't no its there song is creativity.
Tell that to Madlib fans
Looping goes hand in hand with deep crate diggin.Crate diggin is also a form of art. Combine looping with easy youtube 'digging' (even worse is sampling from those that even cater to so called beatmakers) and then it becomes lazy. It's all about context.
I have been looping samples since 1994 ... thats a lot of lazy dedication to my art.
Looping made up a lot of the 'golden era' in the 90s and late 80s, it's definitely not lazy if done well. Chopping and sequencing the chops wasn't so common then, except maybe drums.
@@Stoney-Jacksman not everyone can afford vinyls bougie ass nigga
Man this was a very good video. I use to DJ so I new about some of them but not all of the sampling. Love the way you put it all together.
This documentary help me realize what really killed hip hop. .. Not every producer can afford 100 Gs for a sample ..smh
Hip-Hop isn't dead, tho'
Hip hop is unkillable
It’s not dead- it’s just horrible
what killed hiphop isnt a lack of money, quite the opposite.
DJ Shadow had an aptly titled little interlude on his first album, called "Why Hip-Hop Sucks In 1996'.(spoiler: it's the money)
Creative sampling is genius and a work of art.... Sampling and Hip Hop will live forever..ease back haters.
"who the hell is Coolio!?" That man was cold-blooded haha.
I love these documentaries very informative.
Love the music in this doc!!!!
Of course the most uncreative people on the planet would get upset when others create something new out of what was created before. It's called evolution. Everything comes from something. The people most upset about sampling and trying to sue didn't even create the "original" work in the first place. They own it because the music industry likes to take advantage of the creative talent that comes out of poverty. If what you created inspires the youth to reference your creativity to create something new, you should be honored not butt hurt.
That Steve Albina dude is really killing my vibe
Pretentious AF
I muted that douchenozzle whenever he appeared onscreen
Steve Albini is a legend. His work proves it. But apart from this on the other hand, throughout his career he has shown that he is very short-sighted. He hasn't been a visionary at all. He criticized Hip-Hop right from the start and it has become one of the most successful popular manifestations of the 80s and 90s. He also criticized House and Techno music, and we can all see the influence of this music today. He criticized digital technology and we can also all see where the world of computer-based production has come. Albini is a great studio engineer, I can't deny it, but as a visionary he is completely blind. He has spent his whole career behind an electric guitar and a tape recorder throwing shit at every new musical manifestation.
steve albini is the whitest nerd alive, of course he doesn't like sampling
Don’t care what he’s done or who he’s worked with anyone that discredits sampling n the genius it takes to do it correctly is an IDIOT. He’s just a racist gatekeeper. All the ppl he worked with wouldn’t be a thing if it wasn’t for black music/culture which is the most sampled/remixed thing on earth
@@alteredstatestapesi see more in sampling stealing others work .
@@alteredstatestapesits so funny for a PUNK ROCK artist to DARE to criticize others… learn some basic chords and you play the first couple of Ramones records from front to back, do it faster and you’ve got some of the 80’s hardcore shit too
R.I.P Shock G🙏🏾 6:30
imo, sampling is an art form of it's own
This is an excellent Documentary on Sampling Thanks! Hip Hop Realm 😉
Such a great convo! HIP HOP
Pardon me. But im sampling this to bits x
This was an amazing documentary
Great history lesson here. Clyde Stubblefield was a major part of early Hip Hop! #ClydeStubblefield #originalfunkydrummer
thank you so much for putting footage of someone playing an SP-303 in this. that was my baby for 14 years until she crapped out. still sorta works but you have to jack your stereo volume all the way to hear anything and pray!!!! that it doesn't just start working again and blow your eardrums. I need a 404A when I can afford it
This is dope!🔥 I appreciate it!✌🏿n♥️
There is a big difference between using a sampled sound like dj premier and ripping off a tune like mc hammer did
I’ve had an MPC since 93. Definitely an ArtForm
Great doc. I grew up on Long Island, NY; was part of the local D.J. scene from the very start in the mid '70's where we began with a Radio Shack mic mixer (rectangle pill box w/ two dials.) Some strong opinions here for a clearly nuanced, multifaceted issue. Great treatment!
5 time watchin this and ir get better everytime 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾