Industry & Culture
A Sampling Of Hip Hop's Changing Times
Sampling has long been a debated aspect of Hip Hop, since many of the genre's detractors use sampling to discredit the music. To make the point that Hip Hop producers are creatively bankrupt and unoriginal they would point out the most obvious example, Puffy in the '90s. This was usually because to outsiders, Puffy (as he was then called) was one of the most accessible and to that end, The Problem. But long before any of that, many classic and heralded Hip Hop songs employed the use of samples, some of them being so obscure that the casual listener couldn't readily identify them. Sometimes not.
It served as a means of discovery for some of us. If a younger listener heard the Isley's "Between The Sheets" as a foundation enough times (Biggie, Da Brat, Lil' Viscious, A Tribe Called Quest), curiosity could win out and lead him to the source, thereby exposing him to music for which he'd otherwise have no utility. But deriding the practice of sampling without acknowledging the range of styles and tricks producers use to texture their tracks with them is just as lazy as using sampling as a crutch. Now, many artists and beatmakers (mostly in the mainstream) have been forced to cut back on the practice, mainly because of the skyrocketing fees associated with clearance coupled with a crippling economy.
Enter Daniel Werman's HuffPo article about the demise of sampling in mainstream Hip Hop, which is right on time. It posits that the current economic climate has forced modern producers to be a little more creative (a plus), but also that the results have been a little more predictable and generic (a minus).
Unfortunately, with this practice no longer being a solid option, the sonic landscape of commercial hip hop has lent itself to a much more accessible and predictable sound. Vocals have gone the way of the vocoder (T-Pain, don't have to say much else). The same airy and predictable synthesizer and clichéd drum sounds have become the industry standard, and the music has just sort of...I dunno....fallen flat?
But it can still be argued that if we want a richer variety of sounds represented in Hip Hop, live instrumentation could be the way to go. It's nothing new, as The Roots have been doing it for eons (they are, after all, a band) and many other producers have used live instruments and even full bands to flesh out a track. There is certainly a place in Hip Hop for auto-tune and GarageBand, but that sort of "originality" soon enough gives way to crippling sameness. To that end, the key preserving the genre's integrity across the board is to bring more experimentation and musicianship into the equation. In other words, it would behoove some of these guys to be rebellious and learn how to read sheet music.
Genre Bending: How Hip Hop Became Kind of Hip Pop [HP]
Tags: auto-tune is the devil, diddy, samples
Comments
Good one nOva..True musicianship is so slept on, and it's a shame. So many producers, or shall I say beatmakers, these days think all they need to do is master fruity loops, get an mbox, etc. and they're dope. Add to that the many brilliant musicians that came before us, who actually cared about what they produced and respected it for the craft that composing music is, and you get a lot of lazy producers who just add a beat to a dope original and viola! Sometimes that's enough, don't get me wrong, but sometimes not--I agree you need to be more well-rounded to have longevity. I take nothing away from their success or work ethic, because I love a good sample myself, but in many ways the effort is totally lacking nowadays.
miss concrete jungle | March 10, 2009 9:38 AM | PermalinkSpeaking of sampling...
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http://thru-you.com/
DJStylus | March 9, 2009 8:27 PM | Permalink@ missmeeky: i wouldn't say Diddy ruined the formula, but he (and his squad of producers) certainly abused it. i don't put all the blame on him, though. after all, some of my favorite sample-based tracks come from that era. i love playing "Name that Sample" to this day. however, i would love hip-hop to be more than that. things need to be more well-rounded.
dar | March 9, 2009 8:08 PM | PermalinkThe foundation of a great urban inspired music came from the sample it used. I love the fact that you could connect the lyric, the music sample, and the recording artist into a well crafted song. Did Puffy ruin that formula, or did he just give MSM what they wanted to hear? Hip Hip/Rap music during that time was taking over the airwaves and crossed over. I think it just became too much. Puffy certainly did not invent the remix though.
missmeeky | March 9, 2009 6:54 PM | Permalinkyou're articles are always appreciated and right on time, at least for me. i was just thinking about this the other day. i have always loved a good sample. i've always loved the task of then being forced to find the root of the song and exposing myself to something i mostly likely never heard or something i had heard and gained a deeper appreciation for because of a produced who knows what the hell he is doing.
i personally blame diddy for a lot. so...yea. lol
joshua washington | March 9, 2009 6:18 PM | Permalinkdope article. personally, i love sampling in mostly all of its forms. however, i fully agree that the genre needs to be better represented by real musicianship. The Roots, as much as i love them, can't be the only ones doing it on a big level. i'd love to see some fresh faces out there on some "hip hop band" ish.
dar | March 9, 2009 5:40 PM | PermalinkI appreciate sampling. It shows me an artist, when done RIGHT, knows his roots and is musically inclined. Kanye's Slow Jamz hits home because not only is it a great song, but the sample. Luther's "House is not a Home" is a classic, iconic.
Lorin | March 9, 2009 4:03 PM | Permalink