Love this! This makes me think of the moment a DJ perfectly blends two unsuspected songs and it feels like magic. A similar feeling to hearing a song not knowing it was sample and later stumbling upon its original source. Thanks for sharing!
This piece brought so much joy to my heart. The storytelling and the music took me on a journey through time. There's so much information and definitely one to keep coming back to.
"Music is a time stamp"--the way that you broke down the geneology of particular songs, instrumentation, and the sound of hip-hop at its creation and popularization is inspirational.
Stay with me by Debarge made me reminiscent of Earth, Wind, and Fire which reminded me of cookouts turned block parties and running around with my cousins in the dark playing tag.
This was such a rich and layered exploration of sampling as both innovation and preservation. I love how you framed it as a bridge between generations. The stories really brought it home for me, especially the mixtape memories.
In 1988 - before WhoSampled and Google - my oldest brother would rattle off the name of every song sampled on It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and my high school friends thought he invented music. He was actually just 20 years older than us. He wasn’t impressed until DJs started finding deep cuts he didn’t recognize.
Loved this essay! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 Sampling is so important for archiving and for showing and reminding us we’re in a continuum of creativity. I love that Black musical legacies are mapped through new music.
Nailed it!!! It’s some important for archiving!!! I’m so glad you enjoyed this article, @Laurence Morreale did and amazing job flushing out the original idea developed in the chat thread.
Amazing piece man! I feel like sampling in music is a way to share and preserve culture. That's why I love hearing stories about Qtip sampling his father's jazz records and what that meant to him personally. To this day, one of my favorite samples is the one used in "Bonita Applebum" because it just feels so rich in culture and the human experience.
I agree Daze, sampling is a way to preserve the culture because it keeps us looping back to the original classics and through the new music they live on forever.
Laurence did amazing breaking down sampling, and now I’m going to be on the lookout for your article submission Daze’s Music Pavillion! Sounds like you have a story or two to share! Thanks so much for reading!
I appreciate this. I am a Jazz musician and I often toil with sampling and original music. Jazz music in particular thrives off of covers of what the black master musicians of the 50s and 60s did, i.e., John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Lee Morgan, etc.... but... the need for original music is also so prevalent. But viewing samples as preservation vs. lack of original thought is such a better way to approach all of our music. You really changed my perspective that I've had for years in literally 5 minutes lol. Thank you for this.
“I could see from an early age that music for a lot of artists was finding new ways to tell a story. This is how I was introduced to sampling.” - Amazing insight, I’ve been sampling for a while now and I’ve never thought about it this way.
I was beginning my career as a musician in NYC in the early 1980’s. I find that a huge piece of hip hop history that is overlooked are the musicians that played and sometimes created the tracks. They were pivotal and brought the music to life. They played the studio dates, horns and overdubs. Nobody knows their names - Pumpkin (Errol Bedward) is really important - he was one of the first to sell drum tracks. Double Z aka Lizz Chisholm, bassist for Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Fred McFarlane - known for his production and writing but also mentored Teddy Riley. I used to play in bands with a lot of them and a slew of other musicians. There was no social media, and after the studio dates, no one gave them credit. Gonna try to recall as much as I can and I’ll be sharing for sure.
I really appreciate your comment. I saw so many amazing musicians that went unrecognized and also realized that most were so happy to play and tell people what they’ve done but their names have largely been erased from the documents. They also didn’t get paid much. I started writing more and intervening some on my SIRIUSXM show, but I’m really looking forward to sharing more here in Substack. Love your writing, btw!
This was so cool to know how sampling got started! I was just watching a video a month or so ago about how many songs smaple Japanese hits, and now I read Technic's turntables paved the way for new grounds in sound creativity. Very cool.
Love this! This makes me think of the moment a DJ perfectly blends two unsuspected songs and it feels like magic. A similar feeling to hearing a song not knowing it was sample and later stumbling upon its original source. Thanks for sharing!
This piece brought so much joy to my heart. The storytelling and the music took me on a journey through time. There's so much information and definitely one to keep coming back to.
"Music is a time stamp"--the way that you broke down the geneology of particular songs, instrumentation, and the sound of hip-hop at its creation and popularization is inspirational.
Stay with me by Debarge made me reminiscent of Earth, Wind, and Fire which reminded me of cookouts turned block parties and running around with my cousins in the dark playing tag.
Love this topic. Love the curation.
This was such a rich and layered exploration of sampling as both innovation and preservation. I love how you framed it as a bridge between generations. The stories really brought it home for me, especially the mixtape memories.
Now this is rich and well rounded 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾
In 1988 - before WhoSampled and Google - my oldest brother would rattle off the name of every song sampled on It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and my high school friends thought he invented music. He was actually just 20 years older than us. He wasn’t impressed until DJs started finding deep cuts he didn’t recognize.
Loved this essay! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 Sampling is so important for archiving and for showing and reminding us we’re in a continuum of creativity. I love that Black musical legacies are mapped through new music.
Nailed it!!! It’s some important for archiving!!! I’m so glad you enjoyed this article, @Laurence Morreale did and amazing job flushing out the original idea developed in the chat thread.
Amazing piece man! I feel like sampling in music is a way to share and preserve culture. That's why I love hearing stories about Qtip sampling his father's jazz records and what that meant to him personally. To this day, one of my favorite samples is the one used in "Bonita Applebum" because it just feels so rich in culture and the human experience.
Love this piece!
I agree Daze, sampling is a way to preserve the culture because it keeps us looping back to the original classics and through the new music they live on forever.
Laurence did amazing breaking down sampling, and now I’m going to be on the lookout for your article submission Daze’s Music Pavillion! Sounds like you have a story or two to share! Thanks so much for reading!
I appreciate this. I am a Jazz musician and I often toil with sampling and original music. Jazz music in particular thrives off of covers of what the black master musicians of the 50s and 60s did, i.e., John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Lee Morgan, etc.... but... the need for original music is also so prevalent. But viewing samples as preservation vs. lack of original thought is such a better way to approach all of our music. You really changed my perspective that I've had for years in literally 5 minutes lol. Thank you for this.
“I could see from an early age that music for a lot of artists was finding new ways to tell a story. This is how I was introduced to sampling.” - Amazing insight, I’ve been sampling for a while now and I’ve never thought about it this way.
I’d love for you to submit a piece about how you use sampling! That would be so dope to include in this series!
Interesting article.
Sampling reminds me of a conversation between the past and the present.
It stimulates clever thoughts.
The skill set needed to reframe old ideas into new ones is truly an art — when it’s done with intention.
I was beginning my career as a musician in NYC in the early 1980’s. I find that a huge piece of hip hop history that is overlooked are the musicians that played and sometimes created the tracks. They were pivotal and brought the music to life. They played the studio dates, horns and overdubs. Nobody knows their names - Pumpkin (Errol Bedward) is really important - he was one of the first to sell drum tracks. Double Z aka Lizz Chisholm, bassist for Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Fred McFarlane - known for his production and writing but also mentored Teddy Riley. I used to play in bands with a lot of them and a slew of other musicians. There was no social media, and after the studio dates, no one gave them credit. Gonna try to recall as much as I can and I’ll be sharing for sure.
I really appreciate your comment. I saw so many amazing musicians that went unrecognized and also realized that most were so happy to play and tell people what they’ve done but their names have largely been erased from the documents. They also didn’t get paid much. I started writing more and intervening some on my SIRIUSXM show, but I’m really looking forward to sharing more here in Substack. Love your writing, btw!
This was so cool to know how sampling got started! I was just watching a video a month or so ago about how many songs smaple Japanese hits, and now I read Technic's turntables paved the way for new grounds in sound creativity. Very cool.
Discovering new samples is true joy. Right now, my favorite discovery is Jamie Foxx's "Unpredictable" from New Birth's "Wild Flower."