The first time I heard Manu Dibango’s “Soul Makossa” was courtesy of Motorcycle Guy, a prominent Brooklyn eccentric who drives around on a tricked-out motorcycle bedecked with lights and equipped with a powerful sound system. I encounter him every so often and he’s always bumping some good funk, soul or R&B. One night, he was [...]
Filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Dance, Key Musicians, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged a tribe called quest, big daddy kane, bjork, boy george, boyz ii men, cameroon, charles hamilton, copyright, dance, david mancuso, digging the crates, duala, Evolution, fugees, funk, geto boys, jay-z, kanye west, kool moe d, lord tariq and peter gunz, manu dibango, memes, michael jackson, poor righteous teachers, pop, rihanna, songwriting, soul makossa, thriller, will smith
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Friday, September 9, 2011
If you had to name the most influential drummers in contemporary music, who would you pick? If you’re a rock fan, you might go with Ringo Starr, John Bonham, or Keith Moon. A jazz fan might talk about Max Roach, Elvin Jones or Tony Williams. You probably wouldn’t think to name Gregory Cylvester Coleman. He [...]
Filed in Copyright and Authorship, Math, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged amon tobin, aphex twin, copyright, curtis mayfield, david bowie, digging the crates, dillinja, drum n bass, drumming, electronica, futurama, golden ratio, hip-hop, jungle, looping, luke vibert, lupe fiasco, mantronix, Math, memes, nineties, nwa, powerpuff girls, recycle, reggae, rnb, salt n pepa, Sampling, snow, soul, the impressions, the winstons
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Wednesday, February 2, 2011
My quest to track down the origin of the most persistent recurring hip-hop memes brings me to this chant: The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire We don’t need no water, let the motherf***er burn The chant made its first appearance in the hip-hop canon in “The Roof Is On Fire” by Rock [...]
Filed in Music, Sampling
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Also tagged 50 cent, bizzy bone, bloodhound gang, digging the crates, funk, hip-hop, mandrill, mc serch, memes, missy elliot, p-funk, Politics, rock master scott, Sampling, talking heads
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Thursday, September 30, 2010
In 1987 I remember having my ears grabbed by this thing on the radio called “Pump Up The Volume” by MARRS. Now that mashups are so common, this track doesn’t sound particularly remarkable. But in seventh grade it was startling to hear a house music track full of random samples. “Pump Up The Volume” was [...]
Filed in Key Musicians, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged authenticity, bobby byrd, digging the crates, dj hero, eagles, eric b & rakim, flow, fugees, hip-hop, james brown, jimi hendrix, marrs, mashups, nas, recursion, revival revival, sample maps, Sampling, stetsasonic, turntablism
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Saturday, September 11, 2010
Missy Elliot is one of the most futuristic electronic adventurers out there, especially in her collaborations with Timbaland. Yet her stuff is as hot and soulful as music gets. How does she do it?
Filed in Key Musicians, Music, Sampling, Software
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Also tagged blondie, breakdancing, digging the crates, hip-hop, missy elliot, pro tools, run-dmc, Sampling, timbaland
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Saturday, August 14, 2010
In 1988, a pair of British acid house DJs named Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, variously known as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords, and The KLF, had an improbable number one hit with “Doctorin’ The Tardis.” The track isn’t so much a song as it is an early mashup. Just about everything [...]
Filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Dance, Music, Music Business, Music Teaching, Recording, Sampling
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Also tagged dance, digging the crates, doctor who, looping, mashups, memes, michael jackson, pop, production, Recording, rick astley, songwriting, uk, whitney houston
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I’m pretty sure that “Need You Tonight” by INXS was the last song I fell in love with through commercial radio. I would never have admitted it, and I couldn’t have articulated why, but oh yes, in middle school this track hit me exactly where I lived. It still sounds as fresh today as it [...]
Filed in Music, Music Theory
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Also tagged drum machines, electronica, hip-hop, inxs, mashups, michael jackson, mtv, neneh cherry, pop, Sampling
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The best and most thought-provoking game of the DOS era was Starflight. Kids today, with their intuitive graphical user interfaces. They have no idea what a pain it was to use computers back in the eighties. DOS especially was an autistic nightmare. Bill Gates is some kind of genius to have convinced so many people [...]
I’ve been hearing this line in a lot of hip-hop songs: “One for the treble, two for the time” or “One for the treble, two for the bass” or some variation. I wanted to find out what everybody’s quoting. After some internet detective work, here’s what I’ve got. The phrase is a play on the [...]
Filed in Music, Sampling
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Also tagged aceyalone, brand nubian, common, davy dmx, digging the crates, dj khaled, elvis presley, grandmaster flash, hip-hop, kurtis blow, memes, mos def, sergio mendes, seventies, snoop dogg, spoonie g
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For my 35th birthday, my sister gave me a CD of Muppet Silly Songs, a favorite of ours when we were kids. It’s been out of print for years and last time I checked wasn’t even available on the web, legally or not. We unearthed the vinyl at our mom and stepfather’s place when we [...]