Saturday, October 9, 2010
The internet is home to a lot of questionably legal breakbeat collections like Drumaddikt and Cyberworm’s Sample Blog. “Cold Sweat” by James Brown is always included in these collections. It’s beloved equally by hip-hop and drum n bass producers. The break is at 4:30. There’s probably a whole generation of producers who have sliced and [...]
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Music blogs, magazines and cable channels like to run lists of the best albums of all time. Certain albums get listed again and again: Sgt Pepper, Pet Sounds, Highway 61 Revisited. If you were to compile the best albums as measured by how often they get sampled by hip-hop producers, the list would look very [...]
Filed in Music, Sampling
|
Also tagged big daddy kane, blondie, de la soul, digging the crates, epmd, eric b & rakim, fu-schnickens, hammond organ, ice cube, janelle monae, krs-one, mary j blige, memes, mohawks, onyx, Sampling, soul, uk, wu-tang
|
I’m continuing my tour through hip-hop’s most classic breakbeats with “Ashley’s Roachclip” by the Soul Searchers. The drum break at 3:30 is one of those hip-hop workhorses, like “Impeach The President” and “The Funky Drummer” and “Apache.” It seems like it’s always been there. The Soul Searchers were led by guitarist Chuck Brown, known in [...]
Filed in Copyright and Authorship, Dance, Music, Sampling
|
Also tagged breakbeats, chuck brown, digging the crates, emf, eric b & rakim, go-go, hip-hop, milli vanilli, nelly, nice & smooth, pm dawn, Sampling, soul searchers, spandau ballet
|
There’s a commercial on TV right now featuring a bunch of CGI hamsters that reacquainted me with this Black Sheep classic. I knew the song better as the one that goes, “You can get with this or you can get with that.” Thank god for Google, otherwise I wouldn’t know anything about anything. This is [...]
Filed in Music, Sampling
|
Also tagged advertising, black sheep, digging the crates, hip-hop, iron butterfly, jazz, mccoy tyner, nineties, rnb, rock, Sampling, soul, tv
|
Tommy Revival Revival vs Primus mp3 download, ipod format download Vocals by Barbara Singer. Samples and programming by me. The guitar licks were originally played by Alex Torovic but have been chopped up pretty dramatically. This is part of our ongoing strategy, learned from hip-hop, of taking a familiar chorus and coming up with new [...]
One of the funkiest albums ever recorded is The Clones Of Dr Funkenstein by Parliament. Even if you never listen to it, you’ll get funkier just by looking at the cover. There’s much to love about this album beyond its joyously ridiculous science fiction theme. There are the deft, bebop-flavored horn charts by James Brown’s [...]
Filed in Key Musicians, Music, Sampling
|
Also tagged bernie worrell, digging the crates, eighties, hip-hop, keybs, moog, nice and smooth, parliament, royksopp, Sampling, seventies, synths, talking heads
|
This post isn’t about Obama. I love Obama. I’m talking about a classic breakbeat, the opening few seconds of “Impeach The President” by the Honey Drippers, and the president in question is Nixon.
Filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Music, Sampling
|
Also tagged big daddy kane, biz markie, de la soul, digable planets, digging the crates, drumming, eric b & rakim, hip-hop, honey drippers, mick jagger, nas, nice & smooth, notorious big, Sampling, slick rick, soul, wu-tang
|
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Meet guitarist and producer Nile Rodgers, one of my favorite musicians in the world. He founded Chic along with the late bassist Bernard Edwards, and he’s on Twitter. Nile Rodgers has led an action-packed life. As a teenager, he played with the Sesame Street band, and then with the Apollo Theater house band, where he [...]
Filed in Dance, Key Musicians, Music
|
Also tagged bass, bernard edwards, chic, dance, david bowie, disco, duran duran, eighties, gremlins, guitar, hip-hop, madonna, nile rodgers, pop, Sampling, sugarhill gang
|
DJ Kool Herc describes “Apache” by The Incredible Bongo Band as the national anthem of hip-hop. “Apache” includes a famous drum and percussion break that has reliably put bodies on the dance floor through hip-hop’s prehistory:
Filed in Copyright and Authorship, Music, Sampling
|
Also tagged apache, breakdancing, copyright, dance, digging the crates, dna, double dee and steinski, drum n bass, drumming, Evolution, goldie, grandmaster flash, hip-hop, history, kool herc, mashups, memes, missy elliot, nas, pop, questlove, roots, Sampling, seventies
|
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
The most sampled recording in history is (probably) the Funky Drummer loop from James Brown’s song “The Funky Drummer Parts One And Two.” Here I go deeper into how this sample can be reworked into new music. DJs call this practice chopping a sample. It’s much easier to chop samples with computers than with hardware [...]
Filed in Composition, Music, Sampling, Software
|
Also tagged dna, electronica, Evolution, funky drummer, hip-hop, james brown, memes, midi, mutation, recursion, recycle, remixes, Sampling, sequencing, songwriting, visualization
|