I always enjoy when hip-hop artists sample themselves. It makes the music recursive, and for me, “recursive” is synonymous with “good.” You can hear self-sampling in “Nas Is Like” by Nas, “The Score” by the Fugees and many songs by Eric B and Rakim. The most recent self-sampling track to cross my radar is “Unbelievable” [...]
Filed in Key Musicians, Math, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged digging the crates, dj premier, fractals, funk, hip-hop, impeach the president, keybs, lee byron, mandelbrot, nas, notorious big, nursery rhymes, patrice rushen, r kelly, recursion, rnb, songwriting, turntablism
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Sunday, September 25, 2011
Last year, I spoke on a panel about sampling with a few academics and copyright lawyers. One of the panelists was Martin Schwimmer, a partner in a law firm practicing trademark and copyright law. A big part of his job is going after copyright infringers. Schwimmer assured the audience that no one will ever sue [...]
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, eighties, 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, snow, soul, the impressions, the winstons
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Why does folk music collector Alan Lomax have a copyright interest in “Takeover” by Jay-Z? I learned the answer from Creative License: The Law And Culture Of Digital Sampling by Kembrew McLeod and Peter DiCola. It’s a companion book to the invaluable documentary Copyright Criminals. The story of Jay-Z and Alan Lomax isn’t quite as [...]
Filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Music, Music Business, Politics, Recording, Sampling
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Also tagged alan lomax, blues, chain gangs, copyright, digging the crates, folk, funk, grand funk railroad, hip-hop, jay-z, krs-one, rock, the animals
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The defining musical experience of my lifetime is hearing familiar samples in unfamiliar contexts. For me, the experience is usually a thrill. For a lot of people, the experience makes them angry. Using recognizable samples necessarily means having an emotional conversation with everyone who already has an attachment to the original recording. Music is about [...]
Filed in Emotion, Evolution, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged beatles, beyonce, chi-lites, elvin jones, Evolution, grateful dead, jay-z, john coltrane, manu dibango, mashups, memes, michael jackson, monkeysphere, pop, radiohead, remixes, sample maps, sarah mclachlan, soul makossa, susan blackmore, tribe, zap mama
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My friend Leo has a new jazz quartet. At their debut performance a couple of weeks ago, they ended the show with a mashup of “Solar” by Miles Davis and “Freedom Jazz Dance” by Eddie Harris. “Freedom Jazz Dance” is a favorite of mine, and a lot of my fellow jazz nerds agree. People love [...]
Filed in Key Musicians, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged digging the crates, ed og, eddie harris, fu-schnickens, funk, hip-hop, jazz, mashups, miles davis, nas
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The other night Anna and I went to see Beats, Rhymes And Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest.
Filed in Key Musicians, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged a tribe called quest, cassettes, digging the crates, documentaries, fugees, hip-hop, jazz, lil wayne, masculinity, minnie riperton, movies, nineties, q-tip
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Saturday, February 26, 2011
This week I’ve been all about Kanye West’s “Lost In The World,” the most gripping track on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Kanye is one of the few commercial producers with a high enough profile to be able to license whatever samples he wants, so he carries the banner of memetastic collage-based music in the [...]
Filed in Composition, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged autotune, bon iver, chipmunking, gil scott-heron, james brown, jamie foxx, kanye west, lyn collins, manu dibango, michael jackson, singing
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Saturday, February 12, 2011
I’ve read that Quincy Jones carries around copies of Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue in his briefcase, and that he hands them out to kids whenever he meets them. Q-Tip compares Kind Of Blue to the Bible — you’re just expected to have a copy around the house. If you’ve never heard jazz before, Kind [...]
Filed in Composition, Improvisation, Key Musicians, Music, Music Theory, Sampling
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Also tagged ahmad jamal, classical, debussy, erykah badu, gil evans, james brown, jazz, john coltrane, mashups, mccoy tyner, memes, miles davis, morton gould, Music Theory, public enemy, the heavy
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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, eighties, funk, hip-hop, mandrill, mc serch, memes, missy elliot, p-funk, Politics, rock master scott, talking heads
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