Sometimes diggin just don't feel right

Wax is the only way to make the perfect beat. It is our instrument.

tewamor wrote:Wax is the only way to make the perfect beat. It is our instrument.

TRUE DAT.............TRUE DAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

dennison wrote:I love listening to hip hop and creating it but when I make a sampled beat something just feels wrong inside me. I dig through records and find a great sound or a loop that another artist made and I feel guilty taking it. Sure I may chop it up or change the pitch and put some drums over a sample but the sound I am manipulating wasn't mine in the first place. I understand the culture of the DJ in hip hop and how sampling came about but I still feel like a rip off artist when I play a beat with a rhodes sample that sounds great and I didn't play it.

Does anyone else feel the same way, even sometimes? Does anyone have a philosophical viewpoint that will help me plunder other artists recordings guilt free?

When I first started making beats, I felt the same way. Sampling is good if you use it creatively. Premier uses sampling creatively, every body knows that. P Diddy doesn't use sampling creatively, he just takes 24 bar loops from whatever...

CREATIVE MY ASS!

dennison wrote:So some more questions on the ethics of sampling.

I remember hearing that Puff song with the Police "Every breath you take" sample. Everyone was real critical of the use of that sample. On the other hand The latest Ghostface album "Pretty Toney" (incredible album in my view) he just rhymes over a whole song. What makes Puffy whack in the world of sample ethics while Ghostface is praised?

every breath u take from pee diddy was a hiphop rmx if you ask me

fell guilty about jacking a sample


yeah and i feel guilty G-ing snacks from the corner store
G-ing records from my guys parents and grandparents
overcharging for studio time to those who dont know better
letting my pit knaw at someones arm for a good laugh cuz they thought she was too little to do any real damage........

and i feel guilty for the cop i kicked in the face and got me jail time and probation for (i even pleaded guilty on this one)

i feel guilty for G-ing quaters out of the laundry machine in my building, jacking gear from a half assed bar, buying stolen gear from a hype, overcharging for dro, selling huff at dro prices to lames, selling preset beats of the mo phatt to cats who dont know better, fuking a chick and her best friend in the same day........


them musicians ought to be happy i'm only G-ing a sample.......

yeah jaem I feel ya I feel guilty when I bought a pepporoni stick from the vending machine and two came out instead of one.

maybe you just not a Hip-Hop cat...

and that's cool

but vinyl is second nature for Hip-Hoppas


XANDRE

i never feel guilty for sampling. for two reasons

1) in music very few artist have rights to there music after the label gets a hold of them. So once its on wax the artist was already paid as much money as they are ever going to get for that song or any portion of it....... usually.. so it s not like Stuwert Coppland is going to go hungry if i sample his Drums..

2) A note is a note no matter what its played on.


P.S: someone posted a link to Makin' beats As a free PDF i think it was on like dirtysouthbeats.com or somthin' like that

do u happen to have a link ?

There is no way that I am going to feel guilty for sampling. There is one and only reason. When you sample, you must pay the original composer to use that sample. So, he/she is getting compensated (sometimes much more than I am) Think about it. If you sample some obscure record, odds are that creator may not even be getting royalties from that composition anymore. By me sampling him, if my joint goes platinum, he is getting paper that he would have never seen if it was not for me. So I have no guilt whatsoever............

Blakksmiff that's real talk ^^^^

plus, there's tonnes of artists who i've found because someone sampled them and i tracked them down out of liner notes. So your giving the original artist a new audience and exposure.

bobbydesign wrote:plus, there's tonnes of artists who i've found because someone sampled them and i tracked them down out of liner notes. So your giving the original artist a new audience and exposure.

Bam. That's one of the main reasons for me. dennison, I feel the same way sometimes. But as the above quote states, the art of sampling has put me on to all types of artists and music that I'd probably never peep otherwise. And that's a good thing for me and the o.g. artists.

#2- and this is kind of a personal thing- sample-based Hip Hop just brings me too much joy to be bad. I mean, I put on my headphones and vibe to a dirty Madlib loop or some freaked Dilla joint.. and that stuff is GOOD to me. It honestly enriches my life, so if I can make some joints from my mom's old records and generate that feeling in someone else (even if it's just me), then it's all good, you know what I mean?

I just keep reminding myself of this whenever that feeling creeps up. The bottom line is that whether you're just looping 4 bars and adding drums or totally mutating a piece of a song, you're creating something new. What you got coming out of your mpc did not exist in it's present state before you did what you did.

Hmmn maybe the part of the question could be do people around you feel the beats you are making when you resurrect that dusty groove from yesterday that they have forgetten or never heard of. Basically that how Hip Hip was started DJs diggin for those castaways and using it in a new context. Next is the part of the record that gives you that zone out feeling when you hear that you want to extend, rearrange or just bump too in your car, dance floor like you were actually djing it live. Just records of music that is all. Maybe take a break and be a fan again to rediscovery why you feel in love with sampling in the first place. I loved it from day one even though I started out as a keyboard based producer.

If you want to sell your vinyl let me know?

Like Ice Cube with a simple loop "Today was a Good Day"



Plus it may be just me but since I got into sampling production I gain a greater love for the music of the past because the vibe was definitively different, and more creative than the music being made today. Just me though.

Premier didn't always chop everything up so crazy. Peep Code of The Streets, it was a loop, and now it is a classic! Looping is okay in my book to a certain extent. It is in know way as skillful but sometimes simplicity is as beautiful.

And on another note P. Diddy fell of, he didn't do that bad on the Juicy 12", he actually made a classic right there, but he didn't flex at all on "Missing U".