Talkin’ All That Jazz: Politics As Usual

Chronicle #6

Is the sample-based rap song fading to black? Growing up in the 90’s (the Golden Era) it didn’t matter what type of sound we heard the most, whether it was the New York rugged and gritty beats by DJ Premier, Pete Rock, The Rza and even Mobb Deep’s Havoc or the laid back production made in the West Coast by the likes of Dr.Dre, DJ Quik and Daz Dillinger, all of them had one main thing in common: the sample. While the East Coast sound had a very jazzy backdrop with super hard drums on it, the California sound was so funky that even if you heard “The Chronic” or “Doggystyle” on a subway ride, you could definitely feel as if you were driving a convertible Cadillac through LA, replacing your buildings with palm trees. Unfortunately, sampling (which is to me one of the greatest forms of art in the world) comes with a price. A huge one if you don’t do your homework properly. Copyright infringement is a very serious issue, with rappers and producers having to pay from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars for 5 seconds of music looped into a 3 minute instrumental. Which is fair. But come on, let’s not pretend like the composer or owner of the original musical piece don’t have to give his props to our imagination. A lot of us only go after certain artists’ music after their shit is flipped to a classic or a hit rap song. Take the example of Brazilian artist Arthur Verocai whose 1972 self-titled album became one of the most sought-after LP’s in the world after producer 9th Wonder sampled his songs “Caboclo” and “Na Boca do Sol” (the first one on Little Brother’s “We Got Now” from their 2005 critically acclaimed second album “The Minstrel Show” and the latter on Ludacris’ “Do The Right Thing” from the album “Battle Of The Sexes” released in 2008). Record shops also gain a lot from this bittersweet relationship between older musicians and sampling, because once a rare record is sampled to a hit, the price of that LP jumps through the roof and they know that serious collectors see no price when it comes to rarities. Producers now choose to compose their own music not because they prefer this technique, but because it’s cheaper for them and for the record label. Sample clearance takes a lot of money from the artists’ budget when they’re recording an album. But since everything comes and goes and also with a lot of artists releasing their music online and for free, I can’t wait until sample-based rap gets all the attention again. Last time it happened was in 2001, when Jay-Z released “The Blueprint” with a soulful background courtesy of a then unknown Chicago beatsmith named Kanye West, a New Jersey genius that went by the moniker of Just Blaze and also a young Bink (The Humble Monster) straight out of Virginia. Hov had repeated the soul craze on his “American Gangster” album, but for this one he had recruited Jermaine Dupri, No ID, DJ Toomp and Puff Daddy’s production team The Hitmen. No budget worries of course, we’re talking about the man that said “I ain’t got a billion streams, got a billion dollars” on Meek Mill’s “What’s Free” from the “Championships” album released last Friday. The new year is getting closer by the minute so let’s wait for the next sonic shift in the music industry.

In the meantime, I’ll look forward to the next 15 years to know how kids will sample the shit out of songs from Childish Gambino’s “Awaken My Love” and Bruno Mars’ “24k Magic” albums.

Catch y’all next time, that’s all folks!