BeatTips

Changing attitudes about sampling and copyright law…

Gang Starr - “Step In The Arena”

Ear For Samples:Earth, Wind & Fire - “The Whole World’s a Masquerade” (sweet chop: 0:23-0:36 mark)

Drumless Loops, Rhythm, And Groove “There’s an intentional aesthetic and stylistic choice in using a sample (a loop) that does not have drums in it or a sample (a loop) that contains minimal drums in it.” theartofsampling.com/drumles…

What Is De Minimis? theartofsampling.com/what-is…

The Act of Borrowing Is Not Infringement theartofsampling.com/the-act…

“Why Vinyl Reissues Are A Good Thing” 🧵 1. To some, particularly die-hard purist diggers and record collectors, reissues might hold little to no appeal. Furthermore…

“And the label wasn’t prepared for it” 1. It’s 1989, De La Soul drops ‘3 Feet High And Rising.’ The record is an instant hit! A hip hop classic. But Tommy Boy Records, De La Soul’s then label, wasn’t prepared for the success… or the lawsuits that came because of the sampling included on the album.

Why A Compulsory License For Digital Samples Of Sound Recordings Is A Bad Idea theartofsampling.com/2024/11…

Hieroglyphics - “All Things” (1998) (prod. by Domino) #BeatStudy: Breakbeat blend drum programming, drum layering, bass filtering, 8-bar changes.

Sampling and Prior Restraint With regards to sampling, the Constitution already protects our right to freedom of speech. The public is also shielded from what is legally known as prior restraint. According to the definition by Cornell Law School's Legal Institute, "in First Amendment law, prior restraint is government action that prohibits speech or other expression before the speech happens.'” For instance, when a music lawyer or sample-clearance agent says that sampling or the use of samples is prohibited without a license, that is prior restraint because they are attempting to act as the government and prohibit expression — — in this case sampling and the use of samples before publication or proof that the use is in fact actionable (i.e. copyright infringement).

With regards to fair use and the music industry, particularly as it pertains to sampling, there has been a huge disconnect between what fair use is — i.e. its fundamental purpose and what it was intended to protect — and what most music professionals falsely claim that it is. Since 1998, when the RIAA had its kerfuffle with the sample-based music group Negativland (I cover the incident in my book ‘The Art of Sampling, 3rd Edition’), one might say that the music industry's official position on fair use and sampling is that some forms of sampling may in fact qualify for fair use. Nonetheless, the de facto, unofficial "industry standard" position is that there's no such thing as a sample that's fair use or de minimis. And this is a huge part of the problem.

As hip hop mourns the lost of Clark Kent, it’s important to see and remember as he really was. A beautiful person who repped his city and hip hop culture to the fullest. Watch DJ Clark Kent take us through his old neighborhood in Brooklyn.

In honor of DJ Clark Kent, I want to publish excerpts of my interviews with him that I did 20 years ago. His words are still as real and informative as they were when we talked in 2004. beattips.com/2024/10/25/dj-c…

Even more important than it was in 1994! There are far more beatmakers (producers) sampling than ever before. More powerful tools for sampling. Much larger profile on sampling and the implications that it holds for copyright law. More people finding music through samples than ever before.

The Story of Fair Use In order to fulfill the objectives of copyright law, Congress imposed a significant limitation on the authors' exclusive right to the disposal of their works. Specifically, this limitation allows the public, in certain situations, to use copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright owner. Thus, where the material copied by others is lawful - **non actionable** - there is no infringement. So in effect, one of the fundamental principles that United States copyright law was established upon was the recognition that all creative works build upon, to a lesser or larger degree, elements of pre-existing works. As such, copyright law recognizes that creative borrowing is always at work and unavoidable. And the primary doctrine that embodies this understanding is known as fair use. theartofsampling.com/product……

Spot the Sample: Eric B & Rakim - “Don’t Sweat the Technique” and the anatomy of a sample-based hip hop/rap song. The anatomy of a sample-based hip hop/rap song is always built around the use of a sample — a snippet, piece, a sound-tone, a phrase — of another sound recording, usually an old song. In the case of Eric B & Rakim’s - “Don’t Sweat the Technique” (1992)(prod. by Large Professor), here we have a de minimis (i.e. small, trivial) sample of Young-Holt Unlimited’s “Queen of the Nile” (1971). That sample is then reconceptualzied and recontexualizatized. This transformation results in new meaning and a new musical work. Also, if you think borrowing is not always taking place in music, either whether consciously or subconsciously, listen Ahmad Jamal Trio - “Manhattan Reflections” (1971) Spot the sample marks: Young-Holt Unlimited: 2:23-2:25 Ahmad Jamal Trio: 0:20-0:30 theartofsampling.com/product…

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐬 𝐎𝐧 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈𝐬 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐎𝐧 “𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐥𝐝 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐲 𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐭” (𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟐) I’m torn on this. I greatly appreciate Stevie Wonder, he’s one of my top 5 favorite musicians of all time. And he’s had a huge impact on my music and literary lives. So I measure my words whenever I speak on him. That said, I’m never at ease when any musician attempts to distance themselves from the very thing(s) that they’re mostly known for. Yes, Stevie Wonder is a soul artist. This was certainly true in 1972. And with his music having gone on to huge crossover success — he wonGrammys for Album of the Year in 1973, 1974, *and 1976 — Stevie Wonder is also a pop artist. But being a soul artist and pop artist are not mutually exclusive. I agree with Stevie Wonder that “soul”, as it relates to music, is about having the ability to express oneself. But this his hardly what any of us really mean when talk of “soul music.” it’s much more complicated than that; there are cultural and racial aspects that factor deeply into what we understand to be soul music. I believe Stevie Wonder knew this in 1972. Still, in this interview on “The Old Grey Whistle Test” (the famed British music show), one year before he would win his first Grammy for Album of the Year, I think Stevie Wonder was just leery about being boxed in, at least in terms of audiences. So I don’t believe that he was casting aside his obvious status as a soul artist. In any event, it’s interesting to see music artists work through their ideas of how they view themselves and their music in relation to how others view it. And given the exceptional three-album, four-year run of commercial and critical success that Stevie Wonder was about to have, this interview sheds much light on how he was forming the musical ideas that would shape his albums ‘Innervisions’ (1973), ‘Fulfillingness’s First Finale (1974), and ‘Songs in the Key of Life (1976).

𝐂𝐋 𝐒𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈𝐭 𝐖𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐎𝐥𝐝 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐇𝐢𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐓𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐎𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐁𝐞 𝐀 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 (Drink Champs) So often it’s the case that what allows people to be vanguards of the future is their deep appreciation for and knowledge of the past. Pete Rock and CL Smooth were among the leaders of hip hop/rap music — and vanguards of the sampling tradition of hip hop/rap music — precisely because they listened to and enjoyed older music (especially soul, funk, and jazz) as teenagers. And this early love of older music helped them develop their ear for music. For Pete Rock, who became a DJ as a teen, this meant a highly developed ear for samples. And for CL Smooth, a lyricist who helped elevated the complexity and seriousness of rhyming, this meant a highly developed ear and sensibility for how to flow over sample-based beats. In Chapter 9 of my book ‘The Art of Sampling: The Sampling Tradition of Hip Hop/Rap Music, 3rd Edition,’ I discuss the correlation between developing an ear for music and a beatmaker’s (producer’s) ability to master the art of sampling. theartofsampling.com/product…