It’s about Playing Record
“Making Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip Hop” a book written by Joseph Schloss, we focus on a chapter “It’s about Playing Record” which focuses on the history and evolution of hip hop. How hip hop production was in early hip hop to what it became to be. Hip Hop was created in the mid to late 1970s in the Bronx by people he calls the pioneers of hip hop. These pioneers were Kool DJ Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaattaa. In the midst of the mid 70s in the Bronx where hip hop emerged, it was there where a lot of social issues like poverty, gang violence and racism was effecting mostly African Americans, and these social issues lead Kool DJ Herc and Grandmaster Flash create a “resistance to oppression” as Schloss puts it. The resistance to oppression was hip hop. Kool DJ Herc being one of the first along with Grandmaster Flash to use old vinyl records on two twin turn tables to produce a new repackaged song created by scratching and sampling the record. So two turn tables were used to create a continuous loop of a beat break, a mixer to control the volume, and the records of course. This would be the start to hip hop. What’s important to look in the early production of hip hop is looking at the aesthetic of the breakbeat. The breakbeat was the core of hip hop. The breakbeat part of the song was what deejays later on known as producers would try to isolate and loop it on the turn table. The breakbeat was also the part of the song to have the catchy solo drum snares and bass. This is what made people go crazy according to Schloss. Schloss writes that the deejays were aware of breakbeat that would make the audience move and go crazy. Even a breakbeat from a record that was deemed unworthy, sampling the breakbeat would remake it worthy of a song. Live performance using the turn tables to mix and sample would soon become digital. In the early 1980s some of the first digital sampling equipment was created. Like keyboard based synthesizers and the drum sampling computer the E-mu Sp 1200. The new technology like the E-mu 1200 allowed hip hop producers to make and layer rhythm tracks from drum sounds from previous sampled work. So due to the new sampling technology deejays were now calling themselves producers. Sampling became a skill that required a lot of technique that technique created the sophisticated aesthetic sound to hip hop. Digital sampling also helped producers with time and the need for less equipment. Multiple turn tables and deejays would be needed to create the same effect from digital samplers. Digital sampling also allowed hip hop producers to assemble samples in any order without the repetition according to Schloss. “The blend of samples from diverse sources that emphasized chaos and noise revolutionized hip hop music”. These sources were old obscure records from the 60s and 70s, like jazz, soul and funk records. Hip hop producers would look for rare records to sample new breakbeats. Schloss goes on and states “their preexisting hunger for rare records became paramount importance”. It was important to them because it meant unique breakbeats that no other producer would have. Later in the late 80s as more studio technology developed, hip hop producers “could create sounds in the studio that they could not possibly create live” so studio recording became ideal for hip hop producers. This meant hip hop producers weren’t deejay-ing live on turn tables but focusing on sampling in the studio with studio recording technology. This also lead to home studios. Home studios became convenient to hip hop producers but that meant it was at the expense of socialization. The communal environment of recording and producing hip hop became a private space. This is not to say it became like that for every hip hop producer but it leads to the isolation producing at home studios. Schloss really goes in depth of the history but it’s important to note the most important is the how the breakbeat became the aesthetic for hip hop and the development of studio sampling technology lead to what we are familiar today in hip hop.
This shift in hip-hop production towards digital sampling is the focus of the next reading, Records that play: the present past in sampling practice. Written by Vanessa Chang, it explores the semiotic associations with sampling that are influenced by the historical context of the sample. Chang believes “the past both defines the present (of sampling) and is effaced by it”. In order to substantiate this argument, Chang remarks on existing theories about recorded and live music. She comments on the “schizophonic” (Schaefer) nature of the earliest recording device the phonograph and its responsibility for destroying the aura of music (She does reference Walter Benjamin to explain this concept). The phonograph, Chang discusses, is the reason for the destruction between the link of human labor and music. Chang then begins to discuss the affect this so-called aura plays on sampling. She argues that in response to “archaic notions of creativity”, much of the conversation regarding sampling centers on the presence of reproduction. In a sense, the dissolution of origin “has made it easy to map the postmodern aesthetic model of pastiche onto sampling practice”. Chang refers Roland Barthe’s “The death of the Author” at this point of her argument to set up her next point. (Barthe’s believes originality is death, and the only form of discourse mimics existing texts in a way that is unrecognizable.) Chang argues that because of the temporal and evanescent nature of music and the fluidity of its meaning, sampling fails to be another iteration of Author-death.  Unlike certain images or texts which rely on the aura of the original to give them meaning (Warhol’s Campbell Soup cans), sampling is free from the constraints of this. In summation, “sampling resists the absolutism of linear signification”. Regardless of unnecessary nature of the original in sampling to build semiotic associations, producers have tenets in which they follow that command respect of an original’s aura. There lies a focus on the ingenuity of sampling as oppose to its diversity from the origin. Sampling makes sound the instrument, while instrumentation considers sound the final step in the process of music. Another tenet, producers’ follow, called “digging”, demonstrates the reverence for vinyl through their use of obscure, out-of-print records. By integrating these vinyls as sources for sampling as opposed to CDs, the producers acknowledge the historicity of vinyl. Digging also demonstrates the essentiality of skillful listening to sampling. Producers must listen to music with a fluid interpretation. They must recognize the potentiality of a song to be something different. “dope DJs break open breaks, searching for the answer to hip-hop’s most basic, yet unanswered question: how small is a piece of funk?” The last tenet of sampling, Chang mentions is “no biting”. Producers may use existing samples, but must do so in a way that does not mimic the source. Samples must be varied from their sources. And using two samples from the same source constitutes a laziness on behalf of the producer. This tenet, in particular, strengthens the distinction between Author-death and sampling. Sampling, while aware of the aura of the original, seeks to recontextualize a sample with a new semiotic association. Chang provides further examples of this recontextulization through the Skull Snaps song, “It’s a New Day” and its sampling by two deejays, DJ Spooky and DJ Shadow. Both new songs retain a trace of the break of “It’s a New Day” but also transcend the genre originally ascribe to it. “Each producer, then, is always negotiating a multiplicity of relationships to the past, even while inhabiting the present.” Producers through play with a sample, allow the sample to inhibit new indexes of meaning, which can sometimes be in a social space.
Group Reblog Post: May 1st 2017
What our group found really interesting about your group’s presentation was its heavy use of visually showing and telling the class just how much Hip Hop has changed and the way the production of sampling various other styles of music within the genre has developed. Our group really enjoyed analyzing and going over all of the material that you each gave out and as far as presenting what you each found to the class, we thought that it was really well thought-out and gave a great basis for understanding the concept of sampling in Hip Hop music and where it originated from. As far as exploring some of your group’s materials, we really enjoyed looking over your summary and connections paragraph that summarized the articles that you both went through. The “Making Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip hop” book was a really good choice for one of your articles as it goes deep into the idea of the “resistance to oppression was Hip Hop” because the ultimately summarizes the evolution and the early history of Hip Hop. We also enjoyed that the article follows the first pioneers of Sampling in Hip Hop through Kool DJ Herc, Grandmaster Flash, and Afrika Bambaattaa. Without the knowledge of these pioneers we may never have known where or how sampling in Hip Hop came about. Also, your group did a great job of showing how the genre of Hip hop is portrayed in modern times through the use of your video. As a class, everyone was able to identify with the clip of the show The Get Down, because it’s produced in a way where we’re visually seeing and understanding how these pioneers, such as Grandmaster Flash, begins to educate others in the style of sampling and DJing. Our group really did enjoy the way we were able to see a current example of past and current DJing and how the genre has remained true to its roots. The comparison from people using vinyl records to showcase the idea of sampling was very interesting and showed a lot of critical and concept thinking about the genre. The quotes that were pulled from the pictures greatly depicts the main idea of both articles, with the images fitting perfectly with the overall presentation. While we think there was a lot more historical context that could have been applied in the presentation,  it presented itself with more of an analytical and cultural perspective and including those viewpoints were very eye opening to what the genre of Hip Hop and Sampling really means to a lot of people and to the music industry. All of the written and visual elements, including the PowerPoint that were used throughout your group's’ presentation was very well put together.
- Christy V. and Carla C.
