Articles

Behind The Hip Hop Beats – Sampling and Samples

The hip-Hop genre was born and developed with samples. From old music, rare music, and soul music, hip-hop has always been known to feel and appreciate the spirit of the other songs, extracting the best samples and reassembling them in a stronger and more efficient way to fit “da beat”.

In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a sound recording in a different song or piece. Wikipedia

As with any genre, Hip-Hop beats can be made from scratch. But the importance of sampling history and urban culture, especially for the future of this style of music, will not ever be ignored.

For decades hip hop producers have relied on the innovative use of existing recordings (most of which are protected by copyright), to create completely new works. Specifically, cuttin’ and scratchin’, digital sampling, looping, and (most recently) mashing are all methods of creating music and are all integral parts of the hip-hop music aesthetic. These creative processes are the hallmarks of innovation and creativity born out of the hip-hop music tradition.

Using samples from other artists has always caused legal difficulties for hip-hop artists and producers. Legal difficulties for hip-hop artists and producers and many well-known legal cases with media. When rappers and producers started earning money with their sample tracks, this also called swarms of lawyers onto the scene because they wanted to get a piece of the pie on behalf of the sampled musicians. From then on, hip-hop producers had to “clear” samples, i.e. pay royalties.

A method is widely used in hip-hop to avoid large sums of money and legal complications. This producing methodology is called “interpolation” in modern music. A famous hip-hop producer who has used this method a lot is, for example, the producer Dr.Dre. With interpolation, you re-record an existing song part in the studio instead of sampling the part directly in the song. The interpolation can avoid some licensing problems especially if the license for a sample is too expensive.

Over the years, improved sampling technology and the introduction of live instrumentation made using the same songs over and over less necessary.

Thus was born a new genre of sampled beats!

Famous artists like M.C. Lyte to The RZA, Missy Elliott, Dangermouse, Dr. Dre, Kanye West, and Jay Z have released numerous hits on sampled beats. Nevertheless, some samples refused to die. Some are even still used to this day. Many of the classic break samples still enjoy unbroken popularity today. These include “Funky Drummer,” a short drum loop from James Brown’s song of the same name, recorded by the then 18-year-old drummer Clyde Stubblefield, or “Apache” by the Incredible Bongo Band.

Sampling can be an amazing way to get great sounds into your track. You can check tons of awesome royalty-free samples in our store section. This saves you the hassle of searching and listening to dozens of vinyls and also ensures that you won’t get into legal trouble when it comes to licensing your music.

Also, read: